Red Velvet Cupcakes

Months ago, my friend Amber asked me to find her a good Red Velvet cupcake recipe. I found this recipe on the Food Network Website and also noticed that at the top of the recipe it said what show that recipe would be on and when it would be airing. So I watched that, got a few tips, and set to work on these awesome yummies! I'm copying the recipe word-for-word from the website, with my alterations below.

INGREDIENTS:
15 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
13 ounces granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider can both work)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water
For the cream cheese frosting:
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound butter, room temperature
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.

2. In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down sides occasionally, and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.

3. Line a 16-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, scoop the batter into the liners and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

For the cream cheese frosting:
Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Frost cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

MY ALTERATIONS:
-Notice the recipe has many ingredients measured in ounces. Do not assume you can use a typical ounce-to-cups converter as flour and sugar do not weigh the same per cup. I used a simple, cheap, food scale you can get at Walmart and I highly recommend it as many of the reviewers from the FN website overlooked this detail and ended up with awful cupcakes.
-I added a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder but I think next time I'll probably double that. It's used more as leavening in this recipe than flavor, but I still feel like a red velvet cupcake needs to have at least a hint of chocolate flavor. But, even without it, these cupcakes were still divine.
-I also halved the frosting and had PLENTY. Trust me, you do not need to make the whole batch unless you want just as much frosting as you do cupcake.
-For the red food coloring I was 1 teaspoon shy(I used a 1 oz bottle), but it worked just fine. There's no sense in opening a whole new bottle just for that extra teaspoon.
-Lastly, this recipe says it makes about 15 cupcakes. These are jumbo cupcakes. I made 28 regular sized cupcakes. I also usually set my timer for much less time than is actually required because my oven cooks things fast. If it's not done when the timer beeps, I just keep checking on it until it is. So, I'm not sure how long they actually did take to cook. I would suggest you check it about 15 minutes in and then gage your time according to how cooked they are then.

Now...go make these! They are HEAVENLY!