I finally figured it out to a standard I’m happy with.

When I made these cupcakes for the first time I used liquid food colouring. After that, I had the Wilton gel and used that for a few times. I was still getting the bright pinky colour and was scratching my head. Gel colouring is great for colouring fondant but not really in baking.

After a bit of research and the last post where I was voicing my concerns for the loss of the red cake, I have worked it out.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (makes 12 large or 18 mini)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Self-Raising Flour
• 115g unsalted butter (also known as roughly one stick of butter)
• 1/3 cup Caster Sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• cochineal and red liquid food colouring

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 175C (160C for fan forced). This is also the point where I remind you that having an oven thermometer is one of the greatest things you can do for your baking!
2. Beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla and mix until all combined.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
4. In a seperate cup, measure out the buttermilk and add cochineal and red food colouring until you have a bright red. Only add a little bit at a time to see the colour start to come through. Mix it through with a small whisk, as buttermilk is thicker than normal milk. (FYI, cochineal is a dark purpley-red colour, so you’ll want to add that first, mix, and follow with red).
5. Sift flour and cocoa and add half into the mixture with half of your red buttermilk. You should get a red that’s not too fluroescent and not too light, thanks to the cocoa and cochineal colours. Add the other halves and mix until combined but don’t overmix.
6. If you’re not happy with the colour here, add a little bit more red/cochineal colouring. Don’t add anymore cocoa to try and get it darker or it will go more of a brown than a red. For reference, I don’t use any more than a teaspoon of cochineal and a tablespoon of red.
7. Spoon it into your baking cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Check at the 15 minute mark. If you leave them in too long, they will brown on the top and contrast with the red of the cake.

It always seems they’re not quite done when you poke a skewer in and it comes out clean, but the top springs back a lot. Believe in the skewer – and point it in on an angle if you’re unsure to double check. And don’t delay – they really do start turning brown quickly and you want them as spongy and red as you can get.

Leave them to cool completely before you store them anywhere or the cases will peel away from the cupcakes (due to humidity in cooling).

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 225g Philadelphia cream cheese (cold)
• 110g unsalted butter (close to room temperature, but not too melty)
• 3-4 cups sifted pure icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk (only if really needed)

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and icing sugar one cup at a time. I say 3-4 cups because it depends on how the butter responds, especially what temperature it is at.
2. When the sugar and butter are all combined and it’s a huge gluggy mess your mixer is having trouble with, throw in the cream cheese (chopped). It should mix through straight away.
3. Mix until *just* combined and taste test – if it tastes like all the ingredients it’s done. If it tastes too cream cheese or butter mix some more until it’s all combined.

The key to this is not to overmix it – as much as you want to! You should have a nice thick sweet tasting frosting with that cream cheese kick. If it’s too thick to pipe, leave it for 3-4 minutes covered in cling wrap or add a tiny bit of milk. If you add too much it’ll go runny beyond repair so be veeery careful with adding liquids at the end.

As a little extra, the hearts in the picture are just white fondant, coloured with Wilton red gel colouring, and cut out with a tiny heart cutter I have for just that. I only use the 1M Wilton tip for piping as it’s the best icecream swirl there is.

I delivered a lot of orders for Cupcake Treats for this, as it was my Valentines special – and they are all amazingly perfect and taste delicious. I had some left over and my housemates loved them (so did all of my clients)!

I have been baking chocolate cupcakes a lot lately and have noticed they are a little drier than usual. I think it might be due to the weather, so I am going to start adding a little bit more butter each time to see if I can get an even balance for the seasons. We have extremes of 41 degrees for four days in Summer (one year we had 14 days of over 35) to 1 degree nights and 10 degree days in Winter.

All this considered, I decided to make a batch of double chocolate this morning. It was going to be triple chocolate but I ran out of chocolate!

Double Choc Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 120g butter (Normally it’s 100-110, but I am trying more as the weather is affecting them)
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• ½ cup milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC or 160ºC fan forced. This is where the oven thermometer comes in handy!
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until all combined. Add eggs one by one and mix until just mixed through.
3. In a seperate bowl, sift the Self Raising flour and cocoa. Add to the mixture with milk. Stir until just combined.
4. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Genache Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Thickened Cream
• 200g Dark Chocolate (You can use milk chocolate if you like, I used a combination of both as I was running low)

Method:

1. Break the cooking chocolate into pieces and put aside in a bowl that will be large enough to hold the chocolate and cream.
2. Put the cream into a small saucepan and stir over medium heat. Bring to the boil.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate in the bowl and stir until chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. This may take up to five minutes before everything melts through.
4. Leave the bowl to cool down and then place in the fridge until cold, but not solid. If you’re in doubt about whether it is ready to use, take the bowl out and mix thoroughly with a large spoon. If it holds when you tip the bowl onto its side (and doesn’t move) it’s ready.

If you’re piping it with a plastic piping bag, be careful – if the grenache is too thick you will split the piping bag for sure. You can always leave the bowl on your kitchen bench for five minutes and try to pipe it again.

These tasted magnificent! Happy baking xx