Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

This recipe was my first foray into the Red Velvet world. The recipe was first printed as a cake recipe in the NY Times and was brought to my attention by my sweet friend Terrie...Valerie another friend, found the original recipe cut down to make 12 cupcakes as opposed to 30 that the original made. Now if I had 30 of these babies sitting around I would be in serious trouble. She fooled around with it and perfected the cut down version. I also tried a new recipe for cream cheese icing that pipes really well....a food processor version from the "Joy of Cooking". This version uses cold cream cheese rather than room temperature cream cheese.
It was very good....

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1 cup+3 Tb cake flour
2.5 Tb cocoa
1/2tsp salt
2/3c vegetable oil
3/4c sugar
1 egg
1oz (2T) red food coloring
1/2tsp vanilla
1/2c buttermilk
1/2tsp baking soda
3/4tsp white vinegar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line12-cupcake pans with cupcake liners and spray with cooking spray.
Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time.
With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring (and water or syrup, if necessary). (Take care: it may splash.)
Add vanilla.
Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
Divide batter among 12-cupcake pans, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.











Joy of Cooking Cream Cheese Frosting
About 2 cups

1. Food Processor Method

8 ounces cold cream cheese
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (I only used 1 1/2 cups and did not worry about sifting)

Combine in a food processor and pulse just until smooth and creamy. If frosting is too stiff, process for a few seconds loner; do not over process. If desired, stir in additional flavorings to taste, such as grated lemon/orange zest, ground cinnamon or liqueur.

2. Electric Mixer Method

Beat in a medium bowl at low speed just until blended.

8 ounces cold cream cheese
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla

Add one-third at a time and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency:
4 cups (1 pound) confectioners' sugar, sifted

If frosting is too stiff, beat for a few seconds loner; do not over process. If desired, stir in additional flavorings to taste, such as grated lemon/orange zest, ground cinnamon or liqueur.

(MY Note: I ended up using about 2 cups of confectioners sugar in mine, I had about
1/3 cup of Icing left over after piping 12 cupcakes, so use your own discretion)