Red Velvet Cupcakes

It is my sister's birthday soon (as well as Polly AB's - more of that coming later!), and I wanted to make something beyond the normal victoria sponge cake for her, so I thought I would make some fun red velvet birthday cupcakes! I took some pictures to show you my baking step-by-step.

INGREDIENTS
115 g butter
300 g white sugar
2 eggs
235 ml buttermilk
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 heaped teaspoon baking soda
15 ml distilled white vinegar
250 g all-purpose flour
30 g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt

FOR FROSTING
300g cream cheese
100g butter
1 teapsoon vanilla extract
300g Icing sugar
1 pinch salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 20 paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Mine kind of came out with a dry breadcrumb texture, but don't worry as lots of liquid is added in the next step!

Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla. This bit is a lot of fun as the mixture goes a BRIGHT red/pink. It's amazing. But don't wear anything white because it will stain! Lucky I was wearing a black dress!

Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Next, fold in the the flour using a large metal spoon.

Mix in the cocoa powder and the salt. I loved the pink and the brown together here, so gorgeous...

Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake cases, dividing evenly. I used these cute cases with little cupcake pictures all over them!

Be prepared for your kitchen to look like this...

And make sure you wipe up any stray blobs of mixture... it will stain wood.
Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. When cooled a little, put them on a wire rack.

When they are completely cool, you can make and add the frosting. First, whisk together the butter and cream cheese with an electric whisker.

Next add the icing sugar (put the electric whizzer on the slowest setting and add the sugar gradually).



Add the salt and vanilla essence and whisk until the frosting is light and smooth.

Finally, use a teaspoon to carefully pile the cupcake with the frosting. Or you can use a nozzle to squeeze it perfectly, but I liked it like this anyway!

I can tell you - these tasted good! Have fun baking!

Polly R x