Red Velvet Cupcakes

Some facts about red velvet cake:

• It is thought to be a Southern food. However, during the 1920's, it was a signature dessert at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. There was a popular urban legend/chain letter about a woman who asked for the recipe and was billed a large amount, similar to the Neiman Marcus cookie urban legend.
• Although most recipes call for red food coloring, the red color is supposed to come from the chemical reaction of vinegar and buttermilk in the recipe.
• You can also use beets to dye it red.
• Wikipedia credits its resurgence in popularity in recent years to it being featured in the movie Steel Magnolias, where it is the flavor of the groom's cake, which is shaped like an armadillo.

I have made red velvet cupcakes and red velvet homemade Oreos using a mix many times. In fact, I made red velvet cupcakes later that week with my friend Hannah for our ward Halloween party. However, this was my first opportunity to make it from scratch. The occasion? My friend Kim defended her dissertation the Wednesday before Halloween, and red velvet cupcakes are her favorite.

Here is a picture of me, Kim (on the left) and Martha, at a wedding in San Antonio.

Here's the recipe. It's pretty darn good. I made it with cream cheese frosting, even though Wikipedia says it is traditionally frosted with a butter roux or "flour frosting". I can't imagine how that could be good.

Some thoughts about this recipe:

• It uses a lot of red food coloring.
• The cupcakes are not as red as the ones you make from a mix.
• Think about those two. Disturbing, isn't it?
• Despite the cupcakes being more maroon than red, they were a hit. This may have something to do with the fact that Kim is a diehard Virginia Tech fan, and maroon happens to be one of their colors.
• Their other color is orange. I had a lot of orange sprinkles that I bought for Halloween.
• Its kind of weird to make someone cupcakes and decorate them in the colors of one university when you are celebrating their graduation from another university.
• Texas Tech's colors are red and black.
• I also have black sprinkles.

Speaking of sprinkles, when Hannah and I made cupcakes that week, I brought over all of the sprinkles I have collected. There were a lot. I am starting to think that, perhaps, my friends need to stage an intervention. Now that Kim is officially a doctor, maybe she'll intervene on my behalf.