Red Velvet Indulgence

As you know, a couple of weekends ago, I cooked up a storm for Mother's Day, click here for more on that. As part of my gift, my mum got to pick something delicious for dinner - she picked Red Velvet Cupcakes. 

Now, if you've ever had a Red Velvet Cake or cupcake you'll know why she picked it, and if you haven't, well here is a super simple recipe to get you started!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life


This is a fabulous recipe book, I've baked a number of delicious treats out of here, and every recipe just gets better and better. A must for anyone who has a sweet tooth.

Cakes to celebrate love and life, by Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy - Image my own

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 Cups flour
• 1 1/2 Cups sugar
• 1t Bicarbonate of soda
• 1t Cocoa powder
• 1t Salt
• 1 Cup buttermilk
• 2 Eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 Cups vegetable oil
• 1t White vinegar
• 5t Red food colouring
• 1t Vanilla essence
• 1 x Quantity Cream Cheese Icing

Equipment:

• Makes 24 Cupcakes , or

• Three-layer 18cm cake tin , or

• 23 Single layer cake tin

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare your choice of baking pan as mentioned above. In a large mixing bowl sift the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and salt together.

In another mixing bowl combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil, vinegar, food colouring and vanilla essence.

Everything in, before the mixing begins.

Mix the flour mixture into the buttermilk mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan or bake for 30 - 35 minutes for a large cake, and 18 - 20 minutes for cupcakes - please note this is entirely dependent on your oven. Please keep checking, burnt cake is the saddest thing ever.

I love cute cupcake holders - these are from Woolworths. 

When the cupcakes are done, leave to cool in a non drafty spot.

Warm out of the oven. Yum.

Now, I was very silly, because after the fresh from the oven pic, the kitchen went a little haywire with Soup, Steak, Sauces, Salads and Potato's and I just didn't have a moment to show a step by step for the icing. But it really is a piece of cake {hehe, see what I did there}

Icing:


Ingredients:

• 1 Tub firm cream cheese
• 250g Butter, softened
• 2 Cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1t Vanilla essence

Method:

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and beat through. Add the vanilla essence and beat until just combined. Keep tasting the icing, I find that if it's a little too sweet, I add a little bit of lemon juice or lemon rind. You don't want it too lemony, keep tasting and you'll know when it's just right.

I leave the icing in the fridge while the cupcakes are cooling.

Spoon the icing into the icing bag, and pipe the icing on. I use a traditional cake icing bag, which I got from Banks Catering in Woodstock, check out their website here.  

Simple, easy, delicious. 

Due to the hustle and bustle of that day of cooking, I didn't even get a pic of the final cupcakes. 

Below are some gorgeous Red Velvet Cupcakes, which inspire me. Mine looked quite similar, but maybe not as professional, and more on the "home-baked with love" side. But they don't last long in our household, so it doesn't really matter.

                        Gorgeous. Image from Pinterest


Let me know if you've tried Red Velvet as either Cake or Cupcakes, 
or what your favourite cake is. I'd love to hear from you!


xx C