Red Velvet Muffins

I got some big news earlier this week. I was accepted to Cornell, the school I've been dreaming about for years! I've been in shock since Thursday, but I felt like I should celebrate. I meant to do so earlier, but I had homework. I know. Anticlimactic, right? Well, it's finally the weekend (a three day weekend for me, which is even better), and I finally had a chance to cook again, so I decided to make some red velvet muffins. "Big Red" velvet muffins. You know, because Cornell is Big Red. I apologize for my terrible pun.

As you might have noticed, however, these muffins are unfortunately neither all that big nor all that red. I couldn't find my giant muffin tin, but I wanted to able to eat a bunch of these without feeling too bad. Also, if you compare these muffins to mini muffins, they are actually pretty big. So there's that.

As for the red, I tried. I really did. I'm probably going to suffer from a bunch of diseases and other medical problems because of all the red dye I added. You just can't tell because I may have gone a little overboard with the chocolate. I couldn't help it. I know red velvet is only supposed to have a little bit, but that's too bad. But don't worry; I scaled it down so hopefully yours are more red velvet than pure chocolate.

Now what makes these different than red velvet cupcakes? To be honest, I'm not particularly sure. But that just means you get to eat borderline cake for breakfast, which is totally fine with me. There isn't any vinegar, but you don't miss it that much. If you want to add a splash, go ahead, but it might mess with the chemistry a little bit because vinegar is relatively acidic. It is acetic acid and all. I also stir in some melted chocolate, which may be in some other red velvet cake recipes but not in mine, and some mini chocolate chips. Like I said, I went a little crazy with the chocolate. Then again, you are basically having cake for breakfast, so does a little extra chocolate hurt that much?

3 T Butter
1.5 oz Chocolate
2 Cups Flour
¼ Cup Cocoa
2 tsp Baking Powder
⅛ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
2 Eggs
⅔ Cup Sugar
⅔ Cup Buttermilk
½ tsp Vanilla
Red Dye
⅔ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Heat oven to 425ºF. Line a muffin tin with paper cups.

Microwave the butter and chocolate until melted, stirring often. Set aside to cool. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Whisk the eggs, sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, and dye together. Stir the butter and chocolate mixture into the buttermilk mixture, and fold that into the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the batter into the prepared cups. Bake for 4 minutes, lower the temperature to 375ºF, and bake for 8-10 minutes or until cooked through.

Makes 12
Recipe Adapted from Lemons for Lulu