Recipe of the Week - Easy Red Velvet Cupcakes

Week 18

Easy Red Velvet Cupcakes

It is almost holiday time and everyone is busy.  Betty Crocker Recipes has an easy red velvet cupcake recipe that will save time and is dee-lish!  Of course it goes without saying that you are going to put a good ole southern cream cheese frosting on these. 

 
1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® German chocolate cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 bottle (1 oz) red food color (I use 1/2 tsp. of the Wilton red "no taste" coloring) 
1 tablespoon unsweetened baking cocoa

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans) and prepare cupcake liners.

Beat all cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Fill liners 1/2 full.  Bake as directed on box for cupcakes. 

Sift: A Cupcakery (Napa, CA)

Yesterday I reviewed a cupcake shop in Napa, CA but I went to more than one! I also visited Sift:A Cupcakery located at 1000 Main Street. This is more than a bakery. It is a vintage clothing and jewelry store and bakery all rolled into one. They have some of the cutest aprons I have ever seen and jewelry designed especially for Sift.    

I bought four cupcakes: lemon (Limonata), red velvet (Ooh La La), and two chocolate ones.  The chocolate cupcakes were a Guinness cake with Irish creme frosting (Irish Car Bomb) and one with a black cherry frosting and real cherry on top (Black Cherry Jungle).  All the cakes were moist and delicious.  The frostings were sweet but the Irish creme frosting is a bit intense so you really need to like Bailey's Irish Creme to enjoy that one.  Red velvet cakes tend to be dry but this was not the case with the Ooh La La.  If you have read this blog for any amount of time you know I have strong opinions about cream cheese frosting.  The Ooh La La frosting needs more cream cheese (my opinion). 

I highly recommend a visit to Sift any time you are near Napa.  Sift cupcakes are also available at Dean & DeLuca and at the V. Sattui winery.  I had the pink champagne cupcake while visiting V. Sattui.  It is a raspberry cake with pink champagne frosting.  I will absolutely order this flavor again!

my bag of cupcakes from Sift

the cupcake counter

other goodies in the store!

the Sift chocolate logo

Batch Cupcakery (Reno, NV)

I visited the Batch Cupcakery in Reno yesterday.  There are numerous bakeries in Reno but this is the only one totally dedicated to cupcakes.  I had been reading about it for several months and was in the neighborhood. 

I bought four cupcakes...but only two made it home.  The Sweetheart (red velvet with cream cheese frosting) was gone before I made it to the interstate.  This is the best cream cheese frosting I have had from a bakery and it tasted just like my mother's recipe.  I would put this frosting up against any southern recipe.  I had planned to wait and eat the Lemon Drop (moist lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon buttercream) after dinner, but I have no willpower so it disappeared somewhere between Reno and Carson City. 

The Batch Cupcakery web site lists business hours, flavors, maps/directions and contact information and you can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  I will definitely be buying cupcakes there again.  The cupcakes are $1.75 each and very generous in size of cake and amount of frosting.  A great bargain in these tough economic times!

These photos tell the story of my visit. 

Nothing left but crumbs! 

How to Frost a Red Velvet Cupcake

As you have read in previous posts, I am from Mississippi. If you go to any southern home on a holiday, you will likely find a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The only acceptable alternative would be a seven-minute frosting, which is actually just spreadable Divinity candy.

I had heard rumors about a type of frosting for red velvet cake made from boiled milk and flour (a butter roux) so I decided to make a batch last weekend...and I could not throw it out fast enough. What are these people thinking?? The butter roux was not sweet and left a "furry" feeling on my teeth - but mostly it was just not sweet. Why eat icing if you aren't going to raise your blood sugar to dangerous levels?

The red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing is a southern tradition...please respect it.