cami's cupcakes: Velveteen Vampire- Red Velvet Cupcake

Well here it is... Just a couple hours left of Halloween night and I am finally posting my last Ominous October cami's cupcake!

"Velveteen Vampire"... Now I may be slightly just a little biased, but these are my absolute favorite from Ominous October cami's cupcakes! I wanted to save the best for last... but then I ended up having to make them tonight! On Halloween!

So... since I didn't have a lot of time tonight... and since my personal favorite red velvet cupcake that I've ever had comes from this... yes, I made this batch of velveteens from a... wait for it... Box Mix... GHASP!!! (oh no she didn't!) yes... I did...

Now, I don't know what it is... or why this particular red velvet mix is my weakness (seriously I love them)... and I have yet to find a homemade red velvet recipe that tastes like these!

It's the Duncann Hines red velvet

and I LOVE IT!

Now before you go boycotting my blog forever (for those of you that actually read it... cough cough).. I DO know how to make a pretty dang good homemade red velvet... But for some reason, my store bought heart tends to flitter on back to these good ole duncann hines bites of ruby red goodness... mmmm..

My favorite red velvet recipe that I have right now (yes... and I mean not from a box kind of recipe). is adapted from Dollhouse Bake Shoppe These make pretty dang good red velvets (for me though, they are a little TOO fluffy- if that's even possible! Please don't shun me for saying that-- I already know I'm crazy!)

Want to see the recipe? here it is!

This is one for a very small batch- about 8 regular or 24 minis...

Ingredients

3/4 c plus 1 1/2 Tbs cake flour

1/2 c. reg. white sugar

2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 Tbs unsalted butter, room temp

2 Tbs plus 1 tsp vegetable oil

1/3 c. buttermilk

1 large egg, room temp

2 tsp red food coloring

1//2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar (I learned this trick from DC cupcakes!- watch it on Netflix- it cracks me up!)

Directions

(now forgive me if I skip a few things that are self explanatory--- I'm dreading writing these directions because they take a while and I'm waiting to watch Modern Family... but here goes! If you need extra help the dollhouse bake shoppe--link above-- put pictures with her directions so it's super easy to follow).

1. Sift dry ingredients together- make sure there are no lumps

2. In electric mixer beat oil and butter until it resembles moist looking crumbs

3. In a glass measuring bowl whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and food coloring.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients (alternating) in small increments and beat until smooth. Scrape sides of bowl throughout.

5. (Science experiment time!!-- you ready for this... duh nuh nuh!) In a small bowl combine the vinegar and baking soda ... It's going to FIZZ! (woohoo you did it right!)

6. Gently fold the science experiment into the mixed batter.

7. Distribute to muffin tins (do this IMMEDIATELY! So you don't loose the fluffiness that came from the science experiment part of the recipe!)

8. Bake @ 350 for 16-20 min for bigs and 8-10 min for minis. Then cool on wire rack.

Whew!

Now I know after all this learning you are getting hungry.. so here's another picture and more about what makes "Velveteen Vampire" by cami's cupcakes special!

For these cupcakes (you can't really see it in the picture though)... I took a little bit of the batter and put black food color in it... Then when I was filling the muffin tins I put a little bit of the black batter in with the red and swirled it around with a toothpick...

That made for a super fun effect! and I thought make them look more Vampire-y!

For the "blood" I mixed red food coloring, powdered sugar, and water (kind of like a sugar cookie icing) and drizzled some on.

To finish these bad boys off I sprinkled some fun red sugar sprinkles!

Oh and did I mention... the vampire teeth GLOW! (yup... that's what's up fools!)