Red Velvet Cupcakes Made Easy

Red velvet cake (yellow cake flavored with cocoa powder and colored with red food coloring) is notoriously moist and delicious. It makes a wonderful layer cake, but it is perfect for cupcakes, too. Though you can make red velvet cupcakes completely from scratch, we love this recipe because it uses a simple shortcut that yields good results: instead of measuring out dry ingredients, substitute a boxed cake mix.

You can use any boxed yellow cake mix that you like; just mix it with water (as directed on the box), ½ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 eggs, ½ cup of margarine, and 1 tablespoon of red food coloring. Then, bake the batter in two paper-lined cupcake pans in a 350 degree F oven.

When the cupcakes come out of the oven, cool them on a wire rack. When they are completely cool, frost them with an easy icing, made by mixing cream cheese, vanilla extract, and confectioners sugar to the desired consistency and taste.

Click here for the full recipe.

Kristie Collado is The Daily Meal's Cook Editor. Follow her on Twitter @KColladoCook.