By Anastasha Echavarri
News Editor

One Saturday afternoon when I was extremely hungry, I decided to look on several food blogs for recipe ideas. Suddenly, I came across a recipe for red velvet cupcakes. These cupcakes looked satiating and delicious, but the recipe was extremely complicated and I somehow managed to have a red cupcake mixture blow up in my face.

After simplifying the recipe, these cupcakes have become one of my favorite cupcakes of all time. I now bake these festive cupcakes for all of my friends during the holiday season.

• 2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 oz. red food coloring (one bottle)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins or silicone pans with cupcake liners.

Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste.

In a large bowl using a mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy for about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk.

Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine.

Fill cupcake tins with cake batter until they are a little under 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 20, rotating pans halfway through. The cupcakes are done when you are able to pat the tops and the cake springs back up. You can insert a toothpick into the center of a cupcake in the center of the tin and if it comes out clean they are done.

Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Yields 20 cupcakes.

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