Valentine's Day and Wedding Anniversary Cupcakes

 

It's been ages since I posted a quick food share, but Valentine's Day and my 42nd (count 'em!) wedding anniversary called for a special dessert splurge. 

As SB and I planned what we might want to do for our wedding anniversary celebration, we talked about having my brother and sister-in-law, Rich and Alison come to help us celebrate. It was at their home that we were married on a very snowy morning in 1980. The memory of that day and many other days spent with them and our growing families over the years seemed fitting ! Alas, just as we finalized plans, Rich and Alison were smacked with the Omicron Covid virus, so it was bed rest and isolation for them ! Thankfully, they are on the mend, but their visit and our special dinner was put on hold. Dang !

SO... SB and I planned a comfort food fest and invited our son and daughter-in-law and our cute grandgirl to come for the evening. We built up the fires to make the house cozy and made chicken and biscuits, roasted Brussels sprouts, chopped and fried apples, and made these Red Velvet Cupcakes to finish things off. Yum ! 

I have been Nooming it for the past nine months, so this dinner was a real splurge. My one concession to getting back on track easily was to halve the cupcake recipe so that there were only eight cupcakes coming out of the oven and half the decadent cream cheese frosting recipe decking them out ! 

These cupcakes have a dense crumb, very much like the consistency of carrot cake. They are very moist and a fork takes an easy bite without collapsing the cupcake. I have had Red Velvet Cake that is so light that it crumbles away the moment one takes a fork to it. This recipe is not that recipe ! It uses all purpose flour and buttermilk. I was really pleased with  the color of the finished cupcakes. I used Dutch cocoa, which is a lighter color and I doubled it up.

Here's how I did it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Oven Temp - 350 degrees F

Makes: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients: 

1 2/3 c. all purpose flour

2 tbsp. Dutch cocoa

1 c. sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. Kosher salt

3/4 c. butter, room temperature

3 eggs

2 tbsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. buttermilk

1/8 tsp. red food color drops

Making the Dish :

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt.

2. Measure the buttermilk, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and eggs into a large measuring cup and whisk briskly.

3. Add the wet to the dry and mix thoroughly.

4. Line cupcake forms with paper liners. Spoon the batter into the forms 1/4 cup at a time until the forms are uniformly filled.

5. Bake in the center of the preheated oven for 18 minutes.

6. Cool on a rack and pipe  your favorite cream cheese frosting into lovely peaks.

7. Store closely covered and enjoy with a hot cuppa ! 

Happy Valentine's Day !