Red Velvet

I think I missed the bus for red velvet growing up because I never thought it was something to give a hoot over. Last summer I tried to bake red velvet cupcakes and failed miserably - so miserably that I tossed every one of them in the trash. The old recipe I used had a few tablespoons of cocoa, a lot of vinegar, and so much food coloring that I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth. After scavenging the Internet for hours, I think I found the recipe that I'll stick to forever.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Cake:

Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 c. cake flour 
• 1/2 c. Ghirardelli unsweeted cocoa
  1-1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 c. canola oil 
• 2-1/4 c. sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 oz. (4 Tbsp.) red food coloring 
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla 
• 1-1/4 c. buttermilk 
• 2 tsp. baking soda 
• 2-1/2 tsp. white vinegar

Instructions:

• Grease 3 8-inch pans and line bottom of pans with parchment paper for easy removal
• Combine flour, cocoa powder and salt in a small bowl and then sift
• Beat sugar and oil at low speed with a mixer until well blended 
• Add in eggs one at a time on low speed 
• Slowly add in food coloring while the mixer is on
• Add vanilla
• Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk in 4 batches. Do not over mix. 
• Stir baking soda and vinegar in a small dish and beat into mixture
• Quickly distribute batter into pans 
• Bake for 25-30 mins until a toothpick inserted has a few crumbs stuck to it 
• Flip pan to remove parchment  from cake 
• Frost with a crumb coat then with a final coat of thicker frosting 

Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter (room temperature)
• 3-4 c. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla 

Instructions: 

• Cream butter and cream cheese
• Add vanilla
• Add powdered sugar in 1 cup intervals. At 3 cups taste and add more sugar if desired. 

Notes:

• This can also make approximately 35 cupcakes baked for 18-20 minutes 
• Cupcakes placed too high in the oven will have cracked tops which may make them harder to frost
• A velvety texture can be consistently achieved by dropping the pan a few inches above a surface to remove air bubbles and putting the (cup)cakes quickly into the oven
• More sugar added to the frosting will make it thicker (besides just being sweeter). If the frosting is too watery, put it in the fridge for a few hours before frosting the cooled cupcakes.