Red velvet cupcakes

My friend Jenn just recently had a birthday and I really didn't get to celebrate it with her so I told her I would bake her something.

She told me once she never had red velvet cupcakes. I'm not the biggest fan of artificial coloring, but who am I to turn down a birthday request?

I used this recipe I found on All Recipes: Red Velvet Cupcakes . This recipe has more cocoa than most, this also prohibits the red food coloring to be as bright; however I like the cocoa to be more prominent. Otherwise I'm just eating a red cupcake.

As stated above I'm not a big fan of artificial coloring, so I didn't want to go buy food coloring. Luckily, I have some left over red coloring paste from a decorating class I took in October 08. I added about 1/8 tsp of the paste to 1 fluid oz of buttermilk, to make up for the liquid the recipe called for. There's the batter before it goes in the oven. Oompa Loompa....

The traditional frosting for red velvet is cream cheese:

Cream cheese frosting:

• 8oz cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 stick butter softened
• 2-3 cups confectioners sugar depending on how you like the consistency
  
  
  Frosted using a Wilton 1M (large star tip). This is the easiest way to frost cupcakes while still looking decorative.
  
  

Happy Birthday Jenn!