Red Velvet Cupcakes
These tasty little treats were a mid week bake for the boyfriends workplace. And from the feedback - and taste tester last night - they were worth the evening effort! Creamy icing and lovely little cupcake bottoms are the perfect hump day fix to get you through to the weekend. And to top it off - not a hard mix / bake to pull off. Probably took me an hour total to produce a batch of them in between cooking dinner and the general after work fluff around.
The recipe (below) is pretty easy to follow and makes a runny batter - great for easy pouring into your little cupcake casings.
I filled my cases 2/3rds high for each cupcake and ended up with 13 cupcakes from one batch of mixture. The icing mixture makes a fair amount of icing so you could almost get two batches of cupcakes to one batch of icing.
I was surprised how long they did take to cook in the oven. I'm putting this one down to it being a relatively new oven to me so I'm not 100% sure on it's general temperament yet. But they did all seem to cook evenly and rise well which was a good sign!
Once out and cool I set to icing these little suckers, and potentially licking cream cheese frosting from my fingers - can't let that goodness go to waste! Currently I have no idea where my icing tips are - somewhere in the boxes of baking utensils - so I just used a standard piping bag with the corner cut off which gives a smooth edged 'sausage' of icing to work with.
Even our cat, Bruce, wanted in on these babies - must have been a winner!
Hope you enjoy them as much as we all did.
Liv x
Recipes:
Red Velvet Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
4 tsp red liquid food colouring
1 Tbsp cocoa
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp canola oil - I used grapeseed oil
1 large egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar
Preheat the oven to 180ΛC (160ΛC for fan-bake). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.
Sift the four and salt into a bowl and set aside. Mix vanilla, food colouring and cocoa to a paste and set aside.
Whisk the sugar and oil with a handheld electric mixer until combined well. Add the egg and beat well after each addition. Add the cocoa paste and mix well, scraping down the sides to ensure an even mixture.
Add a third of the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated, then pour in a third of the buttermilk and mix until incorporated. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up and mixed in well.
Finally, mix together the baking soda and vinegar (it will foam). Add to the cake batter and beat on medium speed for 10 seconds. Make sure you scrape down the bowl to ensure everything is well mixed.
Divide the mixture between the cases. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Cool in the tray for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence
Beat the butter in a bowl with a handheld electric mixer until smooth and lump-free. Add the cream cheese and beat until well incorporated. Slowly add the icing sugar in three batches, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat on high speed for a few minutes until the icing is light in colour and fluffy. Fill piping bag and off you go!
