Halloween Red Velvet Cupcakes

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners. Spray the paper liners with cooking spray. This will ensure your cupcakes won't stick to the paper liners.

Step 2

In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Step 3

In another bowl, or the bowl of your mixer, add the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar and mix until well combined and it lightens in color. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Mix in the vanilla extract and sour cream.

Step 4

Add the food color and mix. I usually start with 1 tsp and keep adding until I get the desired color. I ended up using a total of 3 tsp of red food color, but the color of your cupcakes may depend on which product you use.

Step 5

Add the flour mixture and mix on low until until well incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go along.

Step 6

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each so that it's about 3/4 full.

Step 7

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 8

Beat the cream cheese and butter first until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, salt and icing sugar and continue mixing until smooth and fluffy.

Step 9

Prepare a piping bag and fill it with the frosting and frost the cupcakes.

Step 10

In a small bowl whisk all the icing ingredients. Use as much red food color until you achieve a dark blood like icing. The icing should be quite thin so that you can easily drizzle it.

Step 11

Dip a knife, with the blade side down, into the red icing, then place it into the frosting of each cupcake. Drizzle with additional red icing for more of a bloody effect.