Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

We had a small get together of college friends living in Phoenix, the other day. It was just three of us. All of us were not that close to each other, while in college. All of us had different gangs of friends and were used to having a hi-bye-hello relationship. But when we met, we hardly had our tongue resting for a while. We kept on chit chatting till it got dark and we had to return to our own homes. It was fun to have met them after so long and we hope to meet more often :).

While we planned to meet, I was wondering what to make, to serve something sweet. Has it happened to you that the days when your snack box is full, you end up having all of it by yourselves and when someone pays you an unplanned visit, you panic when you see the snack box empty and clueless what to serve them ? Happens with me quite frequently. Since this time we were just back from a trip, the snack box was empty and to add to it, the house was also in a mess.

I opened up my wish list and found red velvet cup cake which was about to fade off. Little exaggerated, but yes it had been in my wish list for so long. I kept pushing it. Lazy meee...Well I gave it a try finally going by the recipe from Joy of Baking. And they turned out soft, spongy and delicious. But I haven't been fair to them, by not doing justice to the photography bit as I was too busy concentrating on the cupcake that I was having while shooting them. Anyways, here is how I made them.

Ingredients

For the Red Velvet Cupcakes

1. 1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour/maida
2. 1 tbsp of dark cocoa powder
3. 1/4 tsp of baking powder
4. 4 tbsp of salted butter @ room temperature
5. 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
6. 1 large egg
7. 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
8. 1/2 cup of buttermilk
9. 1 tbsp of liquid red food coloring
10. 1/2 tsp of distilled white vinegar
11. 1/2 tsp of baking soda

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1. 8 ounce or 227 gms of cream cheese @ room temperature
2. 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
3. 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
4. 2/3 cup of cold heavy whipping cream

Method


Making of Red Velvet Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 175 C
• In a bowl, sift all purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Keep it aside. 
• In another bowl, take the butter and beat it until smooth. Add the sugar and beat it till they blend well. Now add the egg and vanilla extract and mix it thoroughly.
• In a separate bowl, take the butter milk and add the red food colour and mix it well.
• To the butter mixture, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and buttermilk mixture in 2 additions, starting and ending with the flour. Give it a thorough mix.
• In a separate bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda. It would fizz. Quickly fold it into the cake batter. 
• Divide the batter to cupcake moulds lined with cupcake liners and smooth the tops with a spoon.
• Bake it in the oven to 20-22 minutes or untill a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove it from the oven and let it cool for about 10 mins before you separate them from the pan.
• Let it cool completely before you go ahead and pipe out the frosting on them.

Making of Cream Cheese Frosting

• In a bowl, add the cream cheese. Beat it, until its smooth. 
• Add the vanilla extract and powdered sugar and beat it again until it combines well.
• In another bowl, add the cold whipped cream and whip it untill it forms stiff peaks and then add it to the cream cheese mixture and fold it in. This mixture should be thick enough to pipe it out on to the cup cakes.

Tips

1. You could use the same recipe to make red velvet cakes by increasing the amount of ingredients proportionally.
2. Be careful while you work with the food colour, to prevent staining your clothes or kitchen counter tops.
3. Whipping cream should be heavy enough to form stiff peaks else the frosting may fall.