Sometimes things, including recipes, don’t always go our way. This week, I promised to make my friend red velvet cupcakes for his birthday, so naturally I planned to make them red.

However, I’ve made this recipe several times and always use up the red food coloring, which leaves me with many tubes of green, blue and yellow left over. It was a cold night, and I was exhausted and wasn’t looking forward to driving to the store just for food coloring. I decided to improvise.

Red velvet is a very traditional recipe, and although it calls for a small amount of cocoa powder, it isn’t considered a chocolate cake. The frosting is traditionally cream cheese based, and yes, the cake is usually red.

In my case, the red velvet cupcakes that I ended up making were green.

I think it’s important to be creative when you’re cooking or baking, even if you’re following a recipe. Baking recipes can be difficult to alter because a lot of chemistry is involved, but when it comes to new colors or decorations, it is easy to be adventurous.

I guess I was on a cupcake frenzy this week because my mom asked me to make them again for a dinner party she was going to. I asked her to pick up the ingredients that I needed, so of course, she came home with a new box of food coloring. I opened the box up and found a tube of yellow, green, blue … and blue. I had to laugh out loud.

My mom took a look at the tubes on the counter and said, “I guess we’re having turquoise velvet cupcakes this time.”

Red, green or turquoise, this recipe works well every time. The cake is moist, and there is always plenty of extra frosting. I recommend putting an oversized scoop on each cupcake. I really hope you try this recipe because no matter what color, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Enjoy!