Red Velvet Cupcakes

This potluck picnic we went to on Tuesday evening I made the Salted Caramel Brownies and Red Velvet Cupcakes.  I don't know if I mentioned that these people, for the most part, have already had my Salted Caramel Cupcakes so I wanted them to try something else.  So much to choose from. 

My husband loves my Red Velvet Cupcakes, and I've been told that I make the best Red Velvet Cupcakes ever! So why not?

What is Red Velvet cake exactly?  I once thought it was chocolate cake with red food coloring.  Other people think it is a yellow cake with red food coloring.  Actually, it is a specific recipe that calls for a hint of cocoa, an acid - like vinegar - that reacts with buttermilk.  This reaction caused the red pigments in the cocoa to be more pronounced which gave it the red coloring.  Now that we have dutch processed cocoa we still want the red color so we add it artificially. 

I use an ice cream scoop to measure the batter and place in the cupcake holders.  I love it!! 

After baking I remove from the cupcake pans and place on a cooling rack to await their cream cheese icing!

I no longer make cream cheese icing like I used to.  My husband couldn't taste the cream cheese as well so he had me add more cream cheese to the icing.  My thought was to thicken the icing by adding more powered sugar.  He thought it was too sweet and hid the cream cheese flavor.  So now when I make this I usually ask him to taste it, however today I was by myself.  (A truly glorious time!!!)  With his critiquing in mind I prepared this cream cheese icing and did not wait for him to come home before applying it to the cupcakes.

Its hard to take pictures and try to make the food look appealing.  So you can see the texture or the thickness of the icing.  Thick enough to stay, but not thick enough to hold a design.

I place the icing in a large pastry bag.  Because I can't put a design on the cupcakes with this icing I don't bother with a tip.

 I put a little swirl on the cupcakes.

I'm not sure what happened that caused me to swirl the icing around with my finger (clean of course) but I decided to do that to all of them.  They look cute!!  Then I sprinkled them with a very pale blue sugar sprinkle (in the first picture).

So we get to this barbecue and head to the table holding the food, when I see another serving platter of....Red Velvet Cupcakes!!  OMG!!!  So, what was I to do?  I placed mine down next to them, with my brownies in between, and walked away.  Would you believe my son came to the table with one of HERS?  The horror.  I told him, "go ahead, eat it!  You're walking home."  He had no idea he took one of the other ones.  Well, let's just say that I had a taste, he tasted it, my husband tasted it and my daughter tasted it.....and there was still a quarter of it left that no one ate!  Now THAT's a sign of a bad cupcake!!

Everyone loved the cupcakes and brownies.  Many people asked my husband if 'those' (pointing to mine) were he wife's cupcakes.  At least the word is getting out that my cupcakes are indeed delicious!!