Red Velvet With My Mom

Posted by - Tori

My mom baked all through my childhood, so it was very fun to bake this month's Have the Cake challenge together while I was visiting her. The other benefit is that I was able to give some away to my friend Caryn and her family, and I left half of what was left with my mom. I definitely don't need 24 cupcakes tempting me!

We only had to bake these until for 20 minutes before they sprang back to the touch and were ready to come out of the oven. Most of them rose up beautifully. I'm not sure what happened to the one little runt.

I added the scrapings of a fresh vanilla bean to the frosting to give it a little something special. It's subtle, but you can see the lovely little vanilla specks in the picture below.

We added two full bottles of red food coloring to the batter, and as you can see the cupcakes came out as a reddish-brown. I can't imagine how much more food coloring we would have needed to make these bright red.

Overall, I'd call these a success. The cake was moist and tasted great. The frosting came out very sweet. As someone who absolutely loves frosting, it's hard to say this, but the cupcakes were best with just a thin layer of icing on top. The cake is too easily over powered by the sugary-sweetness with anything more.

Cupcake Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter


• 1 1/2 cups white sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1 cup buttermilk


• 1 fluid ounce red food coloring


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda


• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar


• 2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder


• 1 teaspoon salt

Cupcake Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 20 paper baking cups.


2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.


3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter and frost with desired frosting.

Frosting Ingredients

• 2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature


• 5 cups confectioners' sugar


• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract


• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Frosting Directions

In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk. Beat at high speed until fluffy, adding an additional 1 tablespoon milk if necessary.