Giving the kitchen a good workout..again!

Been wanting to try to make these for a while now and ever since I discovered we have an electric hand mixer at home it gave me even more motivation to try whipping up a batch of lovely Red Velvet cupcakes! Shopping for the ingredients was easy as I had half of it at home from making these peanut butter cookies.

On their own they taste ok, next time I think I'll add in more cocoa powder to give it that extra chocolatey taste.

Had to wait for them to cool before I put icing on them

I went easy on the icing instead of piling it on cos I know what goes in there and let me tell you- there's enough butter, sugar and cream cheese to feed you for days! I would have liked my icing to be a little bit more creamy but I ran out of butter and put less than what was called for in the recipe.

Here's the recipe I used (taken from Paula Deen of foodnetwork.com):

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (more doesn't hurt!)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 pound cream cheese, softened (I'm assuming this is roughly 454g)
• 2 sticks butter, softened (rougly 8 ounces, or 1 cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (I only used 1.5-2 cups)
• Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (about 175 degrees C). Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

Cook's Note: Frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or pipe it on with a big star tip.

Try it and let me know what you think!