Graduation Cupcakes

Friday was a Red Letter day at Mimi's Kitchen. Mr. Mimi and I are very proud of our oldest daughter, Mimi Jr., who graduated from San Diego State University. Better yet, she did it in 4 years! Which is a good thing since her sister, Mini Me, will start college at University of California, Irvine in September.

These cup cakes are really easy to put together. SDSU's colors are red and black, so I made red velvet cupcakes in black liners, but they could easily be color customized for any school. The mortar boards are Ghirardelli chocolate squares on top of an upside down Reese's peanut butter cup. The tassels are Twizzlers, untwizzled and thinly sliced, and the tassel button is the top of a dots candy. Everything is held together with a drop of melted chocolate- one between the Reese's and the chocolate square, and one between the tassel and button, which also keeps it attached to the chocolate square. I might be tempted to make these again next month for Mini Me's high school graduation!

Red Velvet Cake

• 2 ½ cups AP flour
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 tbs. cocoa baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs (medium or large)
• 2 TBS red food coloring
Directions:

Grease and flour 3 cake pans or use paper liners in muffin tins.Pre heat oven to 350F.

1. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and cocoa powder into a big bowl that you’ll use to mix the cake.
2. Using a hand or table mixer, add the milk. Mix.
3. Add oil, mix.
4. Add vinegar and vanilla, mix.
5. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Add the food coloring. Mix until the batter is even in color.
7. Evenly pour the batter into the three pans, or fill  muffin cups 1/2 full
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes for layers  or 15-18 minutes for cup cakes.
9. Let the cake cool and then frost with Cream Cheese Frosting

 Cream Cheese Frosting
2 oz butter
3 oz cream cheese
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1tsp vanilla
milk

With mixer beat confectioners sugar and butter until crumbly. Add vanilla and just enough milk to make a thick paste. Beat in cream cheese 1 ounce at a time, continue beating until smooth and fluffy.
printable recipe

No Tuesday's with Dorie this week. There was just too much other stuff going on last weekend! If you want to check out this week's recipe, Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie visit our host Spike at Spike Bakes.

SDSU Aztecs 2 -  Florida Gators 1