Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes

Today I wanted to try this recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes because:

1. They looked good.

2. Anything with cheesecake is worth trying.

I got this recipe from Anna over at Cookie Madness. She has all kinds of great recipes but I especially like reading about her daily trials and tribulations as a baking mother. Another great feature on her site is that she successfully scales down the recipes so you haven’t made 15 dozen of something you only wanted to try. I don’t know about her but my neighbors have started to avoid me because I am always taking over different samples asking for their opinion.

Anna’s recipe is quite easy to assemble, in fact it didn’t even require the mixer. Before I go any further, you should know that I’ve only made red velvet cake once before, and had previously purchased one from a mass production “cupcake boutique” here in town. That leads me to another tangent – I don’t understand the current obsession with these stores, that charge $3.25 for a cupcake that has no flavor, was made with a powdered mix and preservatives, and has a shelf life of 2 weeks? I know, I know, most people don’t bake like I do and not everyone has the desire or the time to do it. But to spend $39 on a dozen cupcakes!!??!! Yikes!

In the meantime, the cupcakes were easy to make, and I managed to measure the red color without spilling it onto my white Michael Stars shirt. Of course, my hands look like I got into a wrestling match with a red marker and lost. For their first appearance, here are the cupcakes:

They look great, don’t they? Since the children are in school, I pawned one off on David. His words? “Fantastic”! His only comment was the filling wasn’t “cheesecakey” enough. Huh? I actually doubled the cheesecake filling to cupcake ratio to have extra of the good stuff.

The final verdict? I don’t get the “red velvet” thing – as my friend Leslie says, “Red is not a flavor!”. I would still make these again, though, they were pretty and tasty and had the cheesecake filling as a bonus!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cups - Cookie Madness
Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ tablespoons lightly beaten egg (break egg, mix with fork, measure)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Batter:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoon all purpose flour (5 oz)
2 teaspoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon red food coloring
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 muffin cups with paper liners.
Prepare filling first. With a mixing spoon, beat together softened cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and stir until smooth. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
In a second mixing bowl, stir together oil, sugar, vinegar, egg, red food coloring, vanilla and sour cream. Mix very well, then add flour mixture and stir just until blended.
Measure out approximately 1/3 cup red mixture and set aside. Divide remaining red mixture among the 8 muffin cups – each cup should be a little over 1/3 of the way full. Spoon cream cheese mixture over red mixture, dividing evenly between all cups. Drop small spoonfuls of reserved red batter on top of cream cheese mixture, making a bulls-eye pattern.
Bake for 20-23 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Carefully lift muffins from cups.
Best serve slightly chilled. – Makes 8