Red Velvet Cupcakes

I've always had a bit of fascination with red velvet cake, a traditional Southern American specialty often referred to as "the chocolate cake of the south".

The cake is so named because of its incredibly soft texture, the moist crumb arising from the use of buttermilk and its fluffy aeration a result of the buttermilk's reaction with vinegar. Most red velvet cakes use cocoa although there's not an overly strong chocolate flavour. The red colour comes from food colouring, although apparently this may have its roots in traditional cocoa (pre-Dutch processing era) naturally turning reddish-brown when reacting with alkaline vinegar. Naturally this cake is always popular around Valentine's Day as well as weddings.

This is the recipe I used for my recent hosting of an afternoon tea. Because of their moistness, they keep well for several days in the fridge, and as always, the cream cheese icing is always a hit.



Red velvet cupcakes
Makes 12 regular or 30 mini cupcakes
This recipe can also be doubled to make a two-tiered sponge

150g sugar
60g butter
1 egg
100g (3/4 cup) plain flour
25g (2 Tablespoons) cornflour
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
20ml red food colouring (less if using a paste)

Cream cheese icing
125g cream cheese
35g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
1 - 1 1/4 cups pure icing sugar

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. In another bowl combine the buttermilk, vanilla and vinegar.

Add a third of the dry mix to the butter mixture and beat briefly until combined. Add half of the wet mixture and beat. Repeat until you finish with the remainder of the dry mixture.

Add enough red food colouring to suit your preference. Transfer mixture to patty lined muffin tins, filling to about 1/3 full.

Bake at 175C for about 14 minutes for small cupcakes / 20 minutes for regular sized, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Top the cooled cupcakes with cream cheese icing. Store any leftover cupcakes (if there are any!) in the fridge.

Cream cheese icing

Using an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar until you reach a spreadable consistency. If the icing is too soft, refrigerate for an hour. Otherwise use a piping bag for quick and pretty swirls.

* A handy substitute for buttermilk is natural yoghurt replaced at 100% yoghurt if thin, or 50/50 thick yoghurt and milk.



And as an addendum, I've just received confirmation that my live interview on ABC Radio has finally been rescheduled and will be held this Sunday 22 March at 11am. This week's Food at Eleven segment on Simon Marnie's Weekend show will focus on food writing, with respected food journalist John Newton talking about what makes a good food writer, writing for print, and food reviews versus criticism. Naturally I'll be talking about food blogs.

Tune into 702AM, 11am-11.30am Sunday 22 March 2009.

PS. If you aren't already doing so, you can follow me on twitter here.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
How to host your own afternoon tea
GYF on 702 AM ABC Sydney