Red Velvet Cupcakes

My Niece is getting married in September.  She asked me to make her wedding cake.  I am by no means a professional but what she is wanting seems like something I can accomplish.  She wants Red Velvet Cake.  Personally I don't think Red Velvet has a lot of flavor but after researching several recipes I learned that it is basically a chocolate base with red coloring.  I have 2 recipes I want to try to see which one I like the most.  One is my Chocolate Cake recipe which I plan to add red food coloring to.  The other is this recipe.  I clipped it some time ago when I researched Red Velvet for another event.  I never made it so I wanted to give it a try.  My daughter needed cupcakes for the concession stand at the school basketball game tomorrow night and I figured it was a great time to test this Red Velvet recipe.  I do not know where it came from and I am unable to give proper credit.  If it is yours I will gladly credit you in this post.  This is not my recipe.....but let's just say that when my oldest daughter tasted this tonight she said "I don't care what the other cake tastes like.  I will be eating several pieces of this cake at the wedding"  So here we go.....

 

Red Velvet Cake

1 pkg (18.25 oz) German Chocolate Cake Mix

1 pkg (3.4oz) Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix

1 C. Sour Cream

1/2 C. Water

1/2 C. Vegetable Oil

1 (1 oz) bottle Red Food Coloring

3 Large Eggs

 

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix it all together. 

It's pretty easy!

I made cupcakes so I baked this at 350* for 20 minutes.  A cake will take longer but I don't have the exact time since I didn't make cake!

 

Going into the oven.....

 

 

Coming out of the oven......

 

 

I have been wanting to try the new Cool Whip Frosting. 

 I even had a coupon....

OK....I forgot to give the cashier the coupon....

 

 

And here they are...all frosted with a dusting of cocoa powder!

 

 

Yes, they are a little fancy for a school basketball game...

but we eat first with our eyes, right?

 



Good Enough

 

There are days when all I can do is open a can of Manwich, brown some ground beef and cook some frozen french fries.  Is this wrong?  Definitely not.  I find that I compare my cooking to all these other blogs out there wanting to do the next big thing, the greatest invention in cooking.  It's just not fun to me to compete.  Seriously...do these people cook like that every night?  And how can they afford to do that?  Sometimes simple is better.  And dinner from a freezer some nights is just good enough.  As I enter into this second year on my blog I will think less of trying to impress and just post what I do every day.  Sometimes I will make unlikely substitutions....For example today.  I think for dinner I will make Beef Enchiladas but I am running low on tortillas and have no plans to go to the store today so I think I will turn it into an Enchilada Lasagna.  I have plenty of noodles and I will just use them in place of the tortillas.  Think outside of the box...if you don't have all the ingredients to make a recipe then use what you have to adapt it.  Cooking is supposed to be fun!