Red Velvet Cupcakes

I was inspired by Taylor over at Mac & Cheese to make red velvet cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I've always loved red velvet cake, but have never made it. Actually, I've never made any cake or cupcake from scratch in my whole life, but as I perused the ingredients, I realized that I had everything I needed (except the cream cheese), so why not?

First of all, it was really no more work to make this cake batter from scratch than to make a cake from a box. Maybe a couple of extra steps, but not a big deal. I read both recipes she had posted as well as some comments and set about making the cupcakes. I'll post the recipe here with the revisions I made and will make the next time with explanations to follow.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (Vegan)
2 cups soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder (drop this back to 2)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil (change to 4 tablespoons oil, 5 tablespoons applesauce)
2 ounces red food coloring
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
(I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon)

Add vinegar to soy milk, and set aside to curdle. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl (I just stirred the mix with a whisk).
Add vegetable oil, food coloring, and vanilla extract to the curdled soy milk, and mix. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. Fill cupcake liners ½ full. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 20 minutes or until done. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(Vegan)
Frosting
½ cup margarine, room temperature
½ cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups confectioner's sugar

Cream margarine, cream cheese, and vanilla extract. Slowly mix the confectioner’s sugar into the creamed mixture, and then beat until smooth and fluffy.

(Not Vegan)
½ stick butter (softened)
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1 box confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon juice
dash salt

Blend butter and cream cheese with a spatula. Add vanilla, lemon juice, and salt. Cut in confectioner's sugar until it's all moistened and then beat until smooth and fluffy.

Explanation for changes. I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa because that's what I had on hand. But I don't think it was the absolute main culprit for the fact that my cupcakes were not red. Many recipes call for only two tablespoons of cocoa. Then again, those recipes aren't vegan. I'll test the batter with just two tablespoons next time and only add more if it's not chocolate-y enough. Also, who has two ounces of red food coloring? That's way more than comes in the standard four-color boxes of dyes and two local groceries did not sell the red dye separately. I only used about an ounce between two packages (and now I have way more yellow, blue and green food coloring than I will ever need) and it didn't appear that my batter was going to get any redder, so I gave up. I actually made reddish-brown velvet cupcakes. Regardless, these cupcakes were delicious. Though, as noted by Taylor, very moist, which is why I'd cut back on the oil even more next time. Call me crazy, but I'm a good southerner and good southerners are accustomed to dry red velvet cake. Though I prefer a little moisture in mine. I've had some that was so dry, it made me cough (just like that first bite of my mom's cornbread).

Then there's the frosting. The first batch got tossed out completely. I did not use the Toffuti; I got lazy and bought Neufchatel lower-fat cream cheese instead (I didn't feel like driving to Whole Foods to get vegan cream cheese). And used Smart Balance margarine (from when I bought it instead of the intended Earth Balance). I was slightly low on confectioner's sugar, so I augmented it with just a bit of powdered Splenda and corn starch. This frosting was terrible. Too loose (I blame the Neufchatel and perhaps the Smart Balance) and too brown (that second teaspoon of vanilla's not necessary). This is all, of course, my fault and not the fault of anyone's recipe. Since I obviously did not follow a recipe.

So I started over. I looked up some other recipes and opted to go for full-fat cream cheese, cut the butter to ½ a stick instead of ½ a cup, cut the vanilla back so the frosting would be whiter, and tossed in some lemon juice to make it easier to blend (all that fat really wanted to clump in my mixer). Perfect. Some of the best-tasting frosting I've had in my whole life (not to be immodest). Really, absolutely delicious.

So what do you have when you put delicious frosting on a delicious cupcake? A delicious frosted cupcake, of course. Despite a few setbacks and a disappointing color (not to mention a very messy kitchen), I would say these cupcakes are a real winner. The SO agreed.