Week 40, November 3, 2014 ~ Red Velvet Rocky Road

For this cupcake I put my own spin on a classic flavor--Rocky Road! using red velvet instead of the typical chocolate. I thought rocky road would of been a more typical cupcake flavor but when I was on Pinterest (like always) trying to see what other people have done with this flavor there was not much there. So anyways this is a red velvet cupcake with walnuts and a marshmallow cream cheese frosting, since cream cheese frosting is classically paired with red velvet cake. I then topped the cupcakes with some walnuts--though I only did that because I leave the cupcakes at work and the topping usually acts as an identifier so I don't kill anyone, because that would be bad! 

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes

For the red velvet cupcake:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1 large eggs, room temperature
• 1-2 T red food coloring (or any color I actually made mine more of a pink)--less if using gel gel food coloring 
• 1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. 
2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. 
3. In a large bowl gently beat the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the went and mix until smooth.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake papers, about 2/3 full.
6. Bake in oven 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once halfway through.
7. Let cool before filling and frosting

For the Marshmallow Cream Cheese Buttercream:

1/2 (4-ounce) package cream cheese

1/2 stick un salted butter, softened

1 cups mini marshmallows, melted

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1. Blend cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add melted marshmallows and sugar and blend for 2-3 minutes. Pipe and decorate how you want!