Tickling Palates: Red Velvet Cup Cakes ~ For Blog Hop Wednesdays

It is showering cakes and cookies this month where ever I look around in the blog world. No complaints as it adds more zing to to the festive spirit. My long time wish to bake these cakes came true when I saw this in Princy’s space who is my assigned partner for this week’s Blog Hop. I so badly wanted to make her Eggless Tiramisu but may be some other time. So what do you do when you go ahead to bake Red velvet cup cakes and in the middle of the process you find that there is no red food color at hand ? I can hear a few sighs..... see a few raised eye brows... read ahead to find out for yourself.

Princy had baked it into a full fledged cake but I went with cup cakes so that I can watch over and control Arun’s Portion. Embarrassed smile

When it comes to cakes he demands a free hand and I refuse to give that. The cake turned out moist and yummy just as I wanted them to be. The only problem was I did not have enough time at hand and in my hurry to get it clicked and done with, before my guests arrived I pried away a few from the cases before giving it enough cooling time hence the wobbly shape. The others were just perfect the next day. I also referred here to get an understanding of how this cake worked.

I do not feel comfortable clicking at food in front of guests. As many are not aware of my food blog they would think that I had gone bonkers. This is the first time I using cake flour and I must say that I loved it to bits. The cakes turned out so spongy and crumbly and it was simply a delight to sink in the teeth into that inviting soft ones.... I still do not feel confident enough to use frosting not to mention that I also do not happen to have any tools at hand to try it out.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 12

(Print this Recipe)

You’ll need:

Dry Ingredients:

Cake Flour, sifted – 1 1/4 cups**
Baking powder – 1/4 tsp
salt – 1/4 tsp
Cocoa powder – 1 tsp
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Baking soda – 1/2 tsp

Wet Ingredients:

Butter – 1/4 cup
Egg – 1
Butter milk – 1/2 cup***
Rose milk synthetic concentrate – 2 tsp
Vinegar – 1/2 tsp

Method:

Preparation: Preheat the oven @ 180 Deg C. Grease and flour the muffin pan. Skip it if using paper liners. In a cup whisk together buttermilk and rose milk concentrate and keep it ready.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
I used my hand mixer to beat the butter till soft. Now add the sugar and beat till it becomes fluffy. Now add the egg and beat till everything gets mixed well.
Add the flour mixture little by little to the beaten sugar and butter alternating with the readily kept colored buttermilk till everything is combined.
Now is the step to move fast and act quickly. In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Let it fizz and then quickly add it to the cake batter. Give it a good mix.
Immediately scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans and bake for 20-25 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes and them remove from pan. I did not use any frosting on top instead served after dusting powdered sugar on top.

** How to make your own Cake Flour: Measure 1 cup of flour into a bowl. Take away 2 tbsp of flour from the bowl and return it to the bin as you won’t be needing it. Replace that 2 tbsp with corn starch / corn flour to the bowl and sieve the mixture at least 5 times for both the flours to get incorporated well with each other.

*** How to make Buttermilk instantly: Add 1 tbsp of white non-fruit vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid crystals dissolved in few tbsp of water to 1 cup (240 ml) of milk. Just let this mixture stand 5 to 10 minutes. Buttermilk is ready to use.

Notes:

You can see that I did not use any Vanilla essence as the rose milk concentrate itself has a fragrance of its own and I decided to go with it alone.
I reduced the cocoa powder from the prescribed 1 tbsp as I did not want a garish color.
I also did not add the entire 1/2 cup of buttermilk fearing the batter will become runny. You need to use your judgement here, I guess depending on the thickness of the batter.
The baking soda and vinegar starts to react with the batter right away so act fast and get the cupcakes into the oven as quickly as possible.
Fill the batter only till half way as it raises like anything. I was prepared for it but if by mistake you end up filling more, place a sheet under the muffin pan for easy after cleaning.