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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Recipe: Blue Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting




This year, my daughter decided she didn't want pink cupcakes to celebrate her birthday with her classmates.  She wanted blue and white (our school colors) cupcakes to celebrate our varsity girl volleyball team that went to the state championship and come home ranked third in our great big state of Texas.  Go Lady Cougars! 

Well, I aim to please my baby girl but I had planned on making white cupcakes with pretty pink frosting.  I turned to the internet in search of blue velvet cupcakes and found several recipes.  A couple of recipes I found weren't exactly blue but a shade of green with a blue tint.   I came across a couple more that were very vibrant and a beautiful shade of blue, but I didn't have the right food coloring gel to make those cupcakes.  I also couldn't just run right out and pick up the needed colors because I am 45 minutes away from the nearest big store and my little country grocery store doesn't carry things like food coloring gel.  So, I searched through the gels that I had and this is what I came up with.  They were a deep dark blue which was perfect for our team color and thank goodness not a shade of green in them.  Best of all my daughter loved them! 

These really aren't traditional blue velvet cupcakes because I used a box cake mix and added coloring.  A traditional velvet cake is made from scratch with buttermilk.  At some point, I would like to make a traditional velvet cake, be it red, blue or green, but for now I am completely happy with the results I achieved with my shortcut.

Enjoy!


Blue Velvet Cupcakes with 
  Cream Cheese Frosting
(recipe by Wende Rickett/The Rickett Chronicles)

Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 box white cake mix with ingredients as listed on the box
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp cornflower blue food coloring gel
15 drops of blue food coloring (the liquid kind you dye your Easter eggs with)
1 smidgen of red food coloring gel

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin pans with liners.  In a large bowl, following the cake mix instructions, add ingredients for cake and mix.  In a small bowl, add cocoa powder and food colorings, mixing to make a paste.  Add paste to cake mix bowl and mix until very well blended.  Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners filling about 2/3 of the way up.  Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until done.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, depending on the consistency you need
1 to 2 tbsp half and half (or milk), if needed

Directions
Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until well mixed and smooth.  Add a pinch of salt and mix.  Add two cups powdered sugar to cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth and incorporated.  Add one cup of the remaining powdered sugar at a time until the desired consistency is achieved.  If it gets to thick, you can add a little half and half to thin it out a bit.  Put frosting in a bag and pipe onto cupcakes.




Linked To:
*Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker: Your Recipe, My Kitchen
*Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms: Melt in you Mouth Monday
*Boogieboard Cottage: Masterpiece Monday
*11th Heaven's Homemaker Haven: Homemaker Monday
*Talking Dollar and Cents: Muffin Monday 
*DIY Home Sweet Home: More the Merrier Monday
*Delightfully Dowling: Mangia Monday
*A Southern Fairytale: Mouthwatering Monday 
*Marvelously Messy: Marvelous Mess 
*Sumo's Sweet Stuff: Market Yourself Monday
*The Girl Creative: Just Something I Whipped Up
*Skip to My Lou: Made by you Monday
*Project Queen: Turing the Daunting Into the Doable
*Blessed with Grace: Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
*All the Small Stuff: Tuesdays at the Table
*Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday
*33 Shades of Green: Tasty Tuesdays 
*Chef in Training: Tuesday Talent Show
*Permanent Posies: Tuesday Tasty Tidbits 
*Reasons To Skip the Housework: Tuesday Timeout 
*My Sweet and Savory: Let's Do Brunch 
*Bizzy Bakes: Bake with Bizzy  
*Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
*This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked 
*Stuff and Nonsense: Friday's Unfolded 
*Designs by Gollum: Foodie Friday 
*Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday
*Talking Dollar and Cents: Sweet Tempations 
*Somewhat Simple: Strut Your Stuff
*What Allie's Making Now: Making It With Allie
*A Glimpse Inside: Catch a Glimpse 
*A Creative Princess: It's a Party!
*Ali n'Son: Sweet Tooth Friday
*Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hippo: Anything Goes
*EKat's Kitchen: Friday Potluck  
*Six Sisters' Stuff: Strut Your Stuff Saturday
*Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday 
*Be Different, Act Normal: Show and Tell Saturday 
*Nifty Thrifty Things: Nifty Thrifty Sunday 
*A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgence 
*LambAround: Not Baad Sunday 
*J&M's Eye Candy: Strut Your Stuff 
*Petite Hermine: Sunday Linky Party 
 
   

 

14 comments:

  1. I have never heard of blue velvet. After all your effort, it looks like it turned out fabulously!! How fun!

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  2. Great idea to go with the school colors! They look incredible! Thanks so much for linking them up at Muffin Monday!

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  3. Such a pretty color! They look great!

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  4. HOW AWESOME! They came out perfect! I'm sure your daughter was tickled pink...errr...blue! ;)

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  5. What a wonderful idea!
    Beautiful and definitely unique

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  6. How clever and how pretty with the blue sprinkles. We've made red velvet and green velvet but never blue . . . and I was thinking that blue velvet would be a great Christmas cake or cupcake!

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  7. Wende, what a great idea and a great recipe. Those cupcakes look so yummy! Hope you are having a great holiday week end. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope you will come back soon!
    Miz Helen

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  8. Those cupcakes are gorgeous!! Thanks so much for bringing them by Friday Potluck this week! :)

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  9. blue velvet...how awesome! Thx for linking to Tea Party Tuesday.

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  10. This is such a pleasant surprise. I always thought that blue cake would not be pretty but it is more than pretty. This is a fabulous idea. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  11. These are wonderful! I love blue, but I had no idea there was such a thing as Blue velvet cupcakes. I like how you have decorated these too - they look just lovely. Thank you for sharing them with Let's Do Brunch.

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  12. These cupcakes look awesome, I like your shade of blue

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