Red Velvet Ladybug Cupcakes

Whisk together granulated sugar, vegetable oil, red food coloring, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla, using an electric mixer until well incorporated. Sift together all remaining dry cupcake ingredients. Slowly add the sifted dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. I like to use some large muffin tins and some miniature for a variety. The batter will prepare 24 large cupcakes, or 12 large cupcakes plus 16-20 miniature cupcakes. Bake for 18-24 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, combine cream cheese with butter; whip together using an electric mixer until smooth. Slowly add 3 to 4 cups confectioner’s sugar until you reach desired consistency. Add in vanilla extract. Set aside about 1/2 cup frosting. Add red food coloring gel to remaining frosting until you achieve desired red color. To the set aside frosting, add black food coloring and put the mixture into a small Ziploc bag for piping.

Smooth red frosting over tops of all cupcakes. Snip off a small corner of the plastic bag filled with black frosting. Pipe a single black line down the center of each cupcake. At the front of each, pipe a round oval with black frosting (this will be the head). On either side of the line, pipe 2-3 small black circles (spots). Next add white chocolate chips to the head, and pipe small black circles for the eyes.

For the antennae, melt dark chocolate in the microwave, and add to a third plastic bag. Pipe a “j” shaped antennae on a lined baking sheet and let it cool. Peel off the antennae and poke them into the frosted cupcakes just above the head.