Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe
You can decorate them with little pink and white hearts, sprinkles, or anything else your heart desires.
Red Velvet Cupcakes are rich chocolate cupcakes. They are called red velvet due to their distinctive rich red color. Originally, cocoa used to be a lighter shade and what gave red velvet cupcakes their unique color was a chemical reaction of unprocessed cocoa with the acid in the buttermilk.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps and set aside.

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping the bowl occasionally with a spatula. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

In a small deep bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter until they are a little under 3/4 full. I ended up with 20 cupcakes. Place muffin tins in your preheated oven. Bake for allotted time, rotating pans halfway through. The cupcakes are done when you are able to pat the tops and the cake springs back up. If it sinks down the cupcakes are not yet complete.

Cool the Red Velvet cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.