Kids Cooking Thursday: Red Velvet Cupcakes

I've always wanted to try Red Velvet Cake. It's not something people make over here, in fact, I'd never even heard of it until I started blogging. So when I was sifting through recipes, looking for a use for some leftover buttermilk (stay tuned for that recipe coming soon!) I Googled my way across this cupcake recipe, and thought we'd give it a try. Miss Three loved helping sift the flour and 'mixing' spilled flour and food dye on the tabletop while I used the hand mixer. This Sunday is Father's Day here in Australia, so these are going to my parents house with us to feed the hordes.
Since this post is prepared in advance (like the cupcakes) I only have an unfrosted picture, since I didn't want to get frozen icing stuck all over the bottom of the cupcakes that are in the top layer of my container. (Except the three 'iced' with molten chocolate, leftover from coating the last of last week's truffles. Those three got eaten, not frozen)

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
30ml red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp bi-carb (baking soda)
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180C. Line 15 muffin tins with patty cases.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food colouring and vanilla.
Stir in the bi-carb and vinegar. (Master Five was very excited to see the bubbles where the vinegar landed on the bi-carb)
Combine the flour, cocoa and salt, stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
Bake until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. (I totally forgot to leave them in the pans. None collapsed.) Ice when cooled.

I haven't included an icing recipe, partly because I think Americans have some sort of traditional cream cheese icing for this cake, but DP dislikes cream cheese, and partly because I chose to use Betty Crocker's Ready to Spread Deluxe Vanilla Frosting. So sue me. I wanted to see if it was as good as the Chocolate one. (It's not). That stuff... *drools* you can stick it in the freezer and then eat it in it's semi solid frozen state as the best, most coma inducing ice cream ever. Seriously.
I had to restrain myself from getting a tub of the Chocolate to do just that.

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