MerryMartini Giveaway!

Oh, I do so love teh Giveaways!

The Merry Martini is doing a giveaway with CTTC -- a box of her scrumptious red velvet cupcake mix.


I was a beneficiary of her largesse, and received a mix for Stacie Test Kitchen.






Here are the supplies I used to create these so-red red velvets:





I love that the recipe calls for balsamica! Cool.




These suckers are red. I mean RED. The recipe calls for 1 to 2 bottles of red food coloring. I am not a fan of food coloring, and would prefer to use beet or natural coloring, but I don't know how that would work in a mix form. So I followed the direction and used 1-and-a-half bottles of red food coloring, some of my own McCormick and the included Krasdale bottle.









They baked up beautifully:





I'd had problems in the past with red velvets peeling away from the liner but these behaved perfectly. And, mmm, they tasted so damn good when frosted!



Here they are, all ready to go to the birthday party (the recipe recommends freezing the cakes/cupcakes before frosting them, which I did, and you can see the bit of condensation from the freezer in the picture):







So good and moist!



Next time I'd use more frosting.






I will say this: Baking these cupcakes made my tiny NYC kitchen look like an abattoir. Friends, it was not pretty. No, it was so messy I despaired I'd ever get clean. There are still spots on my ceiling that I'm discovering...But, all the mess was worth it to make these delicious classic red velvets. I loved them, the birthday girl and her friends loved them, and I think you will too.

So...if you want a box for yourself, please leave a message (including your email address!!) in the comments section, below, mentioning your favorite The Merry Martini product, leaving it before March 31 at 5:00 pm ET. A winner will be chosen at random and contacted via email by CTTC, then Kelly, the lady behind the Merry Martini, will be shipping you your prize! This offer is good in the United States only, sorry overseas cupcake-lovers.




From The Merry Martini herself:

"Each cake mix is hand-sifted individually to give it that homemade taste. The
giveaway is a cake mix that comes in a black and white recipe box ($20
value) in red velvet (also available in classic pound cake or pumpkin
poundcake)."

To see the full set of images go here; all by Stacie Joy for Cupcakes Take the Cake.