I didn't have a bottle of red food colouring with me (only yellow, green and blue) so I decided to omit it. After all, red velvet is so-called because of its colour right? [Source: Wikipedia] However, red velvet cupcakes without the red makes a very dull cake. Besides the lack of colour, there isn't much flavour to these cupcakes. Nat and I had to experiment by adding cinnamon and edible pansies to decorate and improve its taste.
(Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 10 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon red food colouring (I didn't have this)
- Put a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 180C. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Sift together flour and baking powder into a bowl. Set aside.
- Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with the milk and red dye in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until just incorporated.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the cakes a pick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes then remove cupcakes from muffin tin and let cool on a wire rack.
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
- 150g salted butter, softened at room temperature
- 125g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed [to taste]
- 1/2 cup icing sugar [to taste]
- 2-4 tablespoons milk, depending on desired consistency
- Cream the cream cheese in an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add the butter, beating for 1-2 minutes, or until incorporated.
- Add the brown sugar and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Turn off mixer and add half of the icing sugar. With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add more sugar alternately with the milk until you reach your desired consistency.
(Print-friendly recipe here)
Like the previous recipe, Nat found that the frosting and cupcakes tasted very similar. I wished they were different coloured. Next time a recipe asks for food colouring, I'll pull out my blue and green colours... They may appear strange but at least they would be more interesting-looking than this batch of colourless velvet cupcakes!

No comments:
Post a Comment