Day 40: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Since Valentine's day is just around the corner, I am in the mood for some festive sweets.  I have seen many valentine themed foods on several of the blogs that I read, and I have chosen one of them for today.  You can't go wrong with Red Velvet Cupcakes.  I love red velvet anything, and the red is just perfect for romance and celebrating love!

I borrowed this recipe from Bakerella, who is the creator of Cake Pops.  Check out her blog for the recipe and also for some cute decorating ideas.  All of her posts are so creative and look gorgeous and delicious.

Note:  I made 2 changes to her recipe -

1. I used 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I like a little more chocolatey flavor) 
2. I used 1 (1 oz) bottle of red food coloring. (The color turned out just fine)

I also used a different cream cheese icing recipe which I have posted for you below. This is my standard "go to" cream cheese icing recipe.  I didn't use a whole lot of icing on these cupcakes as you can see in the photo.  A little goes a long way, in my opinion.  Using my recipe, I still had about 1/3 of it left.  Just put it in the fridge and use it for the next batch of cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Icing

(Yield: Icing for 2 - 3 dozen cupcakes, depending on how much you use)

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, room temp.
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp.
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese and butter together in stand mixer until smooth and creamy (about 2 minutes).
2. Add vanilla; mix. 
3. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, blending well between each addition until smooth and creamy.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

P.S.  The calorie count for just the cupcake is 205 calories each.  For the cupcake and icing (using only 2/3 of the icing recipe), it is 303 calories each.