Valentine's Day!

The other night my roommate and I were cleaning up after dinner and I decided I wanted cupcakes - it didn't matter we still had some left over Super Bowl ones sitting in the fridge.  With 6 days until Valentines Day we decided it was time for some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

The recipe wasn't anything special, why fix what's already perfect?  Here's the recipe:

(Makes 24 cupcakes)

2 ½ c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

½ c. unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 ounces (or 2 tbsp) water

2 ounces red food coloring

1 c. buttermilk (I didn’t have any, so I added 

1 tbsp of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk and let it set for a few minutes)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and either grease your cupcake pan or put cupcake liners in it

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add eggs and blend well

Add the food coloring

Combine cocoa powder, flour and salt and sift into the egg-mixture

Next add these ingredients one at a time: buttermilk, vanilla and water

In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and vinegar together, fold into cake batter - don't beat it, just make sure it's incorporated

Fill the cupcake pan(s) with the batter and bake for 15-20 minutes

Let cool completely before frosting.

While waiting (im)patiently for the cupcakes to get done, work on the cream cheese frosting:

2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened

½ c. butter, softened

2 c. sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together cream cheese and butter until creamy

Add vanilla

Gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar

This is typically more than enough to frost 24 cupcakes,

also make sure to refrigerate it.

To make my cupcakes a little more full of love, I decided to add red and pink fondant hearts to each one!

Enjoy!