Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have tried and tested a lot of red velvet cupcake recipes and till now this one is the winner.  

My mission was to try and get the best recipe with beetroot to colour the cupcakes.  So I used beetroot juice and beetroot pulp, but it seems like the colour fades when baked.  So to get them that dark red colour it seems like you have to use food colouring {if you don't like food colouring stick to normal cupcakes beetroot doesn't do much to the colour, well that's what I have found} So if you have any tips on this please let me know! This recipe is out of Cake by Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy.

What you need:
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp Bicarb of soda
1 tsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1 tsp White vinegar
5 tsp Red food colouring (or beetroot reduction)
1 tsp Vanilla essence

Pre-heat the oven at 180 C

Put cupcake liners in your cupcake pan.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and salt together.

In another mixing bowl combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil, vinegar, food colouring {or reduction} and vanilla essence.

Mix the flour mixture into the buttermilk mixture.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 18 - 20 min.

Decorate with Cream Cheese Icing... it freezes well {before iced} but sure by the time you have served them there will be nothing left to freeze!

Cream Cheese Icing:
Mix 60g Cream Cheese {softened}, 30g butter {softened}, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence in a electric mixer until pale.  Then gradually add 3/4 cup icing sugar.  Allow to rest in fridge for about 20min before icing the cupcakes.