Red Velvet Cuppycake

I had a magnificent lunch this afternoon with my mom at Elephant Bar. Their crab cakes are the most divine morsels of food that I have ever put in my mouth. And on top of that their served in a rich mango sauce that is to die for. Please, don't even get me started on the seared ahi and ginger. After eating this delicious meal and feeling pretty good from my Passion Mai Tai, I was perusing the dessert menu my eyes landed on a Frosted Red Velvet Cupcake. It looked good in the picture, but we thought to ourselves 'why spend money on something that we can easily bake at home?'.. so we bought some red food coloring and the rest is history! The recipe comes from Paula Deen so you know that not only were the cupcakes moist but they were fluffy and rich in flavor. Red Velvet isn't my favorite flavor for cakes and I never really go out of my way to make it, although I have in the past and this recipe definitley puts the others to shame. We decorated them with a standard vanilla buttercream instead of the traditional cream cheese frosting, since it was easier to throw together at the last minute. Besides, I've never ever been a fan of cream cheese frosting unless its piggy backing something carrot flavored.

Grandmother Paula's Red Velvet Cake

Courtesy of Paula Deen

2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 ounces red food coloring

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare muffin pan by lining with cupcake holders.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well.

3. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

1.Mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

2. Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Lazy Brownies and Cake

Have I mentioned that I'm lazy?

I've never made brownies from scratch, so when I was in the mood for some this weekend I resorted to Betty Crocker. I usually mash up the the cookie part of Oreos and add the crumbs to the brownie mix but since it's girl scout cookie season (yay!) and we have boxes and boxes of thin mints around the house, I decided why not use those?

We also had some Red Velvet cake mix in our pantry that was about to expire and since it takes no time and/or real effort to bake a cake from a box, I figured I might as well bake it. I did make a Marshmellow Frosting to spread over the cake since I've never been a fan of the traditional cream cheese frosting on red velvet cake.

I'd never made this particular recipe before and my only critisim is that it was WAY too sugary. If I ever make it again, I would reduce it from 1 1/2 cups to maybe 1.

Marshmellow Frosting recipe can be found here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,166,152170-236207,00.html