My Kitchen Adventures: Red Velvet Fever On A Sleepless Morning

Hello!

I have here a recipe post. Yesterday, I posted about the Red Velvet Crinkles from Little Bites. While writing I had this really bad craving for the crinkles, only problem is that Las Piñas is a bit too far! :( I thought of just making my own red velvet crinkles. Though they were good, I still like the ones from Little Bites better. A few more adjustments I suppose.

I had quite a lot of left over cream cheese frosting and still had the red velvet fever. So, I made red velvet cupcakes. :)

I searched for a Red Velvet recipe that uses the ingredients that I already have on hand. I have my own recipe, but all my recipes are way over at the US. lol long story of how it got there, okay. Here goes, I tweaked this recipe a little.

Red Velvet Cupcakes by Laura Vitale

It makes 12 cuppycakes

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup of all Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp of Cocoa Powder *- I used 3 Tbsp
½ tsp of Baking Powder
½ tsp of Baking Soda
¼ tsp of Salt
¼ cup of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature
¾ cup of Granulated sugar
¾ cup of Buttermilk *read note
1 Egg
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
Red food Coloring *- I used a little less of 1 Tbsp of liquid red, you can adjust the amount 'til you reach your desired shade.

 Frosting:
2 Cups of Powdered Sugar
4 oz of Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature *read note at the bottom
2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature *read note at the bottom
1 Tbsp of Milk
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

Process:

1. Preheat your oven at 350. You shouldn't wait for your oven to get to the right temperature. Line your cupcake pan with liners.

2. In a seperate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. The first 5 stated there at the top, and set aside.

3. In a bowl, you can use a whisk and spatula or an electric/stand mixer. Cream butter and sugar til it's light and fluffy or light in color.

4. Add the egg and vanilla, mix until well combined and creamy.

5. Add half of the dry ingredients and add half of the buttermilk. I added the food color to the buttermilk. When incorporated, add the remaining dry and wet. Then mix with a spatula.

6. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter evenly in your liners.
7. Bake for 18-20min. or until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. *Mine was done before 18min. So always check your cupcakes at least 2min. before the indicated time.
8. After 2min. remove from pans and let them cool completely before frosting.

For frosting:
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix until the consistency is of a thick frosting. Best done with a mixer (if using a stand mixer, use paddle attachment and then whisk attachment).
2. Let it cool in the fridge for at least 10-15min for it to set.

**Notes:
1. Use unsweetened cocoa powder. Use the light colored cocoa powder, (I forgot what it's called, sorry, all my notes are with my recipes that are oceans away).
2. Now, here in the Philippines, buttermilk is almost impossible to find. Substitute it with regular milk and vinegar or lemon juice. For every cup of buttermilk, use 1cup of milk + 1tbsp of plain vinegar or lemon juice, let it sit for about 10-15min. If you're going to add the red food color, add it just before you pour the buttermilk in to the batter.
3. Remember, food color gives a bitter taste, don't put too much. Or try to use a no-taste red.
4. Don't over mix your cupcakes or else they will become tough and bread like.
5. The cupcakes will rise, like really big and puffy. So don't put to much batter, never fill more than half full. Best to fill it two-thirds full.
6. Frosting- if you live in a country where the climate is like the Philippines', use cream cheese and butter straight from the fridge. But not frozen! You can adjust the amount of milk or powdered sugar, if it's too thick, add more milk, if it's too runny, add more sugar.

Enjoy and Good Luck! :)

I used this vanilla.

I love the Vanilla Company's vanilla extracts. These are pure and not like the imitation ones, pure extracts are better to use, specially if the vanilla flavor has to stand out. I usually buy at Gourdo's and Cook's Exchange. I prefer the bourbon one over the tahitian one.

The turn out was good, the cupcakes were delicious. It's a dense cupcake, but isn't dry. If you want a more moist cupcake with a tender crumb, you can use recipes that use cake flour. I'm not fully satisfied though, I'm looking for a specific taste. This makes me want to go on a search for the best Red Velvet cupcake recipe. 

The cream cheese frosting on top of red velvet cupcakes that I usually see are piped using big round tips, some with just a big round glop of icing, or topped with a fondant heart, or sprinkled with a little bit of cocoa. But I used a star tip for this one. I wanted to try a sort of rosette look. I'm not sure what tip number this is, it's Ateco, but a Wilton 1M tip is usually used for rosettes.

For a person without sleep, I think I did pretty well. I was bored and couldn't sleep so I ended up baking. :)

Ughhh...

I'm still not sleepy or tired! So I made this post, and I'm done writing this post and still not feeling anything. Hmmm maybe I'll go play Dance Central on kinect and dance my arse off.

XXXOOO,

   Les :)