Birthday Red Velvet Cupcakes!!!

I have a small confession to make. I bake, I photograph, usually I bake again, and photograph again (something separately delicious) and then I take forever to blog. I have never been good at the getting to the blog part, so I apologize and promise to work on this. If Erin could do it with two kiddos, then so can I! Right? :)

Last Friday night was my girlfriend Megan's birthday. We had a party for her at our favorite pizza place here in town. I was very excited because even though she's never actually said it, I knew Red Velvet Cupcakes are her absolute favorites. It made my cupcake choice this week very easy.

I have never made Red Velvet Cupcakes before, and have really only eaten them from Sprinkles Cupcakes. Yes, THE Sprinkles Cupcakes (in CA we are semi-used to them, out here in AL they are an icon to cupcake people, LOL.) I have to admit it, again, they call her Martha Stewart for a reason. These were by far the best Red Velvet Cupcakes I have ever had...and the best part!?!?! I made them!! You should too!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (pg. 30)
Ingredients:

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 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
Cream-Cheese Frosting
     1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
     12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
     1 pound confectioner's sugar, sifted
     3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions for Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350. 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 incoporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

 Mix in food color and vanilla.

3. Reduce speed to low add flower 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 the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.

 4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full. Bake, rotating tins half way through, until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

 5. To finish use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.

I have to insert a blurb about Martha's Cream-Cheese frosting. It was nothing short of amazing! I have made several cream-cheese frostings, purchased it, and NOTHING has come close to being as good as this recipe. It will be my go to for cream-cheese from here on out. I only made a half batch for this recipe and it turned out to be the perfect amount.

Cream-Cheese Frosting Instructions:
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and them mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

The cupcakes were simple enough and tasted AMAZING. I was surprised at the fact that there was no butter in them, and the oil/sugar mixture was a new one. It seemed very weird when I was mixing it but it was delicious!! I will be making these cupcakes again and again I just know it!

Because it was Megan's birthday I wanted to make these cupcakes extra special. So I rolled out some fondant and decorated them in a happy birthday fashion :) Here's my birthday version of Martha's Red Velvet Cupcakes.

And here's a shot of all of us ladies enjoying Megan's birthday celebration and the Cupcake Love!

Up next? Tieramisu Cupcakes for my friend Treva. :) Can't wait to try those!

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes

Hi :) It's Krystle. Thanks Erin for letting me join the challenge. I was so excited when I finally got my book in the mail I had to start baking right away. I've probably looked through the book 50 times already so I was very excited when my husband presented me with an opportunity to bake some to share.

My husband is currently in flight school for the Army. He attends academic class for half the day and flies for the other half at this current point in his training. Funny thing happened to him in class last week, his cell phone went off. Yes he was THAT guy! Apparently there is an unwritten rule that when your phone goes off you have to make up for the interruption by bringing pizza for the class. I begged him to let me make cupcakes! He did :) So my first batch of Martha Stewart goodness was shared with a class full of Army Blackhawk pilots. The only thing I don't have is a picture of them eating.

I picked the Brown Sugar Pound Cakes (pg. 60) because, lets be real, they seemed to be one of the easiest recipes in the book. I needed to start out with something from Martha that I felt I could easily conquer (she's always secretly intimidated me!) everyone needs to have a confidence booster, right? That and I didn't start the baking until 8:30pm (once my baby boys were in bed) so I had to make something that I already had all of the ingredients for. Not only were they easy...they were delicious.

Ingredients:
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk
Brown-Butter Icing
     1/2 cup unsalted butter
     2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
     2 tsp pure vanilla extract
     2 Tbsp milk, plus more if needed

Insturctions for cupcakes:
1) Preheat oven to 325. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
2) With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each in incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.

3) Divide evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes, turn out cupcakes onti racks and let cool completely.

4) To finish place cupcakes on a wire rack set over a baking sheet; spoon icing over cupcakes, and let set.

Instructions for Brown-Butter Icing:
1) Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasonally, until but-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.
2) Add confectioners sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk to brown butter, stir until smooth. If necessary add more milk (up to two tablespoons) a little at a time, just until icing is spreadable. Use immediately.

A few additional side notes...

I learned something new when baking these cupcakes (thanks to my friend Laura and Google!) I ran out of brown sugar and still needed a full cup after starting the cupcakes. Did you know you can make your own brown sugar?? You can, and it's super easy! All you need is molasses and regular white sugar. 1 cup white sugar and 1 Tbsp molasses and wah-la you have light brown sugar (2 Tbsps and you have dark brown sugar)

Also...I baked the cupcakes the night before his class and was waiting to frost them (based on Martha's recomendations in the recipe) and when I stored them in their air-tight container and opened it in the morning this happened:

I have no idea why this occurred? Thankfully the recipe makes 28 and he only needed 24 for class. The only thing I can attribute it to is maybe the wonderful humidity in the air here in wonderful lower Alabama. I will have to watch for this in the future. Suggestions anyone?

The cupcakes were remarkably simple to make, smelled like yummy Christmas when they were cooking, and were quite tasty to eat. The Brown-Butter Icing is quite sweet, but was a good combo...that Martha sure does know what she's doing. And yes, the guys all liked them. I might actually bake this recipe again as mini pound cakes, not just cupcakes.

Another kind of Challenge

I can't even tell you how much I have LOVED doing this cupcake challenge.

Not only am I learning how to bake but giving cupcakes away is SO much fun.

Right now I have a bigger challenge at hand and that is growing TWO babies.

Which most people probably already know.

Until I can get back on my feet and off this bed rest I plan on returning and getting my bake on!

Until then I asked one of my best friends from high school and super mom(of twins!)

Krystle Redley(who I will always think of as Krystle Walker) to help you!

She is in Alabama so we can better distribute the cupcake love around the country:)

Thank you all for you love and support!