*Almost* Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cupcake. That is one of my most favourite words. Beautiful, scrumptious, wonderful little cakes. Oh how I love cupcakes! *Confession* - up until two years ago, when I stumbled upon Bakerella’s blog, I had never heard of a red velvet cake?!?! It seems to be one of the MOST common cupcakes, and I had never heard of it! So I attempted to make one for my husband’s birthday, which also happens to be Valentines Day (explains why I chose a red cake). It was a disaster!!!It was like a red piece of foam, DENSE foam. I tossed the recipe to the back of my recipe file and forgot about it. 

That was until I am Baker sent out an offer to be part of her new project “Baking With…” series. She said if anyone wanted to take part to leave a comment with a link to your blog. I couldn’t resit, I checked out all the links that people left, and I am so glad I did! I came across the most DIVINE recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes  on Fat Girl Trapped in A SkinnyBody’s Blog…

They were super easy to make, and if I had followed the direction properly, they would have been perfect. My inability to follow directions exactly, is profound ! At least they tasted wonderful – they were just too BROWN due to TOO MUCH cocoa! I was able to use my hand-held-single-beater mixer (my Kenwood will be on the mend soon) – making this recipe a real anybody-can-make recipe!

 

It made it even easier that I came across these little cupcake holders at Bake-A-Ton. They make baking cupcakes or muffins so much easier – they stand on their own. No need for cupcake pans, so you can fit more in the oven at a time.

 

Plus, with the high sides you fill these a little more than you would do for normal liners (although the mixture doesn’t go as far). They are also awesome because they don’t get all greasy and go transparent-ish during the baking process!

Note: at this point these should actually be more red, but as discussed already  -  I almost always have difficulty following recipes as I should.

They were super moist and ultra tasty. I didn’t make the traditional cream cheese frosting for these, I opted rather for butter cream icing, made with butter – hence the yellow tinge to the icing! I swear butter gives the icing a MUCH better taste! 

We etta dem alllll! :) (see this,)

Thanks Bakerella, I am Baker and  Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body  for all your inspiration! 

I really admire you guys!

 

To see how real Red Velvet Cupcakes should look and to get the REAL recipe – go here

or to try my version....

Recipe for more-chocolatey-not-so-red Velvet Cupcakes:

Makes 18 large cupcakes

2½ cups  flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp bicarb
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2  eggs
1½ cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp  vanilla extract
1 tsp  lemon juice
red food coloring

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl
In another bowl combine wet ingredients with an electric beater
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth
Bake for 20min @ 180°C  

Download the Recipe Card:

More-chocolatey-not-so-red Velvet Cupcakes