Red Velvet Cupcakes

I love red velvet cupcakes but they are impossible to find in the small town I live in. So.... I found a recipe on taste.co.au a few months ago but it looked a bit complicated so I never bothered. It just had to be the first recipe I tried. WARNING: these are not in any way diet friendly. Sometimes you need to live on the edge.

Ingredients

• 300g  plain flour


• 30g  cocoa powder


• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda


• 250g caster sugar


• 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk


• 200g unsalted butter, melted


• 2 eggs, lightly whisked


• 1 tbs white vinegar


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1-2 tsp red food colouring


• 2 x 250g pkts cream cheese, at room temperature


• 300g (2 cups) pure icing sugar


• 120g butter, extra, at room temperature


• 1 tsp vanilla essence, extra

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line eighteen 80ml (1/3 cup) capacity muffin pans with paper cases. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir through the sugar. Whisk the buttermilk, butter, eggs, vinegar and vanilla in a large jug until combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring.


2. Step 2Divide the mixture among the lined pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


3. Step 3Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, extra butter and extra vanilla until smooth. Spread over cupcakes.

Positives of recipe

Ewan loved it in fact he ate a whole large cupcake.

Okay actually we all loved it the cupcake tastes fantastic and icing is very yummy.

The recipe is fairly easy to follow.

Negatives

Don't make the full amount of icing. In fact halve it as I still have mountains of icing in the fridge.

Add two or three tsp of food colouring. Mine looked red in the bowl but came out closer to brown.

If you have a thermofan oven check the cupcakes at 15 min. Mine were already cooked at that point.

 

On the pics... I need to work on my photography a bit but it has been years so give me a chance. Apparently I also need to work on my cupcake decorating.

My baking pan with silicone cupcake holders. I got it from Mr Price Home for R40. Very useful.

A lovely red colour. The mixture should be thick and gooey.

Finished product. Yes I really need to work on my decorating skills.

I made some mini ones for Ewan. They are finished already.

So recipe rating.

4 wine bottles out 5

Ratings guide

1 bottle - skip it this is just nasty

2 bottles- possibly worth your time if you really like the idea

3 bottles- nice but the recipe has issues or is difficult to follow

4 bottles- you should try this if you have the time

5 bottles- do not skip this. You need to eat this.