Monday, January 10, 2011

Red Velvet

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I was put in charge of dessert for Mt Zion's adult instruction class on Sunday, which got cancelled, but I still have these beauties. Anyways, where was I? Yes, I have a thing for cupcakes. They're just easier than cake, to me and less messy, I think. I decided to make a  variety of cupcakes. First up were these red velvet cupcakes. I wanted to try something new and different. Shall we get started?
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Here are your dry ingredients: sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix them all together. I usually use a whisk to mix it well and get lumps out as needed. It makes it a little fluffier too.

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This is what you will be using to for wet ingredients: buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, red food coloring, vegetable oil, and white vinegar. Yes, white vinegar. It's okay. It'll taste fine. Don't worry.

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Mix all your wet ingredients together. It will look like this kind of. (Mine has little specks because I ran out of food coloring and had to use the gels.) Yours won't have specks, unless you use gel food coloring. Get it?

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Now slowly add your dry ingredients. When it's all said and done it'll look like this. Pretty thick don't you think? It's okay. It'll turn out just fine.
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Have you ever wondered why Kellee's cupcakes always turn out perfectly? All of them always look exactly the same. She share her little secret with me. This scoop. It makes the cupcakes perfect. It makes them all the same size. Nice, huh?
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See? Perfect and beautiful. ;)
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I forgot to photograph the  frosting making part. That might have something to do with the fact that I invited Kellee over to help with the cupcakes and she just got right to work while I sat around and watched. That's why it's good to have a friend like Kellee. She gets down to business and brings books and things for you to look at while she does all the work. It's perfect. So back to the frosting. This is fantastic frosting. In fact, I could probably just eat the frosting plain and be happy. It's a cream cheese, butter frosting. Mmm... Can't go wrong there. The recipe is listed below.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cake:
2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes.

Thank you to Annie's Eats for providing this recipe. I love her blog!

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All in all these cupcakes were pretty good. They were slightly on the dry side, so I might make a few adjustments if I try this again. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

7 comments:

Lauren said...

They look beautiful and super yummy. Wish I was there to sit and watch Kellee with you.

Emily said...

Well isn't your timing perfect! My birthday was yesterday, and we kind of forgot to make a cake, partly because I'm not a huge cake fan. But then I remembered that I LOVE red velvet cake, so we're going to make them when we celebrate in a few weeks! I think I'll just have to try this recipe! Thanks!

Emily

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Emily!!! Let me know how it goes. I think if I were to do this again I would use a little less flour and add more as needed. Maybe start with 2 1/4 cups. Good luck. :)

Lauren, I wish you were here to watch Kel work too. ;) It would have been fun.

Beth said...

Hi Jan! I'm planning to make these for Valentine's when my parents are visiting, can't wait!! It seems like you made these later and mentioned to keep the recipe as is, is that right?

Thank you for sharing!!
Beth

Unknown said...

Yes, Beth! Keep this recipe the same and don't change anything. Your batter will be a little runnier than in these photos, so don't be alarmed. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. :)

Joanna said...

It looks amazing, and Emily said they were great, so I'll have to try them. Maybe for my uncle's birthday next week. I look forward to looking around your site, it looks very inspiring so far!
God bless,
Joanna :-)

Unknown said...

Thank you, Joanna!

I am glad Emily got the chance to try them and they turned out well.

Blessings to you,
Jan