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)

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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.

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