Red Velvet Cupcakes

You have seen that recipe on Pinterest about making a cake mix cake better, well I tried it out this past week.  Guess what it works!  They were great.

Start with your favorite cake mix or at least the one that is on sale this week.

Open the cake mix.  I like to try and break up the large clumps.

The recipe says to replace the oil with melted butter and double it. I think mine was 1/3 cup oil so double that.  Let your melted butter sit for a few minutes so it isn't terribly hot when you add it. So I melted it first and then added it last.

My cake mix called for 3 eggs and the improved recipe calls for one more egg.  So I added 4 eggs.

I got my muffin tin ready with my houndstooth cupcake papers.  Found these at a local cake place.  That is what gave me the idea for these cupcakes.

Go ahead and whisk you eggs so they will be easier to mix with your cake mix.

Replace the water in the cake mix with milk.  It is suppose to be whole milk but I had 2% and it still was very good.  I think mine used 1 1/4 cup milk.

Now add the melted butter.

Mix the batter really well.  I didn't want to pull out my mixer so I just mixed it really well with a whisk and wooden spoon. I just love the pretty red color it becomes.

Fill the cupcake liners.  I also tried something else new.  Fill them about 3/4th full and bake at 325 instead of 350 and bake for 25 minutes. They did rise much nicer.

They were so pretty fresh from the oven.  Set out to let them cool completely before icing them.

There was a partial second baking of the cupcakes.  The empty cups put some water in them so they don't burn with nothing in the cups.

These rose a little bit more.  I might have put a little more batter in them.

They are waiting to get dressed.

Here they are iced.  I am going to share the icing recipe with you tomorrow.

Now they are dressed and ready for the game.

A few more of them.  They do need to be stored in the fridge with the cream cheese icing.


Better cake mix cake recipe

Add one extra egg
swap out oil for melted butter and double it
trade water for milk

Bake at 325 instead of 350 and bake for 25 minutes.