Red Velvet Holly Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Holly Leaves

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

For quite a few months I've been experiencing with a variety of cupcake recipes and decorating techniques for a variety of reasons (I'll post about that after that Holidays). I made these Red Velvet cupcakes for a Holiday gathering I was suppose to have this past Friday but things didn't work as planned so I saved the cupcakes for the next evening to share with friends and family to taste while we took photos of my son getting ready for his first-time high school dance.

These cupcakes were made with boxed Red Velvet cupcakes (I haven't found the perfect red velvet cupcake recipe yet so I went with a boxed cupcake) and made my own cream cheese frosting. To make them a tad more festive, I made chocolate holly leaves with red and green candy melts.

Chocolate Holly Leaves

To make the Chocolate Holly Leaves, I printed out a holly template from FreePrintables and then placed a sheet of waxed paper on top of the printout and piped melted chocolate following the template. I got the idea from when I made Turkey Feathers for some Turkey Cupcakes I made a few weeks back.

I have found it to be great fun to make cupcake toppers with chocolate motifs! Thinking up so new ideas to try soon.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2½ to 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.

Note: If you like a lot of frosting you may want to increase this by 50% for 24 cupcakes.