A Study In Red Velvet

The more fancy and complicated projects I try, the more I realize that most of the time, there is no need to get fancy or complicated.
So it is with cupcakes. I posted a little bit ago about some very simple and very delicious vanilla cupcakes, the basic recipe being perfectly balanced to create a wonderful cake. So simple in fact, I found it in a children's cookbook. I also discovered it was an ideal recipe to jump off of while creating new recipes, new variations.
I've been looking for a good Red Velvet recipe since I made this one last year. Absolutely delicious, but it had almost no structure and was falling apart. I know now, after having done the Cake Math on it, that there was way too much fat in the recipe, which weakened it.
It's my husband's birthday today. He requested Red Velvet Cupcakes to take into work. Rather than try and try to fix the other recipe (which I did once, and it didn't quite work), I decided to just modify my base recipe. I've been very into reading up on cake baking, and doing lots and lots of geeky adding and recipe-writing. I now feel as though I have a very good understanding of what will make a successful cake. Just need some time to test the theories...
Most Red Velvet recipes are a vanilla cupcake anyway, not really chocolate. I added two tablespoons of Dutch Process cocoa powder to my Vanilla Cupcakes, and added red food dye. I was amazed at how easy this was. The cupcakes turned out well, light and airy, with a better rise than I had expected--and they didn't sink. This may have been due to the extra 2 tbsp of cocoa powder, which behaves like flour, and added a bit of extra protein to the structure.
So, I had a good working recipe that was nice and moist and light and fluffy and very red...and when I went to frost them I realized my fatal flaw. Red Velvet needs cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting needs a refrigerator. And what does a butter cake do when refrigerated? Gets cold and hard. That's why the other classic duo of carrot cake and cream cheese frosting starts with an oil-based cake. It stays moist and soft even when cold. Which is why half of the red velvet recipes I saw were oil-based, I suppose.
It's not a big deal to refrigerate a butter cake, as long as you let it warm up a bit before you eat it. Considering that these were going to work with my husband, it won't be a problem to let them come up to temperature. But will I make this one again? Nope. I have already started tinkering with another recipe--a muffin-method cupcake--to convert it to a Red Velvet featuring both butter and plenty of oil. That base recipe is also very good, if not quite as light. So, stay tuned. I may have to get just a little bit more complicated on this one, but not a whole lot. Honestly, I would make a half-batch of my test recipe right now, if I could find the time. I made the entire batch today while wearing Westley in a baby-carrier--which made reaching things and bending to get in my cabinets very interesting! I still haven't cleaned up yet, but I'll get there. Maybe after I cook dinner...and do more laundry...and mop...you get the idea! Turns out that baking and blogging are two of the most difficult things to keep up with since he's been born--especially since they fall beyond the scope of have-to and more in the realm of get-to.