V-day Yum Yums

As an added treat to our past weekend, I whipped up a batch of 24 cupcakes for this day of love. I was a little bit of a cheater and used a box. But as stated before, we live at high altitude. So even a box mix requires a little bit of work to make a simple treat. Again, I apologize for the poor quality camera phone photos.

I started with a box of Pilsbury brand white cake mix and added the oil and eggs as instructed plus 1 and a 1/4 cup of water and a 1/4 cup of flour to compensate for the elevation issues. Then portioned them into cupcake pans. Before popping them in the oven, I added a bit of coloring.

Each cupcake got one drop of food coloring gel. As the altitude alterations for the batter makes it wetter compared to normal, the gel food coloring keeps the whole thing from becoming too soggy. I used a fork to swirl the coloring with the batter. Some where simple circles while others were heart shaped. Since I planned on icing some of the cupcakes I made sure to get some of the coloring throughout the batter, not just on the top.

The box says to cook 18 to 22 minutes at 350*. I chose to let them bake for the longer amount of time, as baking times are also adversely affected by high altitudes. 21-22 minutes was perfect. They came out moist and fluffy and not as dense as regular cake. Just as a cupcake should be.

I am by no means a cupcake baker and boy let me tell you, hand whisking batter is no fun. I plan on adding a mixer to our wedding registry. That being said, I do hope to start venturing into more scratch batter recipes. If anyone out there has some easy recipes let me know!