I baked red velvet cupcakes using the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Her recipe calls for 3 oz of red food coloring, but I got scared and only put 2. They're still plenty red to me!
Let me preface this by saying this is only my second time making cupcakes from scratch (the first time which I posted about earlier)
The sugar and egg mixture actually thickened and got more viscous! It was liquidy and I just thought that was the way it was supposed to be but we just kept beating until my friend got the food coloring ready and dumped it in. No idea if it matters if you get it to this stage or not.
It's not actually THIS red.. the flash exaggerates a bit.
Friend wanted to make Laffy Taffy icing. Melting the taffy with 2 tbsp heavy cream.
Red velvet minis with laffy taffy icing
Cream cheese frosting! A bit sweet to my taste buds. I can't really taste the cream cheese (maybe because I tasted a bajillion other things) but my aptmate says the flavor is there and it tastes like cheesecake.
Tada~
Even with only 2/3 the amount of food coloring called for they're still super red, and super yummy. Not that sweet at all. In pictures I've seen around they all appear much darker so I was afraid the red wouldn't show, but after this, maybe I can cut it to only 1 oz of food coloring.
I don't have a picture of the interior yet, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I've had way too many cupcakes today and don't feel well at all X_X.
Red Velvet Cake taken from Smitten Kitchen
Red Velvet Cake
Yield: 3 cake layers
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring or 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tablespoons of water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.
Cupcake variation: Since this has been published, many readers have written in to express that it adapts well to cupcakes. The yield is approximately 35 cupcakes, with the liners filled only 3/4 of the way, and the baking time should be between 20 to 25 minutes, but check in on them 2/3 of the way through in case your oven gets the job done faster.
Cocoa Notes
- Some red velvet cakes have no cocoa, others have up to half a cup. The less cocoa, the brighter the red, and the less food dye is needed to give it the desired hue. This cake has more cocoa and quite a bit of red dye, but as you cans see from the picture, it is a real stand-out red. Feel free to use less, but make sure you dissolve it in 6 tablespoons of water to compensate for any moisture lost.
- Dutch versus Non-Dutched cocoa: This recipe uses baking soda, so it calls for non-Dutch-Processed cocoa. The reason is that Dutch-Process cocoa is neutral and will not react with baking soda, so it can only be used in 1) recipes with baking powder or 2) recipes with enough other acidic ingredients that will compensate for the lack of acidity. However, you’ll notice that this recipe has both vinegar and buttermilk in it, or quite a bit of acidity, leading me to wonder if either kind of cocoa could be used with success. I had non-Dutch on hand, so I used it, but if you only have Dutch and try this recipe, let us know if it works. Personally, I prefer the Dutched stuff because it usually is of a higher quality with a more delicate chocolate flavor.
Cream Cheese Frosting: from Food Network
4 oz Butter
4 oz Cream Cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Blend altogether.
Laffy Taffy Frosting
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