Red Velvet Cupcakes

So Ive been making red velvet cupcakes for a while now, these cakes were among the first of my cupcake baking addiction, i just love the colour and they are so bright and exciting looking i love the cream cheese frosting too mmmm cheese.

this is a recipe from Paula Deen from the food network i have slightly changed it though as the recipe had originally one and a half cups of oil which was waaaay to much and changed all the measurements so us kiwis can understand as we don't have "sticks of butter" here in NZ

this is quite a large recipe too it make 24x cupcakes and you will still have a little batter left over.

FYI - Tararua have a Buttermilk that you can find in the dairy deli area of your supermarket next to the fresh custards etc

Red Velvet Cupcakes :

2 1/2 cups of plain flour

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cocoa powder

1 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of buttermilk at room temperature

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of red food colouring

1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

preheat oven to 180 degrees and line muffin tins with cupcake papers

in a medium bowl sift flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder

in a large mixing bowl beat oil, buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar,and vanilla then add the sifted ingredients, beat well until smooth and thoroughly combined

divide batter among the 24 cupcake cases and bake for about 15 minutes

let cool

Cream Cheese Frosting :

250g of cream cheese softened

125g of butter softened

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

500g of icing sugar

beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth

and the icing sugar slowly then increase the speed until icing is thick and at a great consistency to pipe on top of your cupcakes