BAKE! : Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Source: Pink Parsley

Red Velvet Cupcakes

adapted from Saveur magazine, via Annie's Eats and Apple a Day
makes about 24 cupcakes

I've tried several recipes for red velvet cake, and this one is my favorite - both for flavor and ease of preparation.  It has the perfect balance of sweetness, richness, and tang.  And the color is so pretty!

• 2½ cups cake flour all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups castor sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbs cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1½ cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk (1 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice/vinegar)
• 2 Tbs (1 oz.) 3-4 Tsp liquid red food coloring
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp distilled white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 177 C  and line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar until well combined, about 1-2 minutes.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined and smooth.

Divide the batter evenly among the liners.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Cool for about 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Tips:

To get a pretty red colour, I mixed two different red hues, first is cherry red and another is bright red, cherry red makes it pinkish and adding bright red turns it into really bright red, which will darken when you add dry mixture.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 250g cream cheese, cold (I use Tatura)
• 100g butter, softened but still cool to touch
• 1-1 1/2 cup of icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine everything in a stand mixer and beat until well combined, turn up until maximum speed and beat for 405 minutes until fluffy. Chill for 30 minutes or up to an hour.

Another great recipe for Cream Cheese that I adore but haven't yet able to adapt is from Georgetown Cupcakes which I always feel a bit jealous over their frosting cuz it is just fluffyyy~~

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (for the frosting)
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted (for the frosting)
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (for the frosting)
• 6 ounces cream cheese (for the frosting)

1. For the frosting, place all frosting ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until well combined. Be sure to beat on high speed at the very end for at least two minutes to ensure that the frosting is light and fluffy.

To Assemble

Cut holes into the cupcakes and fill in with chocolate ganache and strawberry filling, and frost the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The cakes that were cut out can be use to sprinkle over the cupcakes, just blitz it in the food processor and sprinkle away!