Red Velvet Cupcakes

At work, every Thursday is "Throwdown Thursday" or "Challenge Thursday". We all like to lay down challenges for our co-workers, like "if you make $200, I'll buy you shoes" or "if I make more money than you, I get to pie you in the face." Yeah, it's pretty random. So my challenge was for a group of people; whoever made the most money that day would get to pick the next thing I bake. The winner chose red velvet cupcakes. They're definitely not my favorite, but it turns out a lot of people really like them. My mother almost fainted when I told her what I was making. I guess it's her favorite.

I'll be honest. I went to Duncan Hines route on this one. I had just come back from the dentist, and then I had to buy yarn and make scarves, and I just didn't feel like buying cocoa and red food coloring just to use a little bit.

Obviously these cupcakes needed to have filling (duh), so I used this recipe for the filling. Cream cheese, sugar, and egg. Simple and delicious. The filling lasted for 36 cupcakes, and I was only expecting to last for 24.

This is the type of filling that sinks into the cupcake as it bakes. When I took them out of the oven, I couldn't see the filling at all. At first, I thought I was losing my mom.

I had my mom try one for me just to make sure they were ok. She said "do they all have a surprise inside?" That's how I knew the filling worked. Also because I cut one in half to see.

Cream cheese frosting. It took about 1.25 containers to frost all 48 cupcakes.

When I ran out of cream cheese filling, I used the other filling method. I cut a cone from the top of each cupcake and filled the space with cream cheese frosting. My mom had one of each, and she said the kind with frosting in the middle was better.

It kinda looks like I decorated them with some red sprinkles or something, but that's really just crumbs.

I think my next project will be cinnamon rolls. I guess that means I'll be buying self-rising flour.