• Cooking Time: 20-24
• Servings: 24
• Preparation Time: 15
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 8 ounces white chocolate, melted
• Pink gel-paste coloring

1. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter at low speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating for about 10 seconds after each addition.
4. Add the vanilla.
5. At low speed, alternately beat in the dry ingredients and the milk in 2 additions.
6. Add the melted white chocolate and beat just until incorporated.
7. Add anywhere from 1/8 - 1/4 tsp. of the pink gel paste coloring. Mix thoroughly.
8. Scoop batter into paper-lined muffin tins, about 2/3 full.
9. Bake 20-24 minutes, depending on your oven. Insert a toothpick into the middle of the cupcake. If it comes out clean, they're done.
10. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack.

Excerpted from my blog: cuppincakesforyou.blogspot.com I've always wanted to make a pink velvet cupcake. Now, with Valentines around the corner, it seemed like the perfect time. These cupcakes are a updated, knock-off of a red velvet cupcake. Red velvet cupcakes consist of essentially a chocolate batter (dyed deep red) with a dense cream cheese frosting. I wanted the pink velvet cupcakes to be a white chocolate batter (dyed pink) with a whipped, lighter cream cheese frosting. Topped with pink marzipan hearts and pink sprinkles, these cupcakes were undeniably cute. I think every girl under 12 would probably die to have some of these at her birthday party. How did they taste? Excellent. The frosting is not a "cream cheese overload." It was more sweeter, which paired nicely with the tang. The cupcake was also quite delicious, but it tasted more like a dense vanilla cupcake than a white chocolate cupcake. I searched long and hard for a good recipe, and finally settled on Food and Wine's white chocolate cupcakes. I picked this one because, out of the recipes I've seen, it was the one that included the MOST white chocolate in the batter. When I sampled the batter, it first tasted like a yummy vanilla batter, and then the white chocolate hit you as a pleasant aftertaste. When I baked them, though, the "white chocolate-ness" did diminish some. I think one of the problems is that white chocolate tastes so much like vanilla anyway. I will experiment with this batter again to see if I can get a more chocolaty flavor, but that's just because I am a choc-o-holic. I might try the white chocolate cupcake recipe from Crazy about Cupcakes (Krystina Castella), since I bought that book last year and haven't really done anything with it. Either way, this cupcake has a great flavor (particularly if you like the vanilla - vanilla combination on cupcakes). By the way, if you'd like a lighter crumb (not as dense), substitute half of the flour with cake flour. Enjoy!