Sweets for My Sweet

Success!

My Martha Stewart red velvet cupcakes were a hit at the office and home. The  majority of them were devoured at a Valentine's social on Thursday. I brought them in because I'd already planned to decorate a couple for my husband. Since the recipe yields 24, I'm glad the other 22 had somewhere to go.

Turns out that I wasn't the only one who thought it would be fitting to bake red velvet cupcakes for the social. I heard that others (others more proficient in the kitchen than me) had hoped to bake red velvet cupcakes. I just got to the sign-up sheet first.

So the pressure was on. If my cupcakes didn't turn out, there would be several disappointed coworkers in  my midst.

I hit the market to gather the ingredients that I'd need.

I didn't have:

cake flour
unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
red gel-paste food color
buttermilk
cream cheese (for the frosting)
confectioners' sugar (for the frosting)

Which had me questioning: What's wrong with all-purpose flour? And can I substitute Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder for the Dutch-process version? What's the difference? Can't I use the red liquid food color that I already have on hand? Need I go out and buy the gel-paste version? Why is this recipe so complicated?

Once I got started, I learned that the ingredients list wasn't a reflection of the recipe itself.

In fact, the recipe was straightforward. I followed it to a tee, with one exception:

I couldn't find gel-paste food color, so I bought gel-paste icing in the hopes that it would have the same effect. I added the 1/2 teaspoon of gel-paste icing at the designated time and soon found that it did not. The color of the batter remained brown (from the cocoa powder).

In a moment of panic, I rummaged through my pantry and pulled out my liquid food color collection. I don't know why, but I apparently own a BIG bottle of red liquid food color. I held my breath and poured a generous dollop of liquid color into the mixer. Voila. The batter quickly turned a bright red. A VERY bright red. I likely even added way too much color. But, hey, a little food color hasn't hurt anyone, right?

Besides that one hiccup, all turned out fine. My cupcakes were soon in the oven for 20 minutes.

Tired, I sat on the couch to rest while the cupcakes baked.

Big mistake.

It was hard to muster the energy to get back in the kitchen for Round 2: The frosting.

But I did. Martha' frosting recipe was simple, and oh so good. I coaxed the frosting into a freezer-sized resealable bag. Cut the corner and piped the cream cheese frosting on my cooled cupcakes.

Had a bite to taste my creation: a moist cupcake with a creamy, rich frosting. It melted in my mouth.

I then proclaimed Martha's red velvet cupcakes as my favorite recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Granted, I am still early in my journey to conquer the book. As you'll recall in my "Sunday Sweet Treats" post last September, I announced my intention to try my hand at 17 of Martha's cupcake recipes. In"A Labor Free Treat," I attempted Martha's Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes.

That's two down, 15 to go.