Friday, February 13, 2015

Nothing Says "I Love You" Like Red Velvet | Valentine's Cupcakes

Red velvet


About a week ago I started thinking about Valentine's Day, planning how things would play out for us. Before we had Klair, we always made a rather romantic date night of the holiday, showering each other with gifts and surprises.  In fact I remember one year Sam surprised me with the most romantic night of dining and ballroom dancing... it was basically perfect. When Klair came along, it became apparent rather quickly that the actual holiday would not longer be conducive to a date night. Because let's be honest, who is going to babysit on Valentine's Day? Everyone has plans. Even people without a significant other make an effort to go out. But, being the holiday loving folk that we are, we can't go without celebrating and have resorted to choosing another night for a nice little getaway. This year we are going out the day before for some much needed alone time.

That still leaves us with what to do on Valentine's Day. I wanted to try and make it special... and then I realized that love is more than just romantic evenings with my husband. I suddenly decided that I wanted to share some love, so to speak, with people in our lives who we love. After discussing it Sam and I decided it would be a great opportunity to visit with and surprise our grandparents--Klair's great grandparents. Life gets so busy and we aren't always the best at reaching out and keeping in touch with them all, but they definitely mean a lot to us... and this is an opportunity to let them know and bring a smile to their faces! We hope to make this a yearly tradition.
Red VElvet 2
Klair and I spent yesterday afternoon making these little beauties. She has become quite the little helper around the kitchen. She even mimics the silly little phrases I repeatedly (and until now unknowlingly) utter such as "Okay!" and "Next..." She makes me laugh!... at myself :)

Once I told her my plan she became extremely excited about the prospect of gifting her precious creations to her grandmas and papas... as long as she got to eat some too, naturally. 

For the cupcakes I used my go-to, always effective trick that I learned from a baker. If you are strapped for time but want amazing results, simply take a box of cake mix (in this case red velvet of course) and add 1 package of pudding (I chose vanilla). Then, replace half of the required water with buttermilk and you will have delicious cupcakes that no one will be able to resist.
Red Velvet 3
To make the cream cheese frosting I took from a recipe that my sister and I used on some amazing cinnamon rolls we made recently. I also added a single drop of red food coloring to the frosting to give it the festive light pink hue.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
  • 6 oz Cream Cheese
  • 1/2 Cup Butter
  • 3 Cups Confectioner's (powdered) Sugar
  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4 Teaspoon Salt (omit if you are using salted butter and salt to taste if desired)
The combo of the red velvet and cream cheese frosting is to die for! Seriously, melt in your mouth goodness. My husband told me they were irresistible and was upset (like I actually sensed a bit of anger) that Klair and I didn't make more for him. I can't wait to watch Klair prance around, going to her different grandparents' houses delivering goodies like a cute little Valentine's elf of sorts. I'm sure it will brighten their holiday, and I know it will brighten mine.

5 comments:

  1. I absolutely love red velvet cupcakes. Think I will definitely make some of these tomorrow!
    Reinventing Neesha ♥

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    1. You'll have to let me know how they turned out! <3

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  2. Omg! They look fantastic dear!! Love cupcakes!! :) Your blog is wonderful!! Im following you on gfc , bloglovin , facebook and pinterest! Hope you can visit mine and follow me as well!! kisses!

    www.fashionizein.com

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It's always nice to meet other bloggers! I'll be sure to check yours out too.

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  3. Thanks so much Diana! I appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to comment! <3

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