"Red Velvet Cupcakes with Piped Cream Cheese Frosting"

This past summer my husband and I got into cupcake making. We were trying to find the perfect cupcake for my son's baptism reception. Really we just wanted to try out recipes and eat dozens of cupcakes. In fact I was seriously on a cupcake a day diet for awhile (great weight loss program after giving birth to our son in May!). After stepping on the scale and realizing a cupcake a day maybe wasn't the way to drop a few pounds we took a little break from cupcake making.

But my love for cupcake making and decorating returned while trying to find the perfect recipe for a baby shower I was helping to throw for a friend. I look all over the internet for cupcake recipes but I always have the best luck on Pinterest. I searched red velvet cupcake (the previously decided upon cupcake of choice for the baby shower) and the first Pin that popped up was "Red Velvet Cupcakes with Piped Cream Cheese Frosting" from Just a Taste. So that's the recipe I decided to try.

 Ingredients:

• For the cupcakes:
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Red food coloring 
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• For the frosting:
• 2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups cold heavy whipping cream

Make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a cupcake pan with liners. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, white vinegar, vanilla extract and enough red food coloring until the mixture is well combined and reaches your desired color. In a separate medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, 1/2 a cup at a time, mixing between each addition to avoid any lumps in the batter. Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full with batter and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely while you make the frosting.

Make the frosting:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl, beating to combine, then add the vanilla extract. Remove the paddle attachment and attach the whisk attachment. Scrape down any cream cheese from the sides of the bowl, and then with the whisk beating at medium-high speed, stream in the cold heavy cream until the frosting is thick enough to pipe. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your desired pastry tip. Pip the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

My take on this recipe:

Bentley trying to eat the mixer
...can you say teething!

This recipe was easy to follow and did not take very much time to whip up. However I did not think the finished product was up to par. The cupcake seemed sticky and bland but the frosting was pretty good. This was the first time I made frosting this way - I typically go with a buttercream frosting. Overall I give this recipe a take it or leave it rating. I didn't really want to waste the calories on it to be perfectly honest. We ended up throwing half of the cupcakes away and I took the other half to work. My coworkers thought they were delicious but who knows maybe they were just being nice! 

I do think that my perception might be slightly skewed. I like my desserts sweet and chocolate filled. This one was definitely not chocolate filled and the cream cheese frosting cuts down the sweetness. I checked out other Pinners responses to the recipe to see if I was just being biased. Most Pinners seemed to like the recipe, a few had rave reviews but then again why Pin something you don't like! 

I guess you will just have to try it out for yourselves!


Original pin from http://www.justataste.com/red-velvet-cupcakes-piped-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/