The BEST Red Velvet Cupcakes

So I wanted to post another recipe that's good for Halloween, with the right decorations, or good for any other time of year without them.  I made these Red Velvet cupcakes for our Halloween party last year, which we themed with skeletons.  The red cupcakes look like bloody cakes and I put these awesome sprinkles on top to make the Halloween theme POP:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

(Adapted from a Cupcake Wars recipe)

*Do these cupcakes look blue to you instead of red like they should be?  

Look at Baking Tip #1 below to find out why!*

Yields: 24 cupcakes
Preheat oven to: 350F

Cake Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt

• Wet Ingredients
• 1 1/3 c. vegetable oil (or try canola oil for a better flavor) 
• *See Baking Tip #2 to learn why vegetable oil is used instead of butter*
• 2 large eggs

• Color Mixture
• 3/4 c. buttermilk *Don't have buttermilk? See Baking Tip #3 below for a substitute!*
• 2 tbsp. red food coloring (about half one of these smaller bottles-it's a TON I know!)
• 1 tbsp. white distilled vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set the bowl aside. In a large bowl, combine the oil and eggs. In a small bowl combine the Color Mixture ingredients.  Alternately add the dry ingredients and Color Mixture to the wet ingredients until combined.  Add more food coloring if desired to get a deep rich red color, like so:

Bake for 20-24 minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 c. unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, whip the cream cheese and butter until soft and pliable.  Add powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla extract and combine.

Pipe cream cheese frosting on cupcakes and top with skull sprinkles.  

Baking Tips

1. Use blue food coloring instead of red to make Blue Velvet cupcakes.  I had a request for chocolate cupcakes with some sort of blue decoration for a baby  (boy) shower.  I recommended this recipe in blue which worked out perfectly!
2. Vegetable oil is generally used in a recipe for a few reasons.  It makes the cake more moist and dense (usually the thinner the batter, the denser the cake).  It can also replace butter as a vegan substitute. Try canola oil instead of vegetable though since it has a better flavor.
3. I know I NEVER have buttermilk so I found this about.com "recipe" to make my own.  It's quick, easy, and then you don't have extra buttermilk sitting around that you won't use.  Unless you have a household member who loves it like my weirdo boyfriend...
4. Want something to carry your cupcakes in?  I recommend this Wilton carrier for 1 dozen regular or 2 dozen mini cupcakes (below).  The tray is also removable so you can carry a full sheet cake instead!

As usual, feel free to ask me any questions you might have or offer any feedback you have on the recipe or how to improve it.  Thanks and enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Per request, I need to get some fun Halloween recipes up.  This isn't specifically a Halloween recipe though.  It could be used for any fall occasion.  You could dress it up with fun decorations for Halloween though.  I put together the recipe for my friend's wedding coming up at the end of September.  Enjoy!



Yields: 24 cupcakes
Preheat oven to: 350F

Cake Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients
• 2 c. flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground clove
• 1/4 tsp. salt

• Wet Ingredients
• 3/4 c. canola oil (or any vegetable oil)
• 2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tbsp. pure Vanilla Extract
• 2 c. canned pumpkin
• 4 large eggs

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt. Set the bowl aside. In a large bowl using an electric mixer on low speed, combine the sugar, oil, applesauce, vanilla extra, and pumpkin. Add the eggs 1 at a time. Mix on low until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. 

Bake for 20 minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 12 oz. cream cheese, softened
• ¾ c. unsalted butter (1.5 sticks), room temperature
• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth; beat in vanilla and cinnamon.

Candied Pecan Topping

• 1 c. crushed pecans
• ½ c. sugar
• ½ c. water

Crush pecans in a plastic baggie-This is easiest to do by putting whole pecans in a plastic baggie and using a meat tenderizer to crush them.  Add pecans to sugar and water in a saute pan.  Turn stove on high and stir to dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil. Immediately turn heat down to medium high and cook for 5-7 minutes or until almost all of water is dissolved.  The sugar crystals won't harden and crust immediately and will need to sit for a bit.

