Wednesday 8 December 2010

red velvet cupcakes

I'd seen mentions of red velvet cupcakes around the place before, but until the cupcakes at Cupcake Central, I'd never had the opportunity to eat one. They were tasty (and I've eaten them several times since), but nothing AMAZING; I'd felt misled by the internets, which had proclaimed how amazing red velvet cupcakes were.

For fairness, I thought I would give baking them on my own a go, to keep on trying for what was supposed to be the greatest cupcake in the world.

red velvet cupcakes

I googled for a while, and checked out my books, for a variety of recipes. Eventually I used this recipe at Mac + Cheese. I ended up having to make two batches, because I didn't notice the tiny (but critical) 'makes about 22 cupcakes' and so made the full batter. This worked out ok, because the batter sat just fine in the fridge for a couple of days, and meant I kept myself in cupcakes for almost a week.

The batter was interesting. It was easy to mix, and fun to look at. It looks grossly awesome!

red velvet primodial batter

Baking was excellent - I didn't need to change anything about the timing or temperature, the cupcakes were just in and out with no adjustments, and the baking was perfect. A perfect rise, and very nice and soft.

The icing was a tad difficult, and I required assistance. The task was not aided by the hot weather, which led to the icing sliding off the cupcakes. I took to keeping them in the fridge.

icing the red velvets

I found the texture, especially after keeping them in the fridge, very pleasant. The cupcakes were firm but light, and the icing was perfect. The flavour of the cupcakes was a tad tart, I suspect this was due to the apple cider vinegar. Next time I might reduce the amount a little, and see how that changes the flavour, because I didn't enjoy that after taste, though I did enjoy the flavour of the eating.

Overall, a good experience! Not the world's greatest cupcake flavour by far, but delightful, and I would bake these again.

3 comments:

Johanna GGG said...

I had red velvet cake this year at a cafe and it was dry and quite horrible - really put me off eating it - though I still think maybe I will try to make it myself - but all the red food dye is hard to come at

Toshi said...

Hi Steph, I am Toshi. I am a 33 years old man coming from Japan. I and my wife are vegan and I sometimes watch your blog so that we can get the information about vegetarian or vegan restaurants! I have to thank you about it:) We used to live in Perth and moved to Melbourne last September. I am going to study interpreting & translating from February. I would like to talk yo you one day even though my English is not very good yet:0 Anyway, I am a kind of your fan and I am enjoying your blog!

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