Red Velvet Cupcakes with Pink Coconut Possibilities

Wanna know a secret? I don't like pink. It's true. It's one of those colors that rarely looks good on me and thus I've harbored a not-always-silent little grudge against it. Especially when it's managed to infiltrate large portions of our womanly world--from Victoria's Secret bags to Mary Kay lipstick to your daughters birthday cakes (ages 2-15). As a female, I'm pretty much required to enjoy this color.

Wanna know what else? I don't really like cupcakes. Once again, I'm striking out against woman-kind here. Only now I'm also attacking our 21st century version of American pie. Ask anyone (or at least anyone who shares loud facebook opinions)--they're sure to tell you that to dislike cupcakes is un-American.

And I mean I kind of get the cupcake thing. I mean, they're cute and all. But they're just so impractical. I can't ever seem to get a bite from top to bottom into my mouth at once, so I have to eat a frosting-heavy bite or a frosting-less bite (I mean, the horror of this tremendous first-world problem; let us not speak of it). Furthermore, the cake to frosting ratio is just always off for me--cake that's too thick with too little frosting. Cupcake makers have compensated for this by creating cupcakes with a layer of frosting just as thick as the cupcake itself. Yeah, I don't like that either. And, once again--whose mouth does this fit into?

Yet for my dear dear friend's birthday, I wanted to make her a little something. And, for whatever mystery of the universe, the thing that I very very very most wanted to make her were cute little red velvet cupcakes. The thought just rolled around in my brain and made me salivate. It's no secret that I love red velvet cake. I've got the recipe and then this and this riff off of it. I love it especially in these sweet little Valentine's day weeks. But cupcakes? What was I thinking? Nevertheless I followed my heart (or, well, tongue) and wound up with pretty little red cupcakes with white frosting. And then I thought, "Well, I'm sure my friend would enjoy some coconut on these." And then, well, insanity overtook me again and I could not imagine anything prettier than pink coconut atop my red and white cupcakes.

And you know, sometimes it's best to just roll with the insanity because I was really really happy with how they turned out. And they were delicious. And beautiful. I still couldn't fit it from top to bottom in my mouth though. But, truth be told, my red velvet cake recipe is good enough to eat plain. So I ate the bottom like that and then I ate the frostinged cupcake top.

And I think my friend liked them too. And they all lived happily ever after in a pink land of sugared confection. I mean, it is un-American not to.

I followed my red velvet cake recipe here (I halved it and that made 12 cupcakes). 

To dye your coconut (and it doesn't have to be pink), you'll find instructions at the end of this post. It's so easy it's stupid.