Red Velvet Cupcakes for Megan's Birthday!

My wonderful cousin, Megan, just turned 25 and she had a big shared celebration with her friend Rich. To help her celebrate I made 75 red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and different toppings. It was a little strange showing up at a club with two massive trays of cupcakes but I quickly learned that if I gave a couple of cupcakes to the bouncers I would get in smoothly without any lines or having to show my ID. I made a combination of a few different recipes. Here is a picture of the beautiful birthday girl (in the center) and her friend Rich (on the right).

                                           

And here is a picture of my kitchen amidst all the chaos:

                              

Red Velvet Cupcakes for Megan's Birthday

(For the purpose of this post I have downsized the recipe to make 50 cupcakes since you probably won't need 75 cupcakes anytime soon...) Adapted from Paula Deen's recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

2 3/4 cups cake flour

3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup canola oil

1 cup butter, melted

3 cups buttermilk

4 large eggs

3 tablespoons red food coloring

2 teaspoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper with cupcake papers.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the flour, cake flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa and baking powder. In a large bowl whisk together the oil, butter, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well until combined.

3. Divide the batter among the cupcake papers about 2/3 of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes.