Tiny bits of heaven

I found a recipe for filled red velvet cupcakes on Sweet Harvey's blog. I don't get much into baking - my attention span usually isn't long enough to deal with more than one pan of cookies. But these looked amazing and I really wanted to give them a try. She said she thought they would be a mini indulgence, which apparently made me think they were mini cupcakes. So I bought all the ingredients and made the batter, expecting to make 24 mini cupcakes. My mini-muffin pan has 24 spots, so that would have been perfect. One pan in, bake and done.

75 mini red velvet cupcakes later, I was rather tired of baking. But they turned out so cute and they taste amazing. I took some pictures along the way:

Millions of mini cupcakes lined the counters.

I used the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes to put in the filling. 

Put the frosting in a Ziplock baggie to fill the centers.

Swirl on a mountain of frosting. I put a ton on and still had some left over. 

So pretty and delicate. 

But more importantly, so tasty!

Here's the recipe: (Makes 24 regular sized cupcakes or 75 mini cupcakes.)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

1 pkg. (2-layer size) red velvet cake mix

1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)

1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

1 square BAKER'S White Chocolate, shaved into curl

1. Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for 24 cupcakes, blending dry pudding mix into batter before spooning into prepared muffin cups. Cool.
2. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar. Whisk in COOL WHIP. Spoon 1-1/2 cups into small freezer-weight resealable plastic bag; seal bag. Cut small corner off bottom of bag. Insert tip of bag into top of each cupcake to pipe about 1 Tbsp. frosting into center of cupcake.
3. FROST cupcakes with remaining frosting. Top with chocolate curls. Keep refrigerated.

I put the frosting I wasn't using in the piping bag in the fridge because it was starting to get runny. Worked much better - and the cupcakes looked much nicer - when the frosting was chilled.