pink velvet cupcakes

i have been wanting to bake a red velvet cake for a while...so why not do cupcakes instead? i used this red velvet cake recipe and used this recipe for cream cheese frosting. you may notice that my cupcakes are PINK rather than red...this is due to the fact that i did not have enough red food coloring! the pink did not detract from the yummy flavor of these cupcakes though. not one bit.

notes for the cake recipe: this recipe made 24 cupcakes. i eyeballed each cupcake liner to be filled 2/3 high when i put them in the oven, however, when i took them out, they were all different heights! nothing fancy icing tricks couldn't fix though. i baked them at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

notes for the icing recipe: this recipe calls for 1 package of cream cheese and 5 tablespoons butter and vanilla extract and 2 cups + whatever you like powdered sugar. i ended up using about 2.5 cups of powdered sugar and the icing was perfect...i'm not a big fan of super sweet stuff...so this was just sweet enough! an interesting observation...when i beat the cream cheese and butter together, it got very crumbly. i must admit that i got a little concerned that my icing was going to turn into crap. however, once i added all the sugar...BAM! it looked like icing! i don't know what happened, but it turned out just lovely.

and for the icing piping...i have a pastry decorating icing bag that i filled with both colors of icing. (i added a few drops of red food coloring to make it pink.) that's why i was able to do a dual-color icing! but of course you knew that already...haha.

i will DEFINITELY make these again! and once i have more than 1 useable baking pan (i destroyed one of my 9-inch circular baking pans by baking a cobbler in it...so FYI...DON'T BAKE COBBLERS IN NONSTICK BAKING PANS!)...yeah, so once i have more than 1 baking pan i will make a fabulous red velvet CAKE complete with cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts for garnish.