Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes

I received this fabulous recipe from my friend Beverly two years ago. We made them together for her daughter Kenna's first birthday party and I've been making them ever since when the occassion calls for cupcakes. These are simply one of the most delicious deserts I've ever tasted and the requests for the recipe every time I make them is proof positive of their yum factor! (I had 6 requests at the Mother and Other Tea alone!) One of the very unique things about these is the peppermint frosting. It just gives these cupcakes that little extra something.

Red Velvet Cupcakes1 pkg German chocolate cake mix (18.25 oz)
1 pkg Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix (3.4 oz)
1 cup Sour Cream
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 bottle red food coloring
3 eggs
2 c. miniature chocolate chips
1-2 cans of vanilla whipped frosting (any brand)
2 capfuls of peppermint or mint extract

Preheat oven to 350. Place cake mix, sour cream, water, oil, food coloring and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Conitnue mixing on medium for 2 min. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips (do not use your mixer, use a spoon... reserve the other cup of chocolate chips for decorating) Spoon batter into cupcake liners filling 3/4 of the way full. Will make 24-27 cupcakes. Bake 18-20 minutes.

FROSTING: put 2 capfuls of the mint extract into each can of frosting, stirring well. I either use an easy accent decorater from Pampered Chef to swirl frosting on top of each cupcake OR this time I spooned the frosting into a gallon size zip lock bag, pushed all the frosting down into one of the corners, snipped the corner off and swirled the frosting on. This will give the cupcakes that "in" look like what you pay 4 dollars a cupcake for at Sprinkles! (stay tuned for a tutorial on how to do this soon) If you choose to just put on a thin amount of frosting on each cupcake with a knife you will only need one can. Sprinkle the top of each cupcake with mini chocolate chips.