Red Velvet Cupcakes

I know, Red Velvet is more of a Valentines Day thing. But the thing with red velvet is that I've been trying to get them right for ages now. And when I say ages I mean I've tested so many recipes that sometimes I can't even remember which one tasted best.
I've tried dying them red with red beets (juice and puree -> yes, two different batches), I've tried the regular food coloring from the stores, food coloring from a superstore.....you get the idea.

But alas....none of them ever turned out the way I wanted them to (pout here). So I decided I needed something better, and "got out the big guns" (haha). I read up on the "Wilton food colors" online, read through all of the comments on amazon and decided to give them a try.

What can I say, I wish I'd ordered them ages ago. That wouldn't only have saved me time and effort, but probably also around two pounds which I gained while eating all of the other (non-red) velvet cupcakes (because even though they weren't pretty they were all pretty darned good).
To get back to the point, the Wilton Food Colors are perfect. They are in form of a gel, which means that if you want to color your frosting you won't have to worry about it becoming runny and they are so strong that the tip of a tooth pick is usually enough to dye the entire dough the desired color.
I have to admit, I have been itching to try out all of the colors (they even have black --> how cool is that!?), but haven't gotten around to trying all of them yet. Rest assured, when I do, I will definitely let you know ;)

Back to the red velvet cupcakes though: here they are, with a delicous cream cheese frosting and as red as can be :)

Have a great start of the week! 

xoxo

Laura