I was busy in the kitchen all February. We were snowed in a good portion of the month, and February was also our attempt at a no take-out month. I tried out a lot of new recipes, and a few desserts too. Here are some of our favorites.

I made a lot of cornbread this month. I like to make mine in muffins, the little miss absolutely loves cornbread.

I love to make Peach Pie, I make the crust and the filling from scratch. This was a perfect project to brighten up a dreary Winter day.

Yum the Peach Pie in all it’s delicious glory.

So it wasn’t just sweets that were going on in the kitchen. When it was Super-bowl Sunday I made a ton of food, and I snuck in a new recipe too. I made Panko-crusted Chicken Tenders, and they were amazingly good. I’ve added them to the menu, they were a huge hit with all the family.

I think we were on day 6 or 7 of being snowed in and out of school, so I made the kiddos some Chocolate Cupcakes to cheer them up.

I also introduced the family to Blueberry Pies. I made these mini-ones in muffin tins. They are tiny cupcake sized pies, but oh so tasty.

For Valentine’s Day I made one of my hubby’s favorite dinners, and dessert too. They all love Chocolate Pie, I prefer fruit pies though.

When it was time for my birthday I whipped up a big batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes, and they were awesome!

One more look at that awesome icing.

I can’t wait to get back in the kitchen and get to baking. I have a few sweet treat recipes to try out, Dylan’s birthday is this month too, and I have a cookie catering gig this month.  I’ll have some more tasty pictures up soon.

Thanks to Valentine’s Day Red Velvet cakes, cupcakes, and even cake balls are popping up on blogs and website articles everywhere, but there just isn’t something right about them… The cake is lovely, with it’s hint of chocolate, and  beautiful dark red color, but I’m sorry if I offend, the icing is all wrong. Cream Cheese icing on Red Velvet cake, no it simply will not do.

Before you click away, Cream Cheese frosting is delicious with it’s creamy texture and slightly sour notes, and it makes an amazing topping to Butter Pecan Cupcakes, or Homemade three layer Banana Cake, but for Red Velvet you need the real deal.  An amazingly light, sweet icing, that makes the most perfect Red Velvet Cake.

Trust me on this one. Red Velvet cake has been my very favorite cake, ever since I was a little-bitty girl. My Mom has been making me a Red Velvet Cake for every single birthday for as long as I can remember, and she has the right icing. She even doubles the batch of icing, so I get an extra bowl because it is irresistible, she’s cool like that. She’s even going to let me share her recipe.

So I’m going to share the magical Red Velvet Frosting recipe step by step, so you can make it too.

You only need 5 ingredients to make this amazing frosting.

Start with 5 Tablespoons of flour in a sauce pan and set your temp on med-low heat.

Add in One Cup of Milk. I’m using the lactose-free kind, because I’m lactose-intolerant. Any kind will do though.

Get ready to whisk!

and whisk,

and whisk until it forms a thick roux.

The roux is starting to thicken up nicely, but it isn’t quite there just yet. Don’t loose your patience, it will be ready in just a few more minutes.

Look who came to join the party, hello Red Velvet cupcakes!

Finally after all that whisking, the roux has come together

it has a nice and thick consistency almost like cake icing.

Here is the tough part…

The roux needs to chill in the fridge for about 4 hours before you can make the amazing icing. Transfer it from your sauce pan to a bowl, and then cover it completely with plastic wrap, so a film doesn’t form on the top of your roux.

Now find something to do for a few hours, like dishes, or baking more cupcakes, be patient and let that roux cool.

Finally! Let’s get to mixing.

You need 1 Cup of Sugar, 1 Cup of Vegetable Shortening, and start off with 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract, and add in a bit more if you like.

I start off with my standard beaters, and once the sugar and shortening have creamed together nicely, move on to the whisk.

Now that everything is combined nicely, add in your chilled roux and whisk together for 4-5 minutes until your frosting is nice and fluffy.

Perfect!

Time to frost the cupcakes, because I can’t wait one moment longer!

I start of by frosting a little crumb coat with the tiny spatula, and then move on to a pretty top coat of icing with a flat palette knife.

Cupcake perfection! Now dive in,

there are no words, it is just so amazingly good.

Make sure and keep your cupcakes in the fridge, so the icing doesn’t spoil. This is one cake that is even tastier the day after, and the day after that. If you have any left, they are doing to disappear fast.

Now go make some cupcakes!