Red Velvet Cupcakes

Blogs are for brutal honesty, right? I think so. I don't know how well blogs connected to "businesses" (I put it in quotes because I checked with the FDA and IRS and I don't currently qualify as a business, I am rather a hobbyist) might be served by this policy, but here goes nothing:

I was unimpressed by these red velvet cupcakes; to start with, they were not red! I sent them anyway.

Cupcakes are, apparently according to the internet, one of the hardest things to mail. So, I spent a small fortune on packaging.

In the end I broke even on the sale. I made no monetary profit, but it didn't cost me anything either. I did profit from the experience and I get a feeling of warmth thinking that I shared my snacky happiness with others.

To continue blathering, it states on my Etsy that I suffer from food neophobia. Which is true. I would NEVER even *try* a preponderance of the items I enjoy making, including all three which were included in this order. It was truly a treat to be able to make such adventurous food and know that people will enjoy the fruits of that labor. For that I sincerely thank my customer.



So...here goes with the red velvet cupcakes....
I followed this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/red-velvet-cupcakes/Detail.aspx

I used these quality ingredients:

The stuff in the bowl is buttermilk I made from a powder. Please note for future reference, that little thing of red food coloring, even though it was full, was not enough for this recipe as you will see later.

I creamed the butter, and it looked so tasty!


I didn't have a way to measure 1 fluid oz. in my kitchen, but I used all the red coloring I had, and it looked very red at the time:


But once I added these sifted together dry ingredients:


It no longer looked red, just brown:


I was thoroughly disappointed as I loaded them into and then out of the oven. Here's a shot of them finished; at this point I felt like I should have just made plain chocolate cupcakes!


But I couldn't be defeatist. My test cupcake tasted just fine and dandy according to my lovely husband, so I went ahead and iced them to perfection:


Then I packaged them nicely, hoping with all my hopes that they would arrive somewhat close to the state I sent them in.