GoBama!

You'll be shocked to know that the Tennessealions are slightly liberal leaning. Oh I know, you didn't see it coming, what with all the anti-Palin, anti-rape, anti-crazy posts. But, we were a little nervous about the presidential race. Unwarranted, of course! We should have had more faith in Mr. Silver.

But. while we weren't in complete la-la land, like a certain party. Sometimes a little good luck, like cupcakes, can help this happen:



Yes. I'm allowing my cupcakes to claim credit for this. Yes. I. Can.

So anyway, long story short. I made cupcakes Monday night. Not celebratory cupcakes, because we didn't yet know that all idiots that make ridiculous comments about rape would be defeated. We didn't know that marriage equality would sweep in a glorious triumph of progress.

But we did know BLUE was necessary. And blueberry cupcakes, those aren't a thing, right?

So.....I took a chance, and I made blue velvet cupcakes.

Let me be clear. I do not believe velvet is a flavor. I do not buy into the nonsense that there's this magical chemical reaction between buttermilk, vinegar, and cocoa that makes this red, flavorful cake. I've made enough of these bad boys at this point to know that a) that reaction DOES NOT make the cake red. An unhealthy amount of food coloring does that. and b) absolutely no red velvet cake I've tasted outside my home tastes like it was ever in the same room with chocolate, so don't try to pass that stuff off as chocolate.

That being said, if you're going to make a B.S. cupcake rife with food color, why not make it BLUE LIKE OBAMA, and maybe good?

That's what we did! Full Disclosure: This is a good cupcake recipe. If you're going to make a whipped cream cheese icing, this IS AMAZING. (And should be eaten w/in 2 days.) If you're going to make a velvet cupcake, this is the way to go. But this is not the best cupcake ever. It's still a velvet cupcake, and I'd prefer to refer you to the pumpkin spice cupcakes on this site. But really....these are blue! And you're a democrat! And for some reason people like velvet cupcakes! And these are the best velvet cupcakes! And seriously, this icing is amazing!

So here you go:

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1-3/4 cup granulated sugar
2-1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 whole eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons vinegar
1-1/2 ounce, fluid blue food coloring - no one has this much blue food coloring. That's like a shot glass of blue food coloring. May I recommend 1 tsp gel food coloring?
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 bag semisweet choc chips

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting - double if you're a heavy froster

1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.

2.In a small bowl, sift together the cake flour and salt. Set aside.
3.In another small bowl stir together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir in the vinegar. Set aside.
4.In another small bowl stir together the cocoa powder and food coloring. Set aside.
5.Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6.Alternating, add in the flour mixture and butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until combined.
7.Add in the cocoa mixture, beating until combined. Add bag of choc chips
8.Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 of the way full.
9.Bake for 17 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
10.Cool completely.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

17.Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the cream on high speed until stiff peaks form.
18.Scrape whipped cream into a small bowl. Set aside.
19.Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the powdered sugar, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth, about 4 minutes.
20.Gently fold in 1/3 of the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture. Gently fold in another 1/3. Fold in the remaining 1/3, mixing gently until combined.
21.Frost and decorate cupcakes as desired.