Red Velvet Kŭp’kāks w. Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

My dear friends George and Vanessa are tying the knot this November, and they are throwing their engagement party this Valentines Day. I was asked by Vanessa to bake cupcakes, I knew right away that I wanted to bake red and pink velvet cupcakes. Since I had some extra time last night I decided to do a trial run, however, only baking red velvet. I used Paula Deen's recipe for red velvet from her restaurant, the lady and sons . I really enjoyed the recipe, I actually ate a cupcake, and for those who know me you know I just try each component individually...it was amazing! For those who are close to me they even received text messages from me expressing how damn good this cupcake was. Besides the yummy cake I made the traditional frosting component, cream cheese frosting, however, I added my Madagascar bourbon pure vanilla bean paste from Lyndsay Zoratti's sweet cuppin cakes online store. I know I have been writing a lot about sweet cuppin cakes but I cannot tell you enough how great Lyndsay and her products are. I also used my chocolate brown cupcake liners and glassine red cupcake liners that I purchased back in December. When I bake the cupcakes in February I am planning on adding pink fondant hearts, but I am having a tough time deciding what liners to use. What do you think? Red or Brown? I really hope Queen V loves her cupcakes as much as I do!

Cupcake Recipe:

(Recipe Adapted from Paula Deen)

• 2 cups sugar


• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature


• 2 eggs


• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder


• 2 ounces red food coloring (I only used 1 ounce, because that's all I had left)


• 2 1/2 cups cake flour


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 cup buttermilk


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


2. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well.


3. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla.


4. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake for 14-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.


5. Cool completely before Icing.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 stick butter, at room temperature


• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature


• 6-7 cups powdered sugar


• 2 teaspoons madagascar bourbon pure vanilla bean paste

1. Cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.


2. Beat in one cup of powdered sugar at a time until you have desired consistency.


3. Add in vanilla bean paste.


4. Pipe using desired tip, I used a 1M.

Enjoy!