I figure it's been a while since I did anything vaguely helpful on this blog and it's about time that I shared some hints and tips. As I've been making so many Red Velvet Cakes recently with 200 to make this week alone, it seems like a good place to start.
Recipe (taken from the Hummingbird Bakery Recipe Book and slightly adapted)
Makes 16 cupcakes
For the Sponge
120g unsalted butter
300g caster sugar
2 large eggs
20g sifted cocoa powder
38ml red food colouring
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
300g sifted plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
240ml buttermilk
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
100g softened unsalted butter
600g sifted icing sugar
250g soft cheese (Philadelphia)
1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF), Gas Mark 5
2. Mix the butter and sugar together (known as creaming) with either a food processor or an electric hand whisk until they are pale and fluffy.
3. Whisk the eggs together separately and slowly add the eggs until everything is mixed together.
4. In a separate bowl, make a smooth paste out of the food colouring, vanilla essence and the cocoa powder and then add it to the batter. Mix thoroughly.
5. Mix the salt and the flour together and then add half of it to the batter and mix together. Then mix half of the buttermilk with the batter and repeat the steps again until everything is mixed in smoothly. You will need to use a spatula or a spoon along the edges of the bowl to make sure that everything is fully mixed together.
6. Lastly add the white wine vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to the mixture and mix it all up until everything is incorporated.
7. Fill the muffin cases to just over half way and cook in the oven for about 18-20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when you put it into the centre of a cupcake.
Leave to cool down a bit (so you don't burn your hands) and then cool the cakes on a wire rack.
8. For the frosting add everything together in a bowl & mix with an electric mixer on a medium speed until it is smooth and there are no more lumps... Easy peasy. If you are not icing the cakes straight away then store the icing in the fridge. It gets quite hard when it is cold so leave it out of the fridge if you will be icing them at the same time.
9. Lastly cover the cakes with the frosting when they are completely cool otherwise the frosting will melt.
Things to watch out for!
1. Don't try and substitute the ingredients as it won't taste as amazing! It's worth taking the time to find the right thing. For buttermilk go to a big store like Tescos, Morrisons, Sainsburys or Waitrose etc. Note - Asda does not sell buttermilk and you won't get it in smaller versions of the above stores.
2. Artificial food colouring is best - in my opinion at least. It gives a proper red colour and has no lingering flavours (only dodgy chemicals :). I tried to use natural food colouring once and ended up with Brown Velvet cake that had hints of beetroot & paprika flavours lingering in the background. If that is your sort of thing then by all means go for it but I was unhappy with the effect.
3. This mixture makes a lot of cakes. Depending on how full you want the muffin case you can get way more than 16 out of this mix. I have found that if I try to fill the cases up too much, it overflows and you end up getting ugly cupcakes. Not my thing but they still taste gorgeous. It's a fine line between under filling and over filling. Ultimately you will need to practise with your muffin cases and see what works for you....
I hope that was useful, happy baking :)
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