Red Velvet Cupcakes : An Opinion & A Recipe

Adapted from Best Cupcake Recipes

Warning: This is a very opinionated post

(Never write when grumpy)

Red Velvet ... another fad? Why not green velvet or blue velvet or some other velvet? I doubt any of those "velvets" will work for me .... I'm not into coloring. Now, maybe I should use beetroot juice to color these but will it alter the taste? I'm quite certain it will. A friend told me she had some made with beetroot juice and it was nice and she couldn't tell at all.

So why did I make these?

I had to, I was curious as to what all the fuss was about. I know it's been around for awhile now but I've never felt like I needed to make any.

I had some at a cake shop with a friend. The stained tongue, fingers and lips didn't really look too chic and the taste wasn't too out-of-this-world either. And then I tried it at another place, ho-hum. Just like any other cupcake, except the texture is nice and fine and the added buttermilk and vinegar made a slightly more interesting taste. I just had to search for a recipe and try it out ... just curious, you know.

This claimed to be one of the better ones. I tried it out. It's good ...... but ...

Nothing's wrong with the recipe. It's just me. Maybe I'm not a cup-cakey person, maybe the red color puts me off, maybe the amount of coloring used puts me off ...

Oh yeah, another thing .... ignore the frosting. I'm hopeless at piping. Practise, practise ....

On a less grumpy note, I've been wanting to feature this brilliant idea for awhile now ... cupcake wrappers. I can't remember where I'd got the template for mine but I prefer these to the ones that need glue to put together (notice the tab and slot). Just google for "cupcake wrap templates" and there are a ton of them for you to choose from. They have made my otherwise plain ol' cupcakes a little prettier.

And funnily enough, when things look good, they seem to taste a whole lot better. (Ahem)

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

2 oz red food coloring ( I didn't use that much, I used abt 2 tbs and scared myself)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp baking soda

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Line tins with cupcake liners.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste, without lumps. (Since I used less liquid coloring, I had to add a little water to make a paste). Set aside.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste until well mixed.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, stir to mix well, then beat in half the buttermilk.

Stir in another 1/3 of flour then the other half of buttermilk. end with the last 1/3 of flour, mix until well combined.

In a small bowl, mix together vinegar and baking soda.

Add to cake batter and stir well.

Fill cupcake cups to slightly under 3/4 full.

Bake in preheated oven for about 20 mins or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes on a wire rack completely before frosting.

Frost with your favorite topping.

* Here I used cream cheese frosting which didn't quite hold up in our humid weather and today was exceptionally hot, hot, HOT!!