Red Velor Cupcakes

Red Velvet, for some reason, eludes me. I've tried just about every recipe under the sun and have gotten everything from watery, blood-red, vaguely chocolate-y pudding to unleavened vaguely chocolate bricks hard enough to serve as ammunition when hunting small animals. Unfortunately, it's also my Dad's favorite, and most of his past few years of birthday cakes have been virtually inedible. (But at least the frosting is delicious, right?) When I was doing small test batches of these beauties, I encountered more of the same issues. Beautifully red cakes would be rock-hard, dense chocolate biscuits. Cakes that were airy and light when coming out of the oven would collapse under their own weight, leaving me absolutely cresfallen and feeling like an absolute failure of a baker.

After so much consternation (and after a slight feeling of panic), I decided to make my standard, go-to recipe but substitute in red velvety goodness. I added a touch of chocolate, buttermilk and vinegar and hoped for the best, and after four failed batches, was finally rewarded.

Red Velor Cupcakes

Ingredient	2 Cupcakes	4 cupcakes	6 cupcakes	12 cupcakes	24 cupcakes
Unsalted Butter	1 T	2 T	3 T	6 T	12 T
Sugar	1 oz	2 oz	3 oz	6 oz	12 oz
Beaten egg	1 TBSP	2 TBSP	1	1	2
Flour	1.33 oz	2 3/4 oz	4.25 oz	8.5 oz	17 oz
Baking powder	pinch	1/8 t	2/3 tsp	1 t	2 t
Baking soda	pinch	1/8 tsp	2/3 tsp	1 t	2 t
Vinegar		1/8 tsp	2/3 tsp	1 tsp	2 tsp
Salt	Pinch	Pinch	1/8	1/4 t	1/2 t
Buttermilk	1 oz	2 oz	3 oz	6 oz	12 oz
Cocoa Powder	2 tsp	4 tsp	6 tsp	12 tsp	24 tsp

Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

Mix together buttermilk and vinegar. Set aside.

Cream together room temperature butter and sugar. Add egg and beat well.

Add 1/3 of wet mixture and 1/3 of dry mixture at a time, beating well after each incorporation.

Pour into prepared cupcake cups (1.75 oz's for nice, rounded cupcakes; 2 oz's for fuller cupcakes like pictured).

Bake for 18-23 minutes until the centers are finished.

Enjoy.


And the best part of red velvet is, of course, the cream cheese frosting, which is also quite possibly the best-est, easiest, tastiest frosting ever, and doesn't even require a recipe. Mix together a half-brick (4 oz) of cream cheese, 2 TBSP (1 oz) butter and thicken it out with confectioner's sugar, et voila, magic!

Top with red sprinkles for awesome Valentine's Day love, or eat with a spoon...either way is delicious.

Chocolate and Vanilla Icecream Cone Cupcakes

These lovelies were made for an end-of-the-year picnic and were still pretty experimental. I had seen the recipe online and wanted to try it for myself, and figured a largish event would be a good place to get some feedback.

Having yet to discover my perfect cupcake recipe, I tried Alton Brown's Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake recipe. While I love Alton Brown, I was sorely unimpressed with this particular recipe of his. Consequently, I made Amy Sedaris's Cupcake recipe for the half-dozen vanilla cupcakes.


Amy Sedaris's Cupcakes
This recipe yields about 24 cupcakes; I scaled it down to half for my purposes.

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in milk, salt, and baking powder. Carefully add the flour.

Beat well and fill a muffin tin lined with paper cupcake cups 3/4 of the way full. Spray cupcake cups lightly with Pam before pouring batter.

Bake at 375 for 18 to 20 minutes.


I also used traditional buttercream (butter and confectioner's sugar) plus a chocolate buttercream, which is probably the best thing going.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 2/3 cups confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup half and half or milk (or sour cream)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Unsweetened Dutch Cocoa Powder (1/3 cup for light, milk chocolate; 1/2 cup for medium-chocolate; 3/4 cup for rich, dark chocolate).

Mix together the confectioner's sugar and desired amount of cocoa powder until evenly distributed.

Cream the butter until softened. Add vanilla.

Slowly add in confectioner's sugar and cocoa mix until evenly distributed. Add milk to thin mixture out until it is stiff enough to be pipe-able.

Seriously. Good. Stuff.


Perhaps the most ingenious part of this whole get up was the method of transportation. I couldn't find anything that would keep my cupcakes safe for their journey to their final destination in a park, so I improvised and made my own.

I took two doughnut boxes from the bakery at my local grocery store and taped the two boxes together. I then figured out approximately how big the base of the cupcake cones were and traced that shape onto the paper bottom. I then used an X-acto knife to *carefully* cut each hole out. I dropped my cupcakes in and et-voila! No mishaps during transport.

ah, these were the early days...they were good, but I'm glad I've got my recipes figured out now.