Another Year

Hello people! Well, it's my birthday again, and I can't believe it's been a year already. It seems like just yesterday I was baking up a batch of Cuba Libre cupcakes and toting them to work with me. This year is turning out to be much the same, except now I'm in Kodiak instead of Seattle, and in place of Cubra Libre cupcakes I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Red velvet is bar far my favorite cake, and cream cheese frosting just sets it off perfectly. They go together like peanut butter & bananas, Bert & Ernie, or peas & carrots.

My boss let me off a few hours early, so I ran home to bake up a batch of these bad boys, which in my world is perfect Friday afternoon. The sun was shining, and my house smelled like baked goodies. YUM! I got the recipe from one of my favorite cupcake bloggers (which, unfortunately, she's no longer posting new recipes, but has kept her site up) Chocylit from Cupcake Bakeshop.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting-makes 36 cupcakes

-3-3/4 cups cake flour

-1/4 cups cocoa

-1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

-1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder or 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

-3/8 teaspoon salt

-1-1/2 cups buttermilk

-3 teaspoons vinegar

-1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

-1/2 ounce red food coloring paste

-2-1/4 cups sugar

-3/4 cups butter

-3 eggs

Instructions: preheat oven to 350°F. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder (or cream of tarter), and salt into medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring in small bowl to blend. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well fluffy, 3 minutes
add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended. After each addition, about 30 seconds
beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions. Scoop into cupcake tins and bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting-

Ingredients:

-12 ounces or 1-1/2 packages of Philly cream cheese

-1/2 stick butter

-4-5 cups sifted powdered

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
Bring cheese and butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours. Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment. Beat butter and cheese at medium speed until creamy. Add 4 cups of the sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla (I used clear vanilla, I didn't want a brown tinge to my frosting) and beat until combined. Add more sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like, then fill frosting bag and pipe onto cupcakes.

I love, love, LOVE these cupcakes, however I forgot to halve the recipe and ended up with WAY too many cupcakes than I need (like that's ever a problem) so now my fridge is full of these pretty babies. And it never fails that whenever I go to make cupcakes, I NEVER have enough powdered sugar, so I end up with runny frosting/glaze. But, that's ok, because I tend to prefer my cream cheese frosting more on the cheesy side than the sugary side anyway.

I encourage everyone to make cupcakes for themselves on their birthday. That way, you get what YOU want and won't feel guilty about it (well, not much at least). Ok, so I'm not going to stay long, because I really must go devour one of these NOW!!

Enjoy!

~Mehgan~