Red Velvet Cupcakes

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)!