Cupcakes!

This past week we have been getting ready for Ellen's birthday. For her birthday party we made some cupcakes. They are really good! (The recipe said the cocoa and vinegar would react and cause the batter to turn red, however it did not work for us. It also said you needed regular cocoa for this to work, not dutch processed cocoa. We thought we used the right cocoa. In addition we used beet juice for the red dye, but that did not do much for the batter. It did make the frosting a nice pink color, though.)

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 2 teaspoons red food coloring (recommended: Select natural food coloring. We used beet juice.)

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Red food coloring ( We just used beet juice)
  
• Special equipment: pastry bag and large round tip

Directions

Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and fine sea salt together onto a piece of waxed paper. Mix the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring in a standing mixer. Using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat until well combined. Turn down the mixer speed and slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until totally smooth, about 3 minutes.

Line a standard 12 cupcake tin with the liners (preferably silver). Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full with the batter and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove them from the pans. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

Frosting: In a standing mixer, on medium speed, cream the butter until smooth. Turn down the mixer speed and slowly add the powdered sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy. (We added just a little bit of beet juice till the frosting was a light pink color.)

Optional decorate with sprinkles :)