Sew Sweet

I bought the candy molds a loooonnnng time ago. I was waiting for the perfect occasion to make the precious little button candies. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. If these things were going to get used, then I was going to have to make it happen. It worked out that it was my turn to host Cocktails and Cupcakes, so I couldn’t think of a better time than then! The theme would be Sew Sweet and we would all wear our cute Anthropolgie aprons! (I had high hopes of setting up my sewing machine and having the girls sew something, but, alas, time got away from me.)

Of course, it was a wonderful night. We were sad to miss Erin and Mary C., but Jovi and Macee K. were able to fill the void. We ordered pizza from our FAVORITE LA Gourmet Pizza. (Shout out to Rafic, the precious delivery driver who drove out of the way to deliver to us because he recognized our names from when we used to live down there. He’s the best!)

I decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes. I felt like they were classic and festive enough for the occasion. They were delicious and oohhhh SEW cute!

I couldn’t have such a cute themed party and not decorate just a little bit! Thanks to knitting needles, yarn and some different sized hurricanes, it turned out pretty cute!

 

Jill found some really cute chalkboard wine glasses, that were perfect for C&C! We came up with some great nicknames for the night!

We had a great night, as usual. I am amazingly blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Finally, the recipe!
Red Velvet Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats

Ingredients:
For the cake:
2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa powder (I would increase to 2-3 T. I think they needed a little more cocoa flavor.)
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil (I used half vegetable, half canola, only because I ran out of vegetable oil! Couldn’t tell a difference!)
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring *
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting:*
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. * Be careful with the food coloring. It will stain everything it touches!

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. (I used a large, unlabeled star tip to frost these cupcakes.)

This is Annie’s hint, and I followed it. Definitely plan on making extra if you’re going to pipe the frosting.*If you are big on frosting as I am, you may want to increase the quantities by 50%.  That is what I typically do for a batch of 24 cupcakes.  I usually end up with some left over, but I would rather have too much frosting than not enough!