CIY: Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes

THE CREDIT

The Pinspiration | The Source

THE SELECTION

I had gotten a little cocky over the resounding success of my Orange Creamsicle Fudge, so I attempted to make this recipe for a red velvet-cream cheese fudge. Yeah, that was kind of a disaster. Something went awry and I have yet to figure out quite what it was. I was about halfway through the red velvet layer when I stopped trusting the recipe altogether and I couldn’t quite save it from there. The end result was edible, but the red velvet layer was a sticky mess and I had a hard time even getting it out of the pan. I was thoroughly disappointed. Mark my words, guys. I AM going to figure it out, and when I do, I’ll be back with it.

But because I love you guys, I wanted to give you something that actually worked and didn’t suck.

And cupcakes seem to be the new hotness, so – why not, right?

NOTE: the recipe on the original site had already halved everything to yield about 8-9 cupcakes. I decided I wanted more than 8-9 cupcakes so I went ahead and doubled it back up. The recipe below is doubled from the original site (it yielded me 23 cupcakes).

THE RECIPE – RED VELVET CREAM CHEESE CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

For the filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the batter:

• 2 cups + 4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of vegetable oil (or 1 cup applesauce, to lighten it up a bit)
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 Tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 Tablespoons sour cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). Line a muffin tin with cupcake/muffin liners.

In a small bowl, mix the (softened) cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Set aside for now. (This is going to be the filling, if you hadn’t figured that out.)

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, mix the oil (or applesauce, if that’s your fancy), sugar, vinegar, eggs, food coloring, vanilla, and sour cream.

Add the flour mixture to the red mixture and blend together.

Fill each baking cup about 1/3 of the way full with the red batter.

Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the red mixture.

Spoon a small blob of red mixture in the center of all the cupcakes. It should look like a bullseye (or, in other words, like the Target logo. Mmm, Target.)

Bake 20-23 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (I went exactly 20). Cool on a wire rack.

Repeat as necessary until you’ve used all your batter. (I ran out of the cream cheese part first, so I had one lonely all-red cupcake.)

Marvel at how pretty they are.

You’ll want to refrigerate these when not “in use” because of the cream cheese, much like everything else we’ve made this month. Oh, cream cheese filling. I wish I could quit you.

THE VERDICT

Theirs:

[via]

Mine:

These were quite lovely and not too terrible to eat, either. They’re not very sweet, so heads up there.

The original site claims that they don’t need frosting, but given the lack of sweetness, I kind of want to add some cream cheese frosting to these.Thoughts?

Can regular people actually make this? Is it easy?  These are astoundingly easy for how pretty they look. If you can mix together ingredients and feel confident in your ability to make muffins or cupcakes, you are golden.

Did it require any weird gadgetry or cookware? You’ll need a muffin tin and baking cups/liners, otherwise… just the usual suspects. Bowls, things to measure with, a mixer, etc. (See? I told you it was easy!)

How much did the ingredients cost?  I’ve misplaced my receipt but I think the only things I had to buy were a block of cream cheese and (another) container of red food coloring. Honestly, I’ve bought more of those two items in the last month than probably the rest of my life combined. I think I might have finally run out of cocoa powder this time around too. Otherwise, I think I had everything on hand.

Does it taste as good as it looks? Does it only look good because it was so well photographed? As I mentioned earlier, these aren’t very sweet, but that’s the only complaint I have about these. (I like my cupcakes to be sweet… sue me.) Again, I think that could be easily remedied with some cream cheese frosting, which I didn’t have a chance to acquire and try, but I suspect it would be worth a shot.

Final recommendation: Easy peasy pretty cupcakes… what’s not to love? I give this one a thumbs up.

Born, raised, and currently living in one of those states in the middle that nobody can locate on a map, Kelly has been writing some nonsense or another since she was old enough to string words together. A recovering perfectionist and an unapologetic daydreamer, she spends her free time browsing the Internet with more tabs open than any one person should be able to navigate, getting irrationally angry about misplaced apostrophes, and using her degree in graphic design to awkwardly Photoshop her face onto various other images. She speaks fluent sarcasm and is working on mastering the art of verbal flailing. She also loves to take pictures – both of the artistic variety and the “that’s going on facebook, isn’t it?” variety. She carries a camera everywhere she goes and is always looking at the world through the eye of a lens. She’s also that one person in the group who always insists on a photo op – you’ll thank her later. She has a ridiculous addiction to ice cream, Diet Mountain Dew, anything pumpkin-flavored, and Target.

Kelly L

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Tagged as: Cook It Yourself (CIY), cream cheese, cupcakes, red velvet, red velvet cupcakes