Red Velvet Cupcakes

I decided to make red velvet cupcakes for the chinese new year dinner at Dave and Ruby's (see previous post) I chose red velvet as it was Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day on the same day. Red is an auspicious colour in chinese culture and red is also the colour of love. I used my favourite hummingbird bakery recipe but was a little over-zealous with the food colouring as you can see. Oops! The cake still tasted good though :) I added in a little 'surprise' in the form of a gold coin for luck for the new year. It's not a new idea (see new year post) but it works everytime.

my super red batter

with gold coins

Did I mention how red it turned out? (Love the colour though)

I think my piping skills are finally improving :)

I sprinkled miniature hearts on half of the cakes for Valentine's and left the other half plain

Cross section of the cake

Red Velvet Cupcakes (recipe from the hummingbird bakery cookbook, I've simplified the method section for this post)

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

150g caster sugar

1 egg

10g cocoa powder

20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr Oetker red food colouring)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1.5 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese cold

• Preheat the oven to 170C
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Slowly add the egg and beat well.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste.
• Add to the butter mixture and mix well.
• Slowly pour in half the buttermilk, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated.
• Repeat until all the flour and buttermilk have been added.
• Add salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.
• Beat until well mixed.
• Spoon mixture into paper cases until 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
• Leave to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• To make the frosting, beat together the icing sugar and butter and then add the cream cheese in one go and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Be careful not to overbeat as it can become runny.