I believe that there are as many variations of the recipe as variations in taste, especially in the amount of cocoa. This particular recipe has the largest amount of cocoa, 1/4 cup. I like chocolate, so I passed on those other recipes calling for only 1 or 2 tablespoons of cocoa. The amount of red food coloring is also a personal preference, yet some brands of colorings are stronger than others. I used only a 1/2 of the large bottle of Adams brand, which resulted in a very burgundy color as shown above. Next time I will try less.
Regarding the frosting, you can click over to the original recipe that has one with a lot of cream cheese or use a lighter recipe by going back to my 2 posting in Aug 2010. The lighter recipe holds up if you want fancy decorated cupcakes. This recipe is for about 18-24 cupcakes.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
adapted from The Food Maven
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp to 1 (1 oz) bottle of red food coloring
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the top cup edges of your muffin tin and place paper liners in the cups.
Sift together baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa in a small bowl and set aside.
Then take out a medium bowl and hand held mixer. Fill bowl with oil and add one egg. Beat at low speed for 1 minute until combined. Add the other egg and beat again until combined. Mix in the food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Make sure the sides of the bowl are scraped with a spatula and all is blended.
Pour in 1/3 of the buttermilk and mix with a wooden spoon. Continue to mix batter and add 1/3 cup of flour. Follow those steps until all is combined into bowl.
Spoon batter into prepared paper liners. Fill only 2/3 full, the batter does rise and you do not want it spilling over. Place in oven to bake for 15-25 minutes, or when tester comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool for 2 minutes, remove and place on wire racks to cool.
When completely cool, frost as desired or sprinkle confectioners sugar on top.