06/13

Cupcakes = Crack

To the brilliant person behind Sprinkles … I adore you.

My waist and hips, not so much; but overall you bring sunshine into my life. There is nothing more satisfying than a good, delicious cupcake.

Last night I decided to try and replicate my favorite red velvet cupcake from Sprinkles. They weren’t comercial quality but they did pass the taste test.

Here’s my recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup salted butter, firm but not cold*
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp red food coloring
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

• 1/2 cup salted butter, firm but not cold (if using unsalted add 1/8 tsp salt)
• 6 oz cream cheese, cold (I recommend using Philadelphia brand in this recipe)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Red and blue food coloring, for decor (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda, set aside. In a separate large mixing bowl, with an electric hand mixer on medium speed, whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time stirring after each addition. (Now stand back and change out of any nice shirt you have on and) Add red food coloring and vanilla extract and mix until combine. In a small mixing bowl (or in the measuring cup you used to measure milk), combine milk and 1 tsp vinegar. Add milk mixture and flour mixture to cupcake mixture, alternating in two separate batches, mixing until combine after each addition. Divide batter evenly among 15 paper lined muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven 18-21 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 2 minutes in muffin tin, then transfer to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to an airtight container to cool completely (this just helps them retain more moisture). Once cooled completely, spread generously with Cream Cheese Frosting (just as sprinkles does, lots of frosting!).
• *I warmed the butter in the microwave for about 9-10 seconds on HIGH power in a small microwave safe bowl, basically you don’t want it softened but not cold either. Just in between the two. Also, alternately you could use unsalted butter and add 1/4 tsp salt to the recipe. I just always keep salted butter on hand so I wanted the recipe to use salted. So if you use salted you don’t need to add any salt to the recipe.

• In a large mixing bowl, using and electric mixer, whip together butter and cream cheese until pale and fluffy (about 1 minute on high speed, then 3-4 minutes on medium high speed). Mix in vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If doing optional infamous Sprinkles Cupcakes dot on top then scoop out a few tablespoons frosting into two separate bowls and tint with food coloring (lots of red in the one and barely any blue in the other). Spread a small circle of red on top followed by a small light blue, use a toothpick to spread if needed (it helped me get a more circular shape around the edges with its finer point).
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy