Red Velvet Cupcakes

Usually, I leave the baking to Brian, but it was my turn to make treats for the office this Wednesday. I felt like my officemates needed a little southern comfort to push them through the rest of the day, so red velvet cupcakes it was (along with Cara Cara oranges and blood oranges for those who wanted something "healthy")!

As much as Paula Deen scares me ("hey, y'all, let's use some butter, y'all. we gonna fry it, y'all"), I figured she would have a good recipe for red velvet cupcakes. And it's true, they were a hit! I made this recipe almost to the letter (I upped the cocoa to a heaping tablespoon from a teaspoon), but if I make them again, I would reduce the amount of oil by 1/4 to 1/3 cup - they were a little greasy on the bottom.

Rather than use the cream cheese frosting recipe with this recipe (a pound of cream cheese? 2 sticks of butter? oh my.), I used one I found in the Joy of Cooking.





Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cold cream cheese
4 tbsp. butter, softened
2 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

Mix the cream cheese and butter with a hand mixer. Add the confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup of time until well-mixed.