Red Velvet Cake

I have a hard time passing up an opportunity to make someone a birthday cake, especially when that someone is a friend I've known for almost ten years. And even better, that someone really really likes my baking.

People have very different reactions to red velvet cake. Every time I mention it to one of my friends, she immediately quotes Steel Magnolias "... people are gonna be hacking into this poor animal and it'll look like its bleeding to death!" which she can do surprisingly well. And though these cupcakes were not tiny armadillos with gray icing, they were pretty tasty. Others have an aversion to using large amounts of food coloring and use beet powder to tint the cake, and some just stick with no food coloring since a true red velvet is not actually red (it's an ugly brownish color from the cocoa powder in the recipe). I like a red cake myself piled high with cream cheese frosting, but tend to alternate with regular buttercream depending on who I'm baking for. Both are delicious accompaniments to this lovely cake. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.