Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes

I don't know how I stumbled upon sprinkles, maybe it was through Oprah or iono Yelp? But.. during my 2nd year in college, I finally had someone to take me to sprinkles.....(or it would have been a 5 dollar bus ride.. which I have taken to just to go sprinkles HAHA) It was love at first bite. Sure $3.25 is a lot to spend on a cupcake, but it's not just any cupcake.. it's THE cupcake. After that, I tried red velvet from a few different places, but none seem to compare to Sprinkles. I've had Sprinkles .. iono say.. 15+ times in my life so far... and have even gotten the mix to try it at home ( which was pretty close to the original!) Sprinkles is just a place where I'd stand in line for over an hour to buy just one !!!

Now that I'm no where close to a sprinkles..close as in a nice 10 minute drive.. or a walk across the street after interning... I've come to miss it. Since Kara's Cupcakes in the city ( which is gross and horribly overpriced) does not have red velvet .. because "Kara doesn't believe in artificial coloring" .... ( yes that's what the sales person told me.. hahah I just had to ask!.. plus they can use beet juice to color red velvet cakes : ) ) .. .. I found myself craving it. This recipe was from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book. I made these mini cupcakes for a friend's bday party I'm going to tomorrow. I've made 48 mini cupcakes today.. yea.. (12 Chai Tea ones which were duds.. wth Martha.. I thought u were supposed to have the best recipes! ) I really love these cupcakes, they're really light and fluffy, and a different kind of chocolate tasting dessert. My first batch didn't come out as red.. but red enough. I used Wilton's "no taste red" as the gel coloring ... ( iono why they named it that..) Saturday is definitely my baking day!

Happy Birthday !!!! : )


Red Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 12 regular size ones, or 24 minis
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Recipe on MarthaStewart.com or in her book.. Cupcakes

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour sifted through a very very fine sieve (I used a tea strainer)*
1.5 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder with a small pinch of baking soda **
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
1 egg, room temperature
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp RED gel coloring ( I used Wilton's no taste red)
almost 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tbs vinegar ***
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar

1. Preheat oven at 350, line your pans
2. ***Place 1/2 tbs vinegar into a measuring cup and add milk until it reaches the 1/2 cup mark - This is a buttermilk replacement, because really.. who has buttermilk in their fridge?!
3. Sift together flour* ( it's supposed to be cake flour.. that's expensive.. I do have it but my mom uses it for her cakes.. so I'm not going to touch it), cocoa ** ( it's supposed to be DUTCH processed cocoa powder... I cannot find it!!! I haven't looked at whole foods, and am sure they have it, but from what I read, it's just the acidity level that's different, I just added a pinch of baking soda to regular cocoa powder to make it more basic.. yay chemistry. : D ) and salt in a small bowl
4. In a separate bowl, mix oil and sugar together on medium high speed, add egg in 2 additions, beat until combined. Add in the food coloring and vanilla.
5. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk/vinegar concoction. So.. it goes.. Flour - Milk - Flour - Milk - Flour.. ALWAYS END ON THE DRY MIXTURE!.. (I don't know why..)
4. In a separate small bowl, add vinegar and 3/4 tsp baking soda and stir until dissolved .. it will fizz and foam.. add to the batter and mix on low for 10 seconds
5. Fill pan and bake. 20-25 minutes for the regular cupcakes, 10 minutes for the minis.

Gosh there was a lot of substitutions in this recipe! .. Maybe that's why I was so hesitant to try this in the past. I didn't have cake flour, dutch processed cocoa powder, buttermilk, OR red gel coloring..good to know that you can substitute without disasters. : )

- Cute little domes : )

- Fondant flowers! My sis and I worked on these for like an hour : ) They were pretty tiny!

- Looked pretty without the flowers : ) .. this was a whipped cream cheese frosting.. so many ingredients .. this was my 3rd attempt. had to dump out 2 batches.. good thing I make really really small batches..


- I replaced them into the mini cupcake tins with a little paper on the bottom so they aren't too difficult to get out the next day : )

I really really love how cute these turned out.. enough for me to get 184 votes and be the top photo on AllRecipes.com today : ) I've been trying for almost a year to be first! I've never been #1.. and never really won anything by a lot of votes ... I'm happy : D. I get bragging rights for 24 hours hehehe... and no I don't win anything.. just get to see my cupcakes on the front page of a pretty popular website hehehehe. I get to check that off of my cooking goals list : ) Next will be getting 2 pics on the page haha.. gotta start cooking/baking! YAY!!!

I hope I'm not breaking any rules by using this screen shot ( They actually altered what I said in my description.. wth!) ( but this is copyrighted of allrecipes.com 11-10-09).... but that is my pic and username...I own that... in a sense? : P

I love allrecipes.com... I don't know what I'd do without it...