Red Velvet Cupcakes

Last weekend, I made a batch of Red Velvet cupcakes to serve as the dessert for our Father's Day Dinner. 20 cupcakes were made on Friday night and it was a struggle to keep enough cupcakes around the house for there to be two cupcakes per person at dinner.

Red velvet has an interesting history...interestingly unclear. Upon reading a few different recipes, I couldn't quite understand what the fuss was about...especially since red food coloring is not what makes a dessert memorable. Still, I needed to know more, especially since it is so well loved as evidenced by this article in the NY Times. Apparently the use of cocoa and acid (buttermilk and vinegar like the recipe calls for) used to cause a reaction that turned the batter a deep red color. Unfortunately, the processed cocoa we now use is too processed to react - thus we add food coloring.

Cupcake in the "cup a cake" traveling container...courtesy of Hiroko for my bridal shower. They are so flipping cute!! It makes me want to bake cupcakes all the time so I can pack them in my lunch every day :)

Oh my...what is this? A wonderful little package is inside, complete with cream cheese butter cream frosting. I now know how to make frosting - butter cream is literally, butter that has been creamed with sugar.

I promised Molly that I was able to apply frosting with a butter knife in an "un-janky manner" but the last remaining cupcake is not evidence of such, eh, what do you do. Maybe that's why this one is still left uneaten.