That said, I did want to make something. Betsy is from Pennsylvania originally and they have this tradition there of doing cookie tables for desserts at weddings instead of a big expensive wedding cake. Basically you just get a few family and friends to make a bunch of cookies and people can eat as many as they can stand.

We used that idea for our wedding, but had other desserts besides just cookies. For example, my one contribution to the wedding food was these cute little red velvet cupcakes.

How cute are these?

I really like red velvet cupcakes because well A) they are delicious but B) they are a prime example of the old motto that you eat first with your eyes. One time I made a batch of these and ran out of red food coloring so my cupcakes were more rust colored than RED. They somehow did not taste as good.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temp.
287 grams cake flour (not self-rising). About 2 1/2 cups.
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
2 Cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 Teaspoon salt
1 1-ounce bottles of red liquid food coloring
3 Tablespoons lukewarm water
1 Cup buttermilk (very important)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon white vinegar

Basic Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups confectioners sugar, sifted

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer (Not essential, but it sure does make it easy.)
Digital Scale (Essential if you want consistent results.)

Directions:

1) To make batter, whisk cake flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder in a bowl.

2) Cream together butter and sugar in a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer until it's nice and fluffy.

3) Add eggs, one at a time, to the creamed butter. Then add water, salt, vanilla, and red food coloring.

4) Add 1/3 of your dry ingredients to the mix, followed by 1/2 of you buttermilk, then another 1/3 of your dry stuff, followed by the last 1/2 of your buttermilk. Finally, stir in the last 1/3 of the dry stuff.

5) Combine the baking soda and vinegar in a separate bowl and then stir that into the batter.

6) Fill cupcake tins with liners and fill 2/3s full.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

8) For the frosting, cream together the butter and the cream cheese until it's very light and fluffy. Definitely whip it for 3-4 minutes. Then stir in the vanilla. Stir in the powdered sugar in 2 or 3 batches.

9) Let cupcakes cool completely and then frost with the buttercream frosting.

Adapted from Martha Stewart.

Making the batter

I’m not a huge fan of box cake mix. My deal with it is that if I’m going to be eating something sweet and fattening, I want it to be as good as possible and I just really feel like that the made-from-scratch version of most baked goods is substantially better than the boxed version if you have the time to do it.

The line up.

What you’ll realize after you start making stuff like this from scratch is that the whole boxed cake thing is kind of a scam. I mean, it doesn’t take that much longer to just make it from scratch and assuming you have a decently stocked pantry, it’s not necessarily more expensive either.

Anyway, to make this batter, start by whisking your cake flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Cake flour is extremely important for any cake recipe hence the name.

Just to make sure that I have no clumps in my dry ingredients, I usually sift them once, but I’ve made these by just whisking them for a bit to combine well and it worked fine also.

A whisk is what you need.

The only other thing I’ll mention about the dry ingredients is that it’s pretty hard to measure out the flour correctly without a digital scale. If you’re baking even occasionally, this is a kitchen tool you should have. If you don’t have one then check this one out!

Back to the batter… once your dry ingredients are combined, add your butter and sugar to your mixer and mix on medium for about 3-4 minutes until the butter and sugar are combined and really fluffy. This is the creaming step.

If you don’t have a stand mixer you could definitely use a hand mixer.

Light and fluffy!

Next, slowly add your eggs, one at a time and then add the water, salt, vanilla, and red food coloring.

This will stain your counters...

Be careful with the red food coloring. It’ll stain anything it touches. It especially stained the white shirt I was for some reason wearing while I was making these…

Once you have the base for your batter done, you just need to incorporate your buttermilk and dry ingredients. Start by slowly adding 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then 1/2 your buttermilk, then 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then the last half of your buttermilk. Finally, the last of your dry ingredients. So: dry, wet, dry, wet, dry.

At the very end, you’ll want to combine your vinegar and baking soda to provide some fizz to the finished cakes.

Fizzzz.

You’re final batter should be really light and fluffy and very, very red. If you’re using a stand mixer, remember to scrape down the sides of your bowl occasionally. This was something that I did a kind of bad job at for this batch.

There ya go!

Baking the cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking cups with cupcake liners. Fill up your cupcakes until they are about 2/3 full. I also, without fail, overfill my first batch.

For example, these are overfilled.

I always overfill the first batch.

Assuming you fill them correctly, they’ll need to bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

These were my overfilled ones.

My cake overfloweth.

The good news about cupcakes is that even if they overflow a bit they’ll still taste good as long as you slather on some good cream cheese frosting.

