Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I thought I would share a Red Velvet Cupcake recipe with you.

Ingredients:
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa (powdered)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 sticks butter at room temperature
• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (see note at bottom)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring (I usually use a bit more!)

Directions:
Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Sift dry ingredients three times.


Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, making sure to beat well after each egg.

Add 1/4 of dry ingredients to creamed mixture then approximately 1/4 of buttermilk alternating until mixed well. Mix in vanilla and food coloring.

Fill lined cupcake pans 1/2 full of red velvet batter. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (I rotate the cupcakes after 10 minutes)

Cool cupcakes in pans for 5 to 10 minutes then remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

NOTE: If you don't happen to have buttermilk on hand you can try this simple substitution. Place one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in an empty one cup measuring cup. Fill with milk to 1 cup. Let stand for 5 minutes then use in any cake recipe that calls for buttermilk.

This recipe is from Cupcakerecipes.com I haven't tried this one out but it is almost identical to ones I have made. I ended up using quite a bit more red food coloring. I was using the gel food color so I don't know if that is why they didn't turn out red. They only had the slightest red tint.
 
For these cupcakes you can use just about any type of frosting. The frosting that is used most often is cream cheese frosting. You could of course put a small amount of red food coloring in the frosting to make it a pretty pink shade and of course very festive!
 

Check out these gorgeous cupcakes from Bakeaholic! If you click the link you can find another Red velvet Recipe.

I love the little heart cut outs!

Alright. Now you have a recipe. Get Baking!