Red Velvet Cupcakes

The other night, Mike and I were laying in bed reading. I was reading my book and he was reading his Runners World Magazine. Mike came across an article that was talking about the health benefits of dark chocolate. They had a recipe in there for Red Velvet Cupcakes made from scratch. Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge fan of Red Velvet Cake. Imagine my excitement seeing a recipe for my favorite desert in a health magazine.

We went out and bought all the ingredients so I could make them. I went to pull out the muffin tin and realized I only have one... which was a hand me down with lots of dents... and it was only a 6 count. I could have sworn we had a bigger muffin tin. I looked everywhere but couldn't find anything better. So I figured I would have to make do with what I had considering my car is in pieces in the driveway (which Mike has diligently been working on in the rain today) preventing me from running to the store for a bigger muffin tin. It really wasn't too bad using just that one muffin tin. It took a bit of time doing all those batches but oh well.

So I put the first batch in and they were a flop. I ended up putting about a 1/2 cup more flour in then the recipe called for which seemed to save the rest of the cupcakes. The next batch turned out fine. Then I had the little problem of the red tint which is where their namesake comes from. The recipe called for 2 TABLESPOONS of red food coloring. I thought for sure that was a typo. Besides I didn't even have half that amount of food coloring. Plus I didn't want to have a red mouth after eating a cupcake. So I put a few drops in until the batter was a light shade of red. Apparently the food coloring wasn't a typo. By the time the cupcakes come out of the oven.... they were plain old brown! Not a single red tint to them.

The cream cheese icing recipe was delicious though! I could eat that plain! All in all the cupcakes turned out OK. The first batch was a flop but every batch after that turned out fine. I am not sure if I will both making these from scratch again. I think next time I will use a box cake mix. Much easier. I will be making the cream cheese icing again though.

The first batch is on the right side, and the next batch is on the left.

They aren't the prettiest, but they work. Notice the top two on the right. Those were the flops that I just threw a some icing on real quick. I didn't waste much time on those. Then there is the middle one on the top row that I accidentally spilled half a container of sprinkles on. Oh well. At least I didn't burn the house down or anything like that.

While I was making these... I got to thinking. I bet Mike and I are the only ones in the U.S. who have car oil and car parts in their kitchen... along with a small petting zoo (the rabbit and the bird). Pretty pathetic!