Red Velvet Cupcakes.....

it's Valentine's Day....the day that most men groan about and call a Hallmark Holiday. I feel bad for their wives and significant others. I mean, it's one day out of 365 days that's all cheesy, romantic, and all about L-O-V-E. Seriously guys...how hard is it to get your butt to a drug store and buy your lady a 3$ card. I yelled at some guys at work and even offered to go and buy the card for them..then they could just sign it and make their lady not be one of the left out my husband, boyfriend, significant other doesn't "do" Valentine's Day and I don't even get a card ladies. No one's saying you need to run to the nearest Tiffany's and buy an expensive piece of jewelry...although if you really want to go nuts..just recognize the one you love in whatever way you can.

So...in honor of Valentine's Day, I wanted to show my husband and co workers how much I love them...so I made Red Velvet Cupcakes...why do I love my co workers so much...because I can't keep sweets in our house...and they happily eat anything I make!

I've made probably 4 or 5 Red Velvet recipes in the past couple years and none have knocked my socks off. Some tasted like red cake, others left my tongue red due to the mass amount of food coloring and others were just ok. So, the past couple weeks I've been scouring my favorite recipe sites and blogs looking for the  Red Velvet recipe to make and I think I found it...because these cupcakes were ridiculously good.

So, what are some of the key ingredients in ridiculously good Red Velvet recipes...



butter..and lots of it..thank god I have self control and could keep myself to one of these..because just making the batter with two sticks made me feel guilty

of course we need cocoa and all the red food coloring I could find in my house...the recipe called for triple this amount...so my red might not be red enough but it looked the part to me!

I gravitated towards this recipe because it used cake flour vs. all purpose flour, which caught my eye. I also read an article that said a true red velvet also has vinegar in it, which this one did.

Once I got started...here was my batter....

Of course we need cute little wrappers...scored these for 50% off yesterday!

 Prepped for batter..



Filled and ready to pop in the oven

Fresh out of the oven

Onto the cooling racks to cool

The frosted final product

From another view...

I packed some up for Mr. Allan to take to work to make sure we have none left in the house

I don't completely deprive Mr. Allan...he gets to have one or two as well

So where did this ridiculously good recipe come from...the two sticks of butter should have been a clue...since it comes from Paula Deen :)

Paula Deen's Grandmother's Red Velvet Cake

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

2 oz Red Food Coloring (I used .6oz...2 oz= 1/4 cup..that a butt load of food coloring!)

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

1 cup Buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vinegar

Icing (I altered it a bit from the original recipe which called for nuts, melting marshmallows and flaked coconut)

1 stick butter, room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 lb powdered sugar

1 tsp coconut extract

1 cup Marshmallow fluff

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar. 

Add eggs, one at a time.

In a small bowl, combine cocoa and red food coloring. Add to sugar mixture. 

Sift together flour and sugar. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the sugar/cocoa mixture alternatively. The, add in vanilla.

In a small bowl, mix baking soda and vinegar. Then add to the mixture.

This makes 3 8" round cakes, or I made approximately 30 cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes for 22 minutes.

For the frosting....

Cream butter and cream cheese. Add marshmallow fluff and then the coconut extract. Then, mix in the powdered sugar.

Enjoy!