Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

My fifty-fourth birthday. Caleb's first Christmas. The house was full from Friday to Sunday and I want to set down the details before they become softened by time: the specific quality of the light through the windows on Saturday morning, the particular sound of fourteen people eating, the way Caleb looked at the tree lights from the carrier on CJ's chest — not with comprehension but with pure attention, the eyes of a person taking in the world without yet needing it to mean something.

Dorothy brought her sweet potato pound cake again. James brought a bottle of good bourbon. Destiny brought the beignets — she has learned to make them and brought two dozen, which lasted approximately forty minutes. Shanice made her grandmother's tea cakes. My table had four generations of recipe represented on it, from great-grandmother Bernice's cornbread to Caleb's grandmother's beignets, and in the middle of it a four-month-old baby with his grandfather's name and his grandfather's face when he is content.

I said grace and I said it the long way and I said Marcus's name and Bernice's name and I said Caleb Marcus Simms and the room received it the way rooms receive the naming of the people who were not there before and are there now. New. Here. Ours.

After dinner I held Caleb for a long time in the rocking chair while the kitchen was being cleaned around me, and I told him things. I told him about Marcus. About Bernice. About the cast iron and the ring and the fruitcake soaking on the second shelf. He was asleep by the second sentence but I finished what I was saying. He will learn the rest of it over the years. I have time. I have exactly the right amount of time.

That table already had Dorothy’s sweet potato pound cake and Destiny’s beignets and Shanice’s grandmother’s tea cakes — but after everyone went home and I was still sitting with the feeling of that weekend, I wanted something I could make with my own hands that matched what I felt inside: rich, celebratory, a little dramatic in the best way. Red velvet has always been the cake our family pulls out when something genuinely matters, and this one — Caleb’s first Christmas, my fifty-fourth year, Marcus’s name said aloud in a full room — mattered as much as anything I can remember.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting:
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
Whisk dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder until evenly combined.
Combine wet ingredients. In a separate large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs, red food coloring, white vinegar, and vanilla extract until smooth and uniform in color.
Mix the batter. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed just until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared liners, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 18—20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool completely. Let cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting — at least 30 minutes.
Make the frosting. Beat cream cheese and butter together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt, then gradually add the powdered sugar, beating on low until incorporated, then on high until smooth and creamy.
Frost and serve. Pipe or spread the cream cheese frosting generously onto each cooled cupcake. Serve at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting — For the Table That Held Four Generations