Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cocoa Nibs and an Old-Fashioned Cooked Frosting

These are cocoa nibs. They are bitter in a deliciously chocolatey kind of way.

They don’t look like much, do they?  Cocoa nibs look like gravel, or peanuts, or…I really just lost track of that thought.

Regardless, they’re delicious, grown-up chocolate chips.  Well, maybe not grown up, but definitely a little fancier.

I made red velvet, again, but this time, I did it with an old-fashioned cooked frosting, which I liked a LOT better than most of the buttercream frosting I’ve had.  I also understand why cream cheese frosting is usually paired with the cake; the textures are similar (though the cream cheese is tangier).

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