Blue Velvet Cupcakes

December 27, 2012 // By : amybites // Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

There’s still time to enter the giveaway for the Best of AmyBites 2012 Cookbook and a $50 Williams-Sonoma gift card! You have until January 1st to leave a comment, like the brand new AmyBites Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or tweet about the giveaway for multiple entries. Good luck!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and hopefully some time off of work! I’m enjoying a glorious week-long stay at my parents’ house, and we had a lovely Christmas and a too-short visit from my sister and brother-in-law. Though the big day and feast is sadly over, if you’re hosting a New Year’s get-together, I’m sure you’re already planning ahead for next week. I’m here to provide some inspiration!

You may have noticed these little cuties on the cover of my cookbook in the last post. I actually made these for my sister’s bachelorette party this past spring, but I thought they’d be just perfect for a New Year’s Eve party! With the blue, white, and silver—not to mention the glitzy silver sprinkles—aren’t they just begging to be snacked on while waiting for the ball to drop?

These little cupcakes are actually just my very favorite red velvet cake recipe with cream cheese frosting, which for some reason I’ve never gotten around to posting on this blog. Obviously, I’ve used blue food dye instead of red to get this beautiful, rich blue color. The cake itself is light, moist, and fluffy, with that subtle red velvet cocoa flavor that’s an absolute must. The cream cheese frosting is perfectly smooth and tangy, and not too tooth-achingly sweet. There’s a reason this is my absolute favorite, go-to red blue velvet cake recipe!

To make these bite-size beauties extra festive, I simply baked them in mini silver foil muffin cups (like these) and topped them with silver sanding sugar sprinkles. (I used the ones in this set.) These little bites of blue-velvety-cream-cheese heaven may make your tongue blue, but they’ll make your tastebuds happy as you ring in 2013. Enjoy!

Blue Velvet Mini-Cupcakes

Adapted from Emeril Lagasse
Yields about 4 dozen mini-cupcakes

FOR THE CAKE

  • 2½ cups sifted cake flour
  • 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 ounces blue food coloring or color of choice*
  • 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

  • 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 pound confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR ASSEMBLY

  • Silver foil mini-cupcake paper liners or paper liners of choice
  • Pastry bag fitted with round or decorative tip
  • Silver sanding sugar sprinkles, optional
  1. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350. F. Prepare four mini-cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Beat in eggs one at a time. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk. Beat in food coloring and vinegar, then add vanilla. Using a Tablespoon or small cookie scoop, distribute batter among all mini-cupcake cups. Bake for 15 to 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  2. For the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the cream cheese and butter. Beat in confectioners’ sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
  3. To assemble: Fill a pastry bag, fitted with a round or decorative tip, with the frosting. Pipe about two Tablespoons’ worth of frosting onto each mini-cupcake. Top with silver sanding sugar sprinkles or other decoration if desired.

*Note: Depending on the darkness of your cocoa powder and the kind of food coloring you use, you may need more or less than the 2 ounces I’ve indicated here to achieve a rich, blue color.