For Mother’s Day my mom wanted red velvet cupcakes.  I’ve tried ten million different recipes and they all end up being pretty dry.  I’ve added more oil and that helps, but then after about a day they taste…oily.  What to do?  What to do?

Although, I’m sure it would make my southern ancestors roll over in their graves, I’ve adopted a somewhat nontraditional red velvet recipe.  Thought I’d pass it along….

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 bottle (1 ounce) Red Food Color

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Here’s where I found the recipe.  I do, however, make a few changes.  I don’t usually use that much cocoa and I don’t think it’s necessary to use that much red food coloring.  The recipe comes with a cream cheese icing recipe, but I use the same one that I use for everything.

2 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

2 sticks of butter, softened  

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Cream the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time.

Ice those puppies and enjoy!  I personally think you could put this cream cheese icing on a turd and it would taste good, but that’s probably not the picture you want right before you go bake a cake so forget I said that:)