There's a certain personality trait that I posses that only a few people know about. I love to bake things that other people love to eat. Okay, maybe more than a few people know that about me, but it definitely doesn't make it any less true. I see baking as one of those things that rewards you with a nice sweet treat for time well spent. I also see it as an expression of love and friendship for the people in my life that I care about.

In recent years I've begun flexing my confectionery muscles in celebration of commemorative events. Most notably, these events are the birthdays of our friends, but I've also baked for baby showers, wedding showers, house warming parties, and St. Patty's Day celebrations.

Of late, I've made a habit of asking friends with upcoming birthdays what their absolute favorite kind of cake happens to be. After they answer, I ask if they'd mind too greatly if I went ahead and made that cake or cupcakes in their favorite flavor and style for them as a special birthday treat. The typical answer is, "Are you kidding? I'd love it if you baked me a cake." Tough crowd, eh?

Last weekend we celebrated the birthdays of two of our close friends and I gladly volunteered my cupcake skills. Coincidentally, both of them requested red velvet cake, but one request was a bit of a departure from the normal red velvet you might think of. But more on that in a minute.

A bit of a warning. Alex just got a new 50mm lens for the camera, and the day we made these cupcakes was the very first day he was using the lens. So his, and my, apologies if you are annoyed by the excessive "bokeh" (quality blur) in the shots and the questionable lighting/exposure. We're trying to learn as we go.

With this particular request, I set out making a standard red velvet cake batter, and as is my typical style, used my trusty ice cream scoop to properly portion each cupcake.