Red Velvet Cupcakes

I love red velvet cake/pastry/cupcake. Unfortunately, I am yet to find a bakery in Gurgaon which has this. No kidding... Binge, L'Opera, Taj Vivanta etc do not have it. How I miss Rolling Pin at R City Mall, Ghatkopar. I was addicted to their red velvet pastry. Sure, Choco La does have it but it is a little hard.
While reading this month's Femina I came across the recipe for this by Pooja Dhingra (of Le 15 Patisserie fame) and decided to make it this weekend.

What I like about Red velvet is that it is not too sweet... and the cream cheese frosting complements it so well. Unlike a regular pastry which has sweet cake and a sweeter frosting.

Makes 5-6 cupcakes.
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
- 55 gm butter
- 150 gm caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp red food coloring (do not use the gel color, use the liquid color)
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- a pinch of salt
- 100 gm yoghurt
- 120 gm flour (maida)
- 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda

For the cream cheese frosting:
- 125 gm cream cheese, cold (I used the one from Britannia... it is so much cheaper)
- 50 gm butter, at room temperature
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 300 gm icing sugar, sifted

I was not very accurate with the measurements because I don't have the measuring cups. Weird, I know but I have not baked in a long time. Will definitely buy them now. In fact I just realized that I forgot to add vinegar and baking soda yet the cupcakes turned out fine. And thats why I prefer making cupcakes, unlike a cake where measurements are very important.

Method:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line 6 cupcake tin with liners
- In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream butter and caster sugar till light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Add the egg and beat well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together red food coloring, cocoa and vanilla essence. Add to the batter and beat well
- In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the yoghurt and whisk well. Beat into the batter. Add flour and beat until flour just disappears into the batter.
- In a small bowl, stir together vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Pipe batter into the cupcake liners till 3/4th full. Bake for 20 mins till a skewer comes out clean
- To make frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together till smooth. Add lemon zest and beat. Gradually add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating continuously till smooth and creamy.
- Cover and refrigerate frosting for 2-3 hours before piping on to cupcakes.

Yummilicios red velvet cupcakes are ready.  

Birthday Cake

I made this cake for my hubby's b'day in June last year. I have never tried a cake of this level... with frosting and everything. Instead of the usual cakes I wanted to try something new. I decided on a 2 cakes- one on top of another and red velvet cake. I used a heart shaped pan and a round pan.

Please don't mind the juvenile looking frosting. It is my first attempt.

Cake: Recipe taken from here 

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups of sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 tbsp liquid red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cider vinegar

Method:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
- Grease and lightly flour 2 or 3 round 9" cake pans.
- Sift flour and salt together, set aside. 
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar.  Mix until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time.  Mix well after each addition. 
- Add the flour mixture to the bowl alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  - - Blend in vanilla.
- In a small bowl, mix the 1 1/2 tbsp red food coloring and 1 tbsp cocoa powder until a paste forms.  Add to the sugar and butter mixture.  Mix well.
-  In a small bowl or condiment cup, stir together the baking soda and cider vinegar.  This will foam and should be put into the batter immediately after well mixed.  After adding the foam mixture, blend on medium-high speed until batter is consistent.

- Spoon batter evenly into pans - batter will be very thick!  Level  top of batter with an offset spatula.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

- 1 - 8 ounce (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature

- 1 - 8 ounce (227 grams) tub of Mascarpone cheese, room temperature

- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

- 1 cup (115 grams) confectioners' (icing or powdered) sugar, sifted

- 1 1/2 (360 ml) cups cold heavy whipping cream (double cream)

METHOD...

- In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth.
-Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and beat until smooth.
-Using the whisk attachment, gradually add the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is thick enough to spread. Add more sugar or cream as needed to get the right consistency.

The cream cheese frosting was perfect for it since the cake was sweet and the cheesy, not so sweet frosting balanced that. A regular frosting would be a bad idea with this.

I used red readymade icing (or is it marzipan) in a tube for the decorations. Too tacky, I know. I do not like marzipan and will avoid it in the future.