Cupcakes for Baby Jacob Henry!

This past weekend we celebrated the upcoming birth of my very dear friends Steph and Leroy's baby boy, Jacob Henry, their first child!

My contributions to the shower were red velvet cupcakes made from scratch (I don’t mess around when I bake). All in all I think they turned out great if I do say so myself, although a tad bit rich for my blood, and not as red as I would have liked.

I had initially planned on topping them with little trucks, which I thought would be super cute for a baby boy shower, but to my dismay, I could not locate an adequate adaptation to what I dreamed up in my head, so I had to go to plan B.

Plan B = me wondering around the greatest party store ever (Everything Party, Formerly Confetti Junction in Redmond, WA) until I found these adorable little blue rattles and pacifiers. This store has pretty much anything and everything you could imagine or not imagine, for a theme party. Go there and see for yourself, seriously (Halloween is just around the corner).


Back to my cupcakes… As I mentioned in my previous post, I was super nervous about trying red velvet. Anything that involves a “chemical reaction” freaks me out. The reaction between the vinegar and the baking soda turns the cocoa powder a reddish brown color, which turns the batter red (in addition to the red food coloring). I did not put enough food coloring; the batter was more a brick red vs. a bright red. If anyone has seen “Steel Magnolias”, J. Roberts’ cake was red velvet – an armadillo. The cake was so red it looked like blood!

PLUS, the Cupcake Queen, one Jamie McQuary, was in attendance and she makes some pretty yummy treats that are tough to compete with!

For the batter, I like to use cake flour because it is much lighter and makes the cupcakes really light and fluffy. This particular recipe called for sour cream, which I also really liked, because it kept the cake very moist. For the topping, I just love cream cheese frosting, and I thought the combination would be really good. I just mix equal parts unsalted butter and cream cheese and add powdered sugar (about 2-3 cups) until blended well. You can add food coloring to this recipe if you like. I opted for white this time.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy them, so I consider that a success! They were fun to make and I might just make a spooky version for Halloween.


Happy baking!