Baking Project #4: Red Velvet Cupcakes

To be quite frankly, it occurred to me once that red velvet cake is going to be the end of my baking addiction. There's no in between with this cake, it's either I get it or I don't. And I miss most of the time!

Prior to my first attempt of baking it, I have no idea or heard of it before. Even the restaurants and cafes I frequent don't have it in their menu. One day though, I was browsing all the recipes at