Bye bye red velvet cupcakes

Red velvet is one of my favourite cupcake flavours, although I try not to play favourite with my cupcakes! But baking yourself moist, thick chocolate-y cake topped with cream cheese frosting must be up high in the list of self indulgent things one can do.

And they are red! and I am Spanish, so meant to be…

There are plenty of red velvet recipes going around but I tend to prefer the simpler options, after all I am no professional baker just an “aficionado” so why complicate life more?

So here is my recipe that I’ve compiled cutting here and there, tasting this and that, failing once (or twice! or lots!)

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting:

INGREDIENTS:

100g room temperature unsalted butter (I also use Nuttelex Light, less calories, nutty taste!)
½ cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon white vinegar
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp red food colouring (more depending on how intense you want the colour to be)

Cream cheese icing (i don’t add butter to my cream cheese frosting, I like my cream cheese tasting like cream cheese! but if not add less cheese and around 100gr of softened butter)

3 cups icing sugar mixture
200g cream cheese, softened

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with liners. Set aside.

Sift flour and baking powder in to a mixing bowl. Add cocoa and food colouring and mix to have a paste (if it’s too dense add a spoon of water). Set aside.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy (better if you use an electric beater). Add vanilla and eggs (while beating if you have a stand beater). Finally add the flour mix, buttermilk, vinegar, and cocoa and beat until it’s smooth.

Put 2 table spoons of dough in each cupcake liner (3/4) and bake for 15mins. Then stick a toothpick in the middle of the cupcakes (better the ones in the centre) and if it comes out clean they are done!

While they are cooling on a rack, beat together the cream cheese and when its soft and homogeneous add icing sugar. When the cupcakes have cooled down completely pipe the cream cheese on top and tachan! (Do they say tachan here? they do say it in Spain…)