My Food Blog List

Monday, July 25, 2011

Red velvet sucks big time!


The simple amazing red velvet cake has been a hit with everyone for years. It is not just the flavor of red velvet cake, it's the amazing look of it. So after a few months of buying red velvet cakes... i decided to give it a try.

But things doesn't goes as planned... I forgot to bring home the recipe! Lucky i have Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book in bedroom, I flipped over and found the recipe.... Yes, i kept my recipe book in bedroom. Don't be surprised when you find Jill Colonna's "Mad About Macarons!" book under my pillow :p

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

With an electric hand mixer, i whisked together sugar and oil until combine. I have doubt about the batter already. It look heavy... ok, maybe later it will become light and fluffy. Continue to add egg, one at a time. Mixed in food color and vanilla. Then i added in flour mixture with two additions of buttermilk. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar, add mixture to the batter and mix for another 10 seconds.

After baked for 30 mins at 350F.... here are the results. The cream cheese topping is also a disaster... so runny and i can't even pipe :( i ended up with cream cheese ganache.

The next day I brought the not-so-red-velvet-cupcakes to office. I sat at my place and look at the recipe that i forgot to bring home the other day. They were totally different, i knew it! Something wrong with the earlier recipe. Feeling guilty, i told my friends that i won't be serving them the cupcakes. They were nice enough to say it's ok, let's try it... but i just can't. What if they got food poisoning?

Later that night, i wanted to give Red Velvet Cupcakes another try. This time i'm using this recipe:

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz. red food coloring
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanila extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl; set aside. In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using hand mixer beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.. about 3 mins. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scrapping down the bowl as you go. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure the scrap dwon the bowl with a spatula.
4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. It will fizz... add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill the cupcake cups with cake batter (3/4 full). Place the pan on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for approximately 20-22 mins... rotating pans halfway through.
5. Cool the cupcakes and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

With a hand mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered until ready to use.

Finally, my Red Velvet cuppies :)

No comments:

Post a Comment