Sweet Treats: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Wednesday baking is back and this week I baked red velvet cupcakes (for the first time!), courtesy of the recipe on the lovely Vicky’s blog. My nan knows I’m really into baking, so bought me a few bits as part of my birthday present. One of the things I got were some silicone cases so I could not wait to try those out!

Makes 12 (although I had enough mixture for one extra, which I ate hot!)

You will need

    12 cupcake or muffin cases

    Two six hole or one 12 hole muffin tray

    Piping bag

Ingredients - for the cupcakes

    120g unsalted butter

    300g caster sugar

    2 large eggs

    20g good quality cocoa powder

    40ml red food colouring - the better the quality the better the colour of your cakes

    1 teaspoon vanilla essence

    300g plain flour

    1 teaspoon salt

    240ml buttermilk

Ingredients - for the buttercream icing

    200g unsalted butter

    400g icing sugar

    A drop of vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin tray.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric whisk. For best results, do this for at least five minutes until the butter and sugar are combined, light and fluffy.

3. Break the eggs into the bowl one at a time, whisking in between until well combined.

4. Place the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla essence into a small bowl and stir to create a paste. Add this to the cake batter.

5. Sift the flour and salt into a separate bowl. Add half of the flour and salt mix into the cake batter and mix/whisk until well combined.

6. Add half of the buttermilk to the mixture and mix well; add the remaining flour and mix to combine. Finish by adding the remaining buttermilk and mixing well.

7. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes.

8. To make the buttercream icing place the unsalted butter and icing sugar into a bowl with a drop of vanilla essence and whisk until the buttercream is smooth.

9. Spoon the buttercream icing into the piping bag and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

I had an absolute nightmare with piping the icing and after adding extra butter, I made the huge mistake of adding a teaspoon of water – DO NOT DO THIS! I had to end up spreading the icing on with a knife and it was just horrendous!

I decorated mine with mini smarties and red velvet cupcake bites (which I bought from here)

Happy baking!