Red Velvet Cupcakes

It’s true confession time.

You remember True Confessions, the magazine everyone read but no one talked about because it was so juicy. Kind of like Mad Men in print, if you get my drift. I’d go to Don’s Cee Bee Store, properly disguised in big dark glasses and a trench coat, and lurk around the magazine stand til everyone that could possibly recognize me would be otherwise engaged . Of course the fact that there is an extremely strong gene pool floating around in my family that automatically makes us look exactly like one parent or the other was the last thing on my mind when I was 13. I would grab the magazine, peanut M&Ms and a can of Vienna sausage (my cover being that I was shopping for my mother) and head towards the check out lane.

From behind someone would trill…. “Oh Mary Coleman how are you darlin? Saw your mama and daddy last night …had the best time. Please tell them hello. Isn’t it a bit warm for a trench coat..it’s 98 degrees in the shade.”

Curses, foiled again.

So, there, now that the nut job that I was at 13 has been revealed, I must confess another secret.

I am a cake batter fanatic. I really don’t care much for the cake after it’s baked, but give me a bowl of batter and I’m a happy camper.

Maybe a few cakes haven’t turned out as well as they could have due to my sneaky batter snacking habit. I like to say I don’t bake and I truly don’t very often, but when I do, my habit takes over.

That’s not so easy with these divine cupcakes adapted from Pinch My Salt‘s Red Velvet Cake aka Waldorf Astoria Cake. A wondrous chocolate batter whose color can only be described as, well, RED.


Tell tale signs show up every where. Vent hood, refrigerator door, the cat’s tail. I’m still trying to figure that one out, but it might have been when I turned on the Kitchen Aid and didn’t realize it was on high speed, but I haven’t completely accepted that concept.

If you have an all white kitchen, you may want to save this for right before you remodel. I’m just saying.

Most importantly, if you are a card carrying member of the SBS Society*, keep an eye on your face.

You may be having a manicure one day and all of a sudden you hear..” Oh Mary Coleman, how in the world are you? Listen, I want to make your chicken salad and I can’t remember …honey what’s that on your chin, I don’t mean to pry, but it looks like, well I don’t know exactly what it looks like, but it certainly red.”



Red Velvet Cupcakes
adapted from Pinch of Salt

2-½ cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz red food coloring (2 bottles)
1 stick butter, room temp
2 eggs room temp
1-½ cups vanilla sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 . Prep spray muffin tin with Pam and then put muffin cups in. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, salt in medium bowl. In small bowl mix red food coloring and cocoa to make a paste. Without lumps and set aside.
In large bowl with hand mixer or stand mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and add the cocoa paste and vanilla. Then add about a third of the flour mix, then a third of the buttermilk and continue til mixed together. It has now become a lovely shade of FIRE ENGINE RED. Mix the vinegar and baking soda, it will fizz up and pour into batter. Stir til blended and pour the batter into the muffin cups, about 2/3rds full.

Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes then put on rack and let completely cool before you frost them.

Makes 16 cup cakes or one two layer cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
16 ounces cream cheese at room temp
1 stick unsalted butter at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-½ cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt

Blend together cream cheese and butter with electric mixer until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Add the confectioner’s sugar with mixer on low speed and beat til fluffy.
Frost immediately.



*Sneaky Batter Snacking Society

Click here for a printable recipe!


One Year Ago on Feeding Groom

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Seriously Chocolate Cupcakes

There are times that call for serious chocolate.

Birthdays, engagements, funerals, Mondays, 4:00 in the afternoon.
The need for serious chocolate must be addressed.

How to address it?

Well, you could go to the grocery store and get some dark chocolate M&Ms and eat them immediately in the car on the way home from the store, that might solve your problem.

You could buy something decadent in the freezer section..gelato or some Ben and Jerry’s.

Or you could make these cupcakes.

I’ll take door number three, Monty.

I was looking for something to do for my mother’s birthday. Cupcakes are all the rage right now and I thought that would be a good thing to do for dessert.

Easy, can be done ahead and seriously chocolate.

I found it.

Flourless. Excellent. More room for chocolate.

This makes a boatload of cupcakes. I made 12 in the muffin tin and poured the rest in a heart shaped silicone pan and made one big heart shaped “cupcake” for the birthday girl.

Who loves you, Nanny!!!!

Seriously Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from a Michael Chiarello recipe for Molten Chocolate Cupcakes


8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
One good grind of black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon gray salt


Preheat the oven to 300.

Line the cupcake pan with paper liners and spray the liners with vegetable spray. Break up the chocolate and put it into a bowl.

Combine the butter and cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. When the cream mixture comes to a simmer, pour it over the chocolate and stir gently to melt the chocolate.In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, mayonnaise, cornstarch, cinnamon, black pepper and salt just until the sugar has dissolved.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and gently mix just until combined. (Mixing too much will prevent the eggs from rising in the oven.) Scoop about 1/4 cup of the batter into each mold, it should come about 3/4 of the way up the sides.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar.

Makes 12 cupcakes and 1- 8 inch heart shaped cake or probably 24 cupcakes.

Seriously Chocolate Cupcakes