Red Velvet Cupcakes

I made these Martha Stewart Red Velvet Cupcakes on Monday night for a client's birthday.  A coworker and I decorated his office with 90+ balloons, streamers, and a Happy Birthday sign.  I picked this recipe because I really like red velvet cake.  The one thing that was weird with this recipe is that it called for baking soda and vinegar.  I'm not sure what it did to the cupcake (maybe made it more air-y??), but it tasted pretty good.  I was disappointed that it didn't turn out super red.  It looks more brown and that bummed me out, but it still tasted good.  I love love love this cream cheese frosting.  It tasted great on this cupcake, but it also pairs well with pumpkin spice and the banana pecan cupcakes. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Martha Stewart Cupcakes (pg. 30)
Makes 24

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
Cream-Cheese Frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Mix in food color and vanilla.

3. Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each.  Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.  Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.  Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.  Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 4 cups

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in an airtight container; before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting

I love baking cupcakes.  Anytime I can find an excuse to make them, I usually do.  This weekend I made some cupcakes for my brother-in-law because he's celebrating his 24th birthday this week, Saturday actually - Happy Birthday Kevbro!

His favorite cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  His mom usually makes this for him every year, but this year I offered to make cupcakes.  I knew instantly I wanted to make his favorite - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I already had frosting made from the Chocolate Chip Cupcakes I made last week, so I was good there.  All I needed to do was buy some buttermilk for the cake batter.

This yellow buttermilk cake batter is pretty good and would pair nicely with any frosting - chocolate, fluffy vanilla, maybe a caramel swiss meringue buttercream or a white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.  It's the perfect base.  I would also be a good cake batter for decorative cupcakes.

If you try these let me know what you think! Happy cupcake baking!

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes

Martha Stewart Cupcakes Cookbook (pg. 26)

Makes 36

3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 1/4 cups sugar

5 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature

2 cups buttermilk, room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Dark Chocolate Frosting (recipe in this post)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Reduce speed to medium.  Add whole eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Add yolks, and beat until thoroughly combined.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.  Beat in vanilla.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.  Bake, rotating tins halfway through (this is only if you are baking two 12 cup tins at once, if you are only baking one tin, then you don't need to rotate), until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched and a cake tester (aka a toothpick) inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.  Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.  Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature and, if desired, decorate with sprinkles before serving.

Oatmeal Coconut Scotchies

Gross.  Not the cookies, but having to dig through the garbage this morning (luckily I didn't have to go far) to recover this recipe.  This last week I was craving cookies and it was one of my client's 40th birthday so I thought.. why not bake some cookies.  I didn't have much on hand, but managed to have all the ingredients for this Oatmeal Scotchies recipe on the back of a Nestle TollHouse Butterscotch morsels bag.  I used to make coconut butterscotch biscotti so that is why I had them on hand.  I was excited to try this oatmeal cookie recipe because I already knew I liked the coconut and butterscotch pairing.  Trust me.  If you haven't tried this combo.. it is SO good.  The recipe on the back of the morsel bag did not include coconut, it was something I added at the last minute, but these would be equally as good without it.  This recipe is now a favorite of mine because of the flavor and the texture.  This cookie has a slight chew on the outside (like a corner brownie..mmm) and is soft on the inside.  It melts in your mouth (because of that butter.. aren't your proud of me Paula?!). 

I definitely recommend baking these for yourself and for others as they will love you for it.

Oatmeal Scotchies
Nestle TollHouse
Makes about 4 dozen cookies (or about 3 batches of 9 large cookies)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened (butter all the way baby)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange (I used vanilla extract)
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) Nestle TollHouse Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
1/3 cup sweetened coconut (something I added)

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in small bowl.  Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in oats and morsels.  Drop by the rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. I rolled into a 1 1/2 in. ball and flattened will my palms so it looked like a little flat disk about 1/2 in. thick.  I could fit 9 of these on a standard baking sheet.  I also used a Sil Pat.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies; 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. I cooked mine for about 9-10 minutes (when making 9 to a batch).  I definitely recommend leaving them on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes.  I left them until they cooled completely and they removed nicely (largely because it was on a Sil Pat).