Red Velvet Cupcakes - Fourth of July Fun!

One of the summer interns in my office makes great baked goods and today was no exception! She made us wonderful red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and blue sprinkles and I just had to share with you. If you are looking for a sweet treat to take with you to a Fourth of July Party or you just want to have some fun with your kids give this recipe from food network a try.



Red Velvet Cupcakes: 24 Cupcakes

Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil **
1 cup buttermilk - room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:
1 pound cream cheese - softened **
2 sticks butter - softened **
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners sugar **

(** - see the points calculations for some possible substitutions to lower point values!)

To make the cakes sift all of the dry ingredients together in one bowl and in another bowl mix all of the liquid ingredients. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, mix completely until the mix is nice and smooth. Pre-heat your oven to 350°, put 24 cupcake liners in your cupcake tin and fill to 2/3 full. Once the oven is heated up place the cupcakes in and bake for 20-22 minutes, half way through the cooking process rotate your pans 180 degrees so your cupcakes cook evenly.

While your cupcakes are cooking you can make the icing (my favorite part!). With a mixer beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until nice and smooth, slowly add the sugar and incorporate it into the wet mix, turn the speed up to high and beat until nice and fluffy.

Once the cupcakes have finished cooking and have cooled off then spread the icing on top, if you want to get really fancy you can put the icing into a bag, snip the end off and pipe onto the cupcakes.

Now to make Fourth of July Special Cupcakes add some blue sprinkles to the top and enjoy!

Happy Fourth Everyone!

- Jillian's Kitchen

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WW: 12 Points Plus / cupcake **

** Note, the points above are for the recipe as is....I would suggest trying the following to reduce points: swap 1.5C of applesauce for the vegetable oil, and change the icing to 8oz of 1/3 less fat cream cheese and 2C of confectioner's sugar with a teaspoon of vanilla - yes you read that right....no butter and halving the rest of the ingredients! This will reduce the points to: 4 points per cupcake - I haven't tried this as I just had the real thing today, I will have to give it a shot though!