4th of july cupcakes!

happy 4th of july!  this is my first 4th of july in the united states since 2008, since i've spent the past four summers in england.  i was a little worried about not having anyone to celebrate with, since i'm so new to houston and don't have many friends yet, but my atlanta friend christy is in town visiting her sister and we're going to hang out.  hooray!

i made cupcakes to bring along to the fireworks watching.  i got the idea that i wanted to make red velvet cupcakes because then you can have cream cheese frosting and that is obviously a good thing.  the smitten kitchen cookbook has a recipe for red wine velvet cake, where you use red wine instead of red food coloring.  woah.  i needed to try this.

using my new kitchenaid mixer - thanks, becky and brandon!  i love it.

cupcakes!  (you can also see my sparkly 4th of july fingernail polish.)

the cupcakes turned out denser than i'd hoped...good flavor, but not the best cupcake of my life.  they're not bad, though...so into tupperwares they go, and off to celebrate the holiday!