Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red velvet cakes are characterized by its bright red hue, due in part to the food coloring used and to the reaction of the vinegar and baking soda with the cocoa powder.

Red velvet cupcakes have grown popular over the years, particularly during Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

Here’s a variation on the recipe I found on Pinterest, adjusted due to availability of ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttlermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• Red food coloring
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Procedure:

• Pre-heat oven to 175-deg C and line muffin tins with paper cups.
• In a large bowl, beat together oil, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar and vanilla extract. Add in a few drops of food coloring until you get a bright red color.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
• Add the dry to the wet ingredients 1/2 cup at a time, mixing between each addition to avoid any lumps in the batter.
• Using a regular 12-cup muffin pan, fill each cup 2/3 of the way with batter and bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack.

For the cream cheese frosting, double the recipe used in my Carrot Cupcakes post.

Recipe yields 24 cupcakes.