Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

For Valentine's Day I decided to try making Red Velvet Cupcakes, inspired by Have The Cake's February Challenge .  I snagged the recipe I found in this post, and gave it a go!

Ingredients for Cupcakes:

2 ½ cups Cake Flour (not self rising)
2 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 ½ cups Vegetable Oil
1 ½ cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 container Neon Pink Food Coloring
1 Cup Buttermilk (I used 1 ½ cups)
2 tsp White Distilled Vinegar
1 ½ tsp Baking Soda

Ingredients for Frosing:

8 oz Cream Cheese
¼ cup Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
Confectioner's Sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line two muffin pans with cupcake liners.

2.  In a bowl mix together Cake Flour, Cocoa Powder, & Salt.

3. In a separate bowl beat the Vegetable Oil and Sugar together with an electric mixer until blended.  Add the eggs in one at a time.  Beat in the Vanilla and Food Coloring.  (Yes, it's the entire bottle!)

4. Add the dry ingredients to the liquids in three batches.  With each batch add a ½ cup of buttermilk.  Mix until combined smoothly.

5.  In a separate small bowl, whisk the Baking Soda and Vinegar together.  This will be foamy.  (It reminds me of those volcanoes you make in Jr. High where you add the two together and let it foam out the top!)  Mix this into the batter until blended.

6.  Pour into cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7.  Let it cool.

8.  Make your frosting by letting your cream cheese sit out to room temperature.  Then blend it with your Butter, and Vanilla until smooth.  Add the sugar too taste.  In the original recipe she mentioned she liked her more tart, and I completely agree.  I don't like it too sweet because I prefer to taste the cream cheese instead of the sugar.  Like Eli said "I'm a whore for cream cheese!"

I wish I had more cake tools, then I could have made the frosting prettier, instead I just spread it on (thickly) with a knife, and it looked very homemade.  They tasted fabulous and were so moist!