Red Velvet Cupcakes

Similar to the consistency of the delectable Chocolate ones, by popular request I dished out a batch of red velvet with cream cheese frosting. For those of you that are aware of my baking restrictions (eggs), this is another one of those masterpieces that is a gem in the art of eggless baking. You could never tell that these decadent soft and perfectly textured cupcakes have not one hint of so much as an egg white in them!

You can easily half the recipe, but bear in mind that the recipe set out below makes around 36 small cupcakes, and approximately 22 regular sized ones. I made a mix of both!

Cupcake Ingredients:

2 cups milk

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 ½ cups of flour

2 cups granulated sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup vegetable/canola oil

1 tablespoon red food colouring (liquid)

2 vanilla pods sliced and pulped

½ tsp almond extract (optional)

Directions:

1.       Preheat the oven to 175*c and line the cupcake tins with the prettiest liners you can find.

2.       Combine the wet ingredients- milk and the vinegar. Let it sit and curdle for a few minutes so as to mimic buttermilk. In the mean time, mix together the dry ingredients in another bowl- flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3.       Mix in the oil, colour, vanilla and almond extract into the curdled milk. Mix with the dry ingredients and mix until lumps disappear. Pour until 2/3 rds of the liner and bake for 18-25 minutes. Remove and allow to fully cool on a wire rack before you ice the cupcakes or else the cream cheese will melt on contact with the warm cupcakes and slide off- we wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1.       Cream with a blender ½ cup of unsalted butter (i used salted by mistake, and although it wasn’t a disaster at all, i think i am going to stick with unsalted as a personal preference. Either works!) and ½ cup cream cheese until well combined and lighter looking. Sift in 4 cups of confectioners sugar by ½ cup batches to ensure it gets well combined.  Lastly, add the good stuff of 1-2 vanilla pods and thoroughly whisk until fluffy. Set to chill for an hour or so before the cupcakes are frosted.

2.       Enjoy!

Feedback:

1.       The original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of red food colouring for half the recipe quantity. I used 2 tablespoons for double the recipe and found it too dark, hence I have modified the recipe to ensure that it looks like a red velvet instead of dark crimson!

2.       On another note- i don’t love the idea of using food colouring. I believe that beet root juice lends a gorgeous colour instead of food colouring, next time![Update (July 5, 2011): I tried these with 2 tablespoons of beet root juice and it worked wonderfully!! No one could tell!!]

3.       To make this a vegan recipe- simply swap the milk for soy milk and the butter for margarine.