cheese | christmas | cream cheese | cupcakes | decorations | frosting | recipe | seasonal

Santa’s Special Red Velvet cupcakes.

December 24, 2008

Typically, as I’ve mentioned before, I make two different kinds of cupcakes for any particular holiday. Really , I only do this if I plan on making something that isn’t a basic cupcake, or something I know not everyone will eat. That way I can make a “unique” cupcake or one thats an acquired taste, and make a plain(er) one for the people who don’t like everything.

So for Christmas, I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes and I knew Jay might not even try them, let alone like them. Soooo… I also decided to make some other cupcakes for him *cough*and myself too*cough* which I’ve posted already. But as far as the red velvet’s go, I made Magnolia’s Bakery’s version of those with cream cheese frosting that I striped green, and used vintage Santa Claus-head cupcake toppers. I’ve made them before and they were amazing, so I had to make ’em again since red velvet is so Christmas-y. And once again, they were a huge hit. It was a Magnolia Bakery kinda Christmas this year, apparently.

This recipe, like the Magnolia vanilla, is practically failure proof. I’ve never had a problem, and if you read my post when I made these before you’ll know that I’ve had issues with red velvet cupcake recipes in the past.

The measurements are wacky, but thats because its a halved recipe. This halved recipe makes over 2 dozen cupcakes, so you can imagine how many the full recipe gives you. Oh- and make sure you only fill the liners halfway. They do rise quite a bit.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES

First get together:

  • 1 & ¾ cups cake flour
  • ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 & ¼ cups sugar
  • 1 & ½ large eggs*
  • 3 Tbs red food coloring
  • 1 Tbs + 1 ½ tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¾ tsp vanilla extract
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • ¾ cup buttermilk
  • ¾ tsp cider vinegar
  • ¾ tsp baking soda

Then you:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line pan with paper liners.
  2. In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well.
  5. In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not over beat.
  6. In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.
  7. Fill cups ½ full and bake 20-25 minutes, Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

*Use one whole egg and then crack one in a bowl, beat it and use half.. or you can live dangerously and use two eggs.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

You will need:

  • 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 & ½ cups confectioners sugar, sifted
  • Food coloring, if desired

Then you:

  1. In a bowl, with your electric mixer on medium high speed, beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until creamy.
  2. With mixer on low speed, make ½ cup additions of sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
  3. Increase the speed of your mixer between each addition and if using, add food coloring. Mix until completely colored.
  4. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Happy holidays all you little elves out there! If you’re looking for more inspiration for your holiday cakes and confections, check out my guest blog over at Cupcakes Take the Cake. I won’t be back until next week most likely, maybe even after the new year… so until then…

Here’s a vintage Christmas postcard just for you.

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