How to make my Red Velvet Cupcakes

     Red velvet cupcakes are my absolute favorite cupcake to make. These have been my most requested ones to make for friends and family and I've even gotten paid to make some for a co-workers birthday party. The coloring on these bad boys is amazing. For a while my hair was the same dark red velvet color. Gorgeous! The chocolate in this is extremely rich and I add another layer of it with the chocolate chips. The cream cheese frosting goes so well with the chocolate. Seriously, it's to die for. 

This is how they turn out with normal cocoa. Lovely!

     Normally I use normal unsweetened cocoa but lately I've just been in love with the dark chocolate version. The coloring will be less red if you use dark chocolate cocoa, so be warned! They will probably come out as more of a red tinged chocolate cupcake if you use dark chocolate. I've also experimented with other colors in the batter. Blue comes out quite lovely. I bet purple would also look just as fine. You can alter them to fit your own personal preference. Some of you may not love red as much as I obviously do. I don't think my hair could get any redder than it is. If it could I would do it. 

     If you try this recipe I would love to hear how it turned out! Be sure to comment down below and post pictures if you got them! I'd love to hear of any tweaks you have made to the recipe as well. I'm always open to suggestions that will make these cupcakes even better than they already are!

Cupcakes

(adapted from a recipe found on White Apples)

• 
3 1/2 cup cake flour

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (You can use dark chocolate cocoa if you prefer)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cup canola oil

• 2 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 4 Tbsp (2 oz) red food coloring
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk

• 2 tsp baking soda

• 2 1/2 tsp white vinegar

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips tossed in flour 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.  Stir in chocolate chips until just combined.

4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

5. Divide batter cupcake pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temp

• 3 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. 

2. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat, on low speed to combine. If too soft, chill until slightly stiff, about 10 minutes, before using.

Once the cupcakes are cooled and frosted, I take an extra, unfrosted cupcake, and grate it with a cheese grater over the frosted cupcakes. This makes them pretty and look more presentable.