Stuffed Red Velvet Cupcakes

And so another week begins…..BUT today is VALENTINE’S Day!! YAY! I hope you are thoroughly enjoying your day so far. I know some people hate Valentine’s day, but as you know I love it. I think it might just be my 2nd favorite holiday- now, please don’t think I’m a nerd 😉

Since Craig & I both have work today, I decided to make him his special meal last night instead of tonight. I just needed some extra time to fix it & I didn’t want to rush it. Since I never cook any kind of beef, I also wanted to make sure I read this recipe about ten times before I cooked it….even though it was like the smallest recipe EVER.

I decided to make Craig Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion- Blue Cheese Sauce from The Pioneer Woman’s website.
I copied the recipe from her site, but made it for one- her recipe is for two. 

Ingredients

• 1 whole Ribeye Steaks
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1/2 Red Onion, Sliced
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/4 cups Crumbled Blue Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Salt and pepper both sides of the steaks. (I also added some garlic & a dash of worchesire sauce to each side) Grill in 2 tablespoons butter until medium rare. (I don’t have a grill, so I pan cooked in- in about 2 tbsp. butter- 7 minutes each side…approx)

Saute onions in 2 tablespoons butter over high heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until dark and caramelized. Reduce heat to simmer and pour in cream. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Stir in blue cheese until melted. Serve steaks on generous portion of sauce.


^ served with 4 cheese risotto & peas and corn.

Craig LOVED this meal. I was a little nervous since I never cook beef, but he told me I cooked it perfectly..and I think I asked him about 17 times if he was SURE it was ok..and he promised me that it was perfect 😀
Now, since I don’t eat beef I made myself a BIG ol’ salad. I love salad. Seriously.

Now are you READY for this?! I have the PERFECT Valentine’s day dessert for ya. Now, it’s not something that you have never heard of, but I did do a new twist to it.

The reason that I decided to make these was for Craig’s boss. When I met up with Craig & the rest of his work group one day back in December to celebrate his 5 years with the company his boss commented about my baking. He said he REALLY liked it & to please keep baking! 🙂 He then made a suggestion- Red Velvet Cake. I Well, I found the PERFECT occassion to make it- Valentine’s day, of course.

Stuffed Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cupcake Recipe– ‘borrowed’ from Jason & Shawnda.com

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Adapted from The Pastry Queen Christmas
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup (2 oz) red food coloring
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with baking liners or grease and flour the muffing cups.

Cream butter and sugar on medium-high for two minutes.

Mix in one egg at a time, beating after each addition. Turn mixer off and add food coloring and cocoa powder to bowl.

(^^Looks like a scene from Dexter! LOL)

Turn on low until just incorporated and then beat on medium for 4 minutes.

Sift together the flours, salt, and baking soda and set aside. Stir buttermilk and vanilla together. Add dry ingredients to the bowl in three batches, alternately with the buttermilk in two batches, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat on medium until just combined. Add sour cream and vinegar and beat on low until combined.

(^I seriously just wanted to DIVE into that bowl!!)

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full (I used a number 12 scoop to fill the liners) and bake for 25-35 minutes until the cupcakes test done with a toothpick. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a rack.

Yields: approx 24 cupcakes (made 30 cupcakes for me)

Next part:
Once the cupcakes are cool, scoop out a piece of the middle. I just put a knife in the middle & kind of cut a circle.

Once that is done…time to make the frosting.
I used Jess’ recipe for the Cream Cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3-8oz blocks of cream cheese

1 stick of butter, softened

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

~ 16 oz powdered sugar (1 bag)

Cream butter and cream cheese. Add in vanilla. Gradually stir in powdered sugar until the frosting reaches desired consistency.

Last part:
Fill the cupcakes with frosting & then frost the tops. I used a ziplock bag with the corner cut off to do this-makes clean up so much nicer!

Now for the inside look:

Craig will have a bunch of happy co-workers today! They are in for a real treat 😉

Posted by Holly at Holly on the Run on February 14, 2011

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