The Frosting

In my opinion, there’s really only one option when it comes to frosting a red velvet anything: cream cheese frosting. It’s sweet and tangy and just perfect with the subtle chocolate flavor of the cake.

This frosting is about as easy at it gets to make.

A simple frosting.

Just add your butter and cream cheese to a stand mixer or bowl with a hand mixer and start mixing until the mixture is light and fluffy. Don’t be afraid about over-whipping. I whipped mine for 3 or 4 minutes. Then add your vanilla and mix it in.

Next, start adding your sifted confectioner’s sugar in two or three batches. Mixing it in well after every batch. You should end up with a fluffy but very flavorful frosting.

I put mine in a pastry bag to pipe it onto the cupcakes, but you could definitely just smear it on.

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing to remember before frosting these guys is to make sure they’re completely cool. I cooled mine on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before I even thought about frosting them.

I think these were sellable honestly.

These were really good. For the wedding, I even made them two days in advance and they were still one of the first desserts to be devoured!

So if you’re in the market for a good cupcake recipe, give this one a shot!

Given the season, I thought I would make some delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes for Betsy to bring! I topped the pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting because I’m always looking for an excuse to top something in cream cheese frosting. I also threw on some candy corns left over from my cocktail adventures.

A good vessel for cream cheese frosting.

I got this recipe from a really good baker I know who has actually contributed to Macheesmo before. The pumpkin cupcakes are simple to make and have a very interesting twist on the normal cupcake recipe: brown butter. The nuttiness of the butter with the pumpkin and spices was a pretty amazing combo.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Yield: 20 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Dry Mixture:
340 g. all-purpose flour (2 3/4 cups)
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
2 Teaspoons ground clove
2 Teaspoons nutmeg (fresh grated is best)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt

Wet Mixture:
228 g. butter (1 Cup)
500 g. sugar (2 1/2 Cups)
2 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (be sure to get the 100% pumpkin puree, not the pumpkin pie filling.)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Cups powdered sugar, sifted

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane (for nutmeg or buy it ground already)
Cupcake Pan
Digital Scale (Best tool you can buy to ensure consistent baking results)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well!

2) To make the brown butter, just put all of the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

3) Strain this! If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter.

4) Then pour all the brown butter into a bowl with all of the sugar and cream it together until smooth. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

5) Once cool, add eggs and additional egg yolks to sugar mixture.

6) Add pumpkin puree and finally whisk in dry ingredients in two batches.

7) Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up the cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

8) Bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

9) Move cupcakes to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes and let cool completely (approximately one hour).

10) For frosting, mix butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add vanilla and finally sift in powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

11) Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The Dry Stuff

Get all of your dry ingredients ready. I think it’s pretty important to weigh baking ingredients as my cup of flour is going to be slightly different than your cup of flour, but grams are grams no matter what.

The dry goods.

Basically, just combine all of these ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well to make sure everything is combined!

The Wet Ingredients

For the future detectives reading, yes, there are three sticks of butter and three eggs and three egg yolks below, but only two of each in the recipe. That’s because I needed about 30 cupcakes, not 20.

The wet goods (plus some dry goods)

Making the brown butter

Most cake recipes require that you cream the butter which involves (normally) using a mixer to beat the crap out of the butter and sugar to make sure that every little grain of sugar is coated in butter.

This recipe uses a different approach though which I immediately fell in love with. You make a brown butter and then pour that over the sugar and stir it up! It adds an awesome level of flavor to the final cake and I think it’s easier than creaming the butter and sugar together, but gives you the same results.

Update: As a few commenters have pointed out, you can’t always substitute brown butter for creaming butter. In this recipe it works well, but it’s a different physical process.

To make the brown butter, just put all of your butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

Take it off the heat when it looks like this:

In. Love.

Strain this

You don’t want those little burned bits in your cupcakes, just the lovely browned butter. Straining it is key. If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter!

Then pour all your brown butter into a bowl with all of your sugar and mix it up. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

This one time I made brown sugar.

Finishing the Batter

The hardest part is over! Next, add your eggs and additional egg yolks to your sugar mixture. Then add your pumpkin puree and finally whisk in your dry ingredients in two batches. Don’t over mix the batter. Just make sure all your flour is incorporated well and then stop.

Very delicious. I know because I ate a spoonful of it.

Next, using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up your cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

Don't overfill!

Baking the Cupcakes

These need to bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I would check them at 20 – my oven is a bit unreliable I’ve learned.

Look at these beauties!

I made these. You can too.

