Ingredients
What you need:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 cup dutch process cocoa
1 tsp. salt
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. liquid red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 tsp. distilled white vinegar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 container orange food color gel
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa, and salt into a bowl.
Beat butter at low speed until creamy. Add sugar; blend on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each. Scrape bowl; add food coloring and vanilla.
To get the perfect shade of orange you are going to add the entire container of orange gel food coloring. I know, gel food coloring is so concentrated that you don’t normally need that much, but unless you want University of Texas Burnt Orange, add the whole container. I also used approximately 15 drops of liquid yellow food coloring to take away some of the burnt undertones.
On low speed, beat in flour mixture in thirds, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. In small bowl, stir together vinegar and baking soda. Stir into batter.
Line cupcake pans and fill 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan and then move to wire rack to let cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 stick unsalted butter room temperature
1 8 oz package cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbs. milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, then slowly add powdered sugar a cup at a time. Incorporate milk, vanilla extract and salt. Beat until smooth. Frost away! If you are using a piping bag you may have to double the recipe to have enough frosting.
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