Royal Red Velvet Cupcakes

Please allow me to first say that I love English history.  I just do.  The fascination started when I was in 6th grade.  My English teacher was a huge Shakespeare and Royal family fan, and she got me hooked on Henry VIII, specifically, and the Royal Family.  She had a family tree in her room for all to see.
So, it would make sense for me to be absolutely ecstatic over the recent nuptials of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge right?  You betchya!  I was one of those crazy nerds who got up at 4 a.m. to watch the pomp and circumstance; and boy was it worth it.  Everything was so beautiful, especially the DRESS!  It was reminiscent of Grace Kelly's wedding dress, exquisite.  I couldn't be happier for the two of them.  Now only if I could borrow that tiara... *Smiles*.
To celebrate the first Royal Wedding in 30 years, I took it upon myself to make some Royal Red Velvet Cupcakes.  I wish I could say that they were a complete success, but alas, four did not survive.  I never realized the temperature difference between the top and bottom racks of our oven until now.  Regardless, the 12 that did make it were delicious and made with love.
For some reason I could not find in any of my cookbooks a recipe for Red Velvet Cake.  So I took to the Internet and found a pretty good and simple recipe.  It came from TasteofHome.com.  The recipe was accompanied by coconut frosting, however I omitted that due to the fact that A) I didn't have any shredded coconut and B) it just didn't sound appetizing at the time. 
So here is what you will need for your cupcake batter:

3/4 cup of softened butter
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 Tablespoon red food coloring (by 1 Tablespoon they mean the entire bottle)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of baking cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of buttermilk
and
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Steps:
-Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
-Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, blend together the butter and granulated sugar until "light and fluffy."  It took about 30 seconds to 1 minute for me.
-Add food coloring and vanilla.  Add as much of the food coloring as you can so the batter looks red, not pink.  Otherwise the cocoa powder will overpower the color.
-In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Mix together.
-Using a liquid measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk and add the vinegar.
-While mixing, alternate adding the dry ingredients with the buttermilk until everything is mixed together well.
-In a greased or paper lined muffin tin, pour the batter 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full.
-Bake for 18-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
-Allow the cupcakes to rest for no less than 10 minutes in the muffin tin before you take them out to cool.
-Now Frost!

For Cream Cheese Frosting you will need the following:

2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 a cup of softened butter
2 cups of confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
and
1 teaspoon of vanilla

(Now, because of the few cupcakes I had, I cut this recipe in half.)
The steps are simple:
Cream together the cream cheese and butter.  Then gradually add the vanilla and sugar until all are mixed together.  You may have to add a little more sugar because the cream cheese is quite overpowering in flavor.  I added about 1/4 of a cup more to my batch.

The end result, with a little creativity, was fit for a Duke and Duchess.  To bad they won't have a chance to eat one!

Did you make anything to celebrate the royal wedding?  If so, what was it?!