Pipe cream cheese frosting on cupcakes and top with candied pecans.  Enjoy the sweet taste of fall comfort food in a new trendy way!  Haha

Baking Tips

• Most buttercream frostings don't require refrigeration on cupcakes as long as the cupcake has no filling in it and they're in airtight containers.  HOWEVER, cream cheese frostings (click for reference) do!  I've read that about 3 hours max outside the fridge is recommended.
• Don't want to spend a gazillion dollars (that's how much it is!) on expensive Pumpkin Pie Spice?  Check out this blog to make your own!
• If you want some fun Halloween decorations for your cupcakes, consider this fun set: 

As usual, feel free to ask me any questions you might have or offer any feedback you have on the recipe or how to improve it.  Thanks and enjoy!

Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes

This is a recipe I got a few years ago from a friend after she made them at her party.  They were AMAZING and I asked her for the recipe, always intended to make them, but never had the time because I was working 2 jobs at the time (April 2010).  Fast forward to January 2011-I'm finally done working so much and actually have some time for parties and hobbies.  I decided to make these for a Pampered Chef party I hosted and they were a HIT!  They're also great for a summer barbecue or a bachelorette party!  See the recipe below.



Since I made these quite a while ago I don't have a picture saved from when I first made them so here's the picture from when I made them recently.

Yields: 24 cupcakes
Preheat oven to: 350F

Cake Ingredients

• Wet Ingredients
• 1 c. unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temp
• 2 c. sugar
• 4 extra large eggs
• Dry Ingredients
• 3 c. flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• Margarita Mix
• 2 tbsp. Grand Marnier (or Triple Sec)
• 1/4 c. tequila
• 5/8 c. strawberry margarita mix
• 1/4 c. finely chopped strawberries

In large bowl beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time.  In a separate medium bowl mix together dry ingredients.  In another small bowl, add Margarita Mix ingredients together.  Alternate adding dry ingredients and margarita mix to the wet ingredient mixture until all combined.  Add chopped strawberry and mix until combined.  Bake 18-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Frosting Ingredients

• 1 c. unsalted butter, room temp
• 5-6 c. powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp. strawberry puree
• Red food coloring, to color desired
• Strawberries, chopped or butterfly fanned for garnish

Beat butter until fluffy.  Gradually add powdered sugar until consistency is slightly thicker than desired.  Mix in strawberry puree.  If consistency is now too liquid, add more powdered sugar; if too solid, add more puree.  Mix in red food coloring until a rich pink color is achieved.

Pipe on frosting (see below) and top with garnish.  Buen provecho! (Spanish for Bon Appetit haha)

When I first started out I didn't have piping bags (Wilton Disposable Decorating Bags, Set of 12 (Google Affiliate Ad)) so I had to be resourceful.  I double bagged a sandwich baggie, put the frosting in there, and cut a hole in one corner and frosted.  This actually works pretty well.  Otherwise the link I provided is for some disposable bags which are MUCH more convenient than reusable bags (SUCH a pain to clean).  If you're just getting started a 12" bag should be fine.  I'm considering moving up to 16" bags though so they can hold more frosting without so many refills.  Look for more baking/decorating tips like this in future posts.  And feel free to ask me any questions you might have or offer any feedback you have on the recipe or how to improve it.  Thanks and enjoy!

Welcome to Cupcake Aly!

My name is Aly and I decided after a year and a half of some pretty fun cupcake adventures that I want to start blogging and share some of these recipes and yummy photos with others.  It all started at a Pampered Chef party I hosted.  I made Strawberry Margarita cupcakes which I had been wanting to make for EVER.  They were a hit and I loved making them too!  So I made cupcakes again for my next party, and then started making them for fun more and more.  To avoid gaining 100+ pounds, I bring my creations into work to share.  So many people at work were jealous of my department getting cupcakes all the time so I made even more and put out a Cupcake Fund jar.  Things continued to snowball and eventually one of my friends even asked me to make cupcakes for her wedding!

I'm now booked to bake for a couple events and have baked for a few already.  With all I've learned from my experiences, I thought I'd start sharing with others and hopefully they can learn from me and maybe I can even inspire the creation of some yummy new recipes the way that other blogs have for me.  I have about 25 recipes I've made since I got started that need to be posted so keep your eyes peeled for a flood of new recipes in your life!  Thanks for stopping by!