True Blood Cupcakes

My vampire partner in crime (Brandon) and I decided to celebrate the third season premiere of what we consider to be the best show ever, True Blood. The vampires, the maynads, the shape-shifters, the telepaths, and now, the werewolves? We couldn't not celebrate! Our party was red-themed, because, well, vampires = a whole lot of blood! We had strawberries, watermelon, blood orange soda, red vampire pancakes (red food coloring with a dollop of raspberry jam in the middle of each cake = YUM), red eggs (food coloring and copious amounts of ketchup!), garlic bread with tomatoes, AND last but not least, RED CUPCAKES!!! These were dang tasty. While I did use a boxed white cake mix (whatever, they still taste wonderful!), I made homemade cream cheese frosting and it was to die for! (Or, to become a vampire for!) Add almost a whole bottle of red food coloring, and you've got some bona fide TRUE BLOOD CUPCAKES! I think everyone enjoyed them, because they were all gone by the end of the day and some people had two! (including myself).

1 white cake mix - I think I used Betty Crocker?

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 egg whites (I saved the yolks and made an omelette the next morning... success!)

LOTS OF RED FOOD COLORING! (as much as you want)

Frosting:

1 block of softened cream cheese

1 stick of sweet cream butter

Powdered sugar (as much as you want until you get the desired consistency/amount of sweetness)

red food coloring, lots of it.

Red sprinkles for decorating!

Make the cake mix and add the food coloring! Pour the batter into cupcake tins filled with paper liners. They say to fill the cups 2/3rds full, but I filled them up more because I wanted really big cupcakes.

Put them in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for about 18 minutes!

Let them cool completely before you frost them.

The Frosting

cream the butter and the cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mix a little more. Add the drops of food coloring and mix with a wooden spoon until you reach the desired consistency. Spread generously on the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle the finished product with red sprinkles! Et VOILA! True Blood Cupcakes whenever you want them!