After these come out, move them to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes, but make sure they are not hot or even warm before you frost. I let mine sit for about an hour before even trying to frost them. If they are even slightly warm you run the risk of melting your frosting and melted frosting makes for a very sad cupcake.

Speaking of frosting, let’s make that.

Mix your butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk I guess) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add your vanilla and finally sift in your powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

You’ll end up with a very smooth and sturdy frosting!

Heaven.

Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Yum!

I must brag a little bit (even though it wasn’t my recipe) and say that Betsy reported these guys were the first thing to sell out at the bake sale and they were gone in about 20 minutes! How’s that for market research?!

If you’re looking for a solid dessert to make for a party this weekend and don’t feel like making your own gummy worms, these guys are surefire winners.

It's Crazy!

I got this recipe from a good friend who happened to be a previous pastry chef at a very prominent DC bakery. This is a recipe he came up with for a wedding cake actually, but let me tell ya… it makes really good cupcakes. Super light and fluffy but still rich and flavorful. Awesome stuff.

Vanilla Cake (Thanks Chris!)

Base mixture:
- 226 grams butter
- 348 grams sugar

Dry stuff:
- 348 grams cake flour (very important. I tried this recipe once with pastry flour and it didn’t work at all.)
- 4 Teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1.5 Teaspoons vanilla extract (or brandy or some other flavoring)

Meringue:
- 284 grams egg whites (about 8 eggs)
- 70 grams sugar

Step one is just creaming your butter and sugar together. You should end up with a light and fluffy mixture after a few minutes of beating. I use a hand mixer for this, but if you have a stand mixer, obviously you can use that. I guess also a whisk would work, but it’s gonna take some time.

Butter and Sugar. Beat the crap out of it.

To really get baking right, I think it is pretty important to weigh ingredients. It’s the only way to make sure everything is perfect. Digital scales are really inexpensive and I use mine for all kinds of things. Here are some common conversions though if you want the above recipe in Cups.

Digital scale is very important.

Mix all your dry ingredients together and all your wet ingredients separately. Then slowly add your dry and wet ingredients to your base mixture of sugar and butter. Start by adding about 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then add half the wet ingredients, then half of the remaining dry ingredients, the rest of the wet ingredients, and then the rest of the dry ingredients.

So you start with dry ingredients and you end by adding dry ingredients. You’ll end up with a batter but it will be very thick. That’s okay though, because we are about to add a large quantity of meringue to the batter.

The Meringue. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Do this one at a time and then add the white to the rest of the whites. If you get even one tiny speck of yolk in the whites, they won’t whip up due to the fat in the yolk. You’ll end up with a bunch of yolks that you can use for a yolk omelet or something. Just joking, but seriously you could make about 2 gallons of hollandaise sauce.

The whites are gonna be put to work.

All you need is the whites though. Start beating these with your hand mixer until they are very fluffy and forming light peaks, then slowly pour in your sugar. After a few more minutes of beating, stiff peaks will form.

Dang! That's a good lookin' meringue.

With a spatula, fold the meringue into the previous batter mixture. It will lighten substantially and be velvety smooth. Fold it slowly and take your time. You want to keep as many of the bubbles in the meringue as possible. Be gentle here people.

Folding the meringue in makes it super-light.

Now of course you could just bake this as is and it would be delicious. But I took a few tablespoons of the mixture in a few different bowls and added some fun colors to them. I used the gel coloring rather than the liquid. The liquid would really change the consistency of the batter.

FUN.

My idea was to put the colors in the middle of each cupcake and then swirl them around a bit. So I did a layer of white batter in each cup, then randomly poured the colors in each cup.

Kids would love this.

Finally I topped each cupcake off with more white mixture and then used a butter knife (or toothpick) to gently swirl the mixture. Just make two or three swirls. If you do more than that you will combine all the colors too much and end up with a purple filling. Not as fun.

Stir it up!

Bake these guys at 375 for 20-25 minutes. When they come out of the oven they will be puffed up, but as they cool they will calm down a bit. And yes, you want to let them to cool completely before you do anything with them.

I mean come on.

I’m not going to post the instructions for the frosting I made here. I used the exact instructions and recipe from Dyann Bakes. Her 1:2:3 butter cream worked out perfectly.

After the cakes cooled I frosted each of them pretty generously.

This cupcake would fail a psychedelic color test.

I brought these guys into work one day (because Betsy made me take them out of the house) and they were very quickly devoured. Not only were they really fun, but also very tasty.

Whether you do the colors or not, try out this cake recipe. It is killer.