Red Velvet

Every year for our birthday my mom asks us kids what kind of cake we would like her to make. Without fail, all three of us kids always pick "the red cake." Whenever this cake was around the house we would eat a piece for breakfast, lunch, and supper. And there was always a fight about who would get the last piece. To be honest, I could probably sit down and eat the whole darn cake in one sitting. It is just that amazing! So a few weeks ago (I am a little late on writing this post) I whipped up a batch of the cake and made it into cupcakes! The cupcakes turned out beautifully. The cake is little on the dense side so the tops of the cupcakes were nice and round!

I was feeling a little daring that night and thought I would try and make my first batch of boiled frosting for the cupcakes. This is the frosting that my mom makes to go along with the cake. She warned me before hand that it is a little tricky. And turns out it is VERY tricky. It was a big huge failure. It became a curdled mess. I beat it with my hand-held mixer forever trying to get it smooth, but it was a lost cause. So I guess I will have to have a lesson from the expert some day. Luckily I had some left over cream cheese frosting in the fridge from a previous batch of cupcakes.

I sent these to work with Zach for a co-workers last day. Apparently Nate liked them because Zach said he ate three of them before putting them out to share with everyone else. I also brought a few to work with me to share with some co-workers. Everyone's first reaction was, "holy cow these are red." After they got over the redness shock, they loved the cupcakes!

Red Velvet
½ cup butter or margarine
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 bottles red food coloring (total of two ounces)
1 ½ tablespoons cocoa
1 cup buttermilk
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until well mixed. In separate bowl, make a past of food coloring and cocoa. Add to batter. Add flour and salt alternating with buttermilk. Add vanilla. In another separate bowl, mix baking soda and vinegar together. Add to batter. Fill cupcake pans about three fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees until tops of cupcakes spring back.


With love,
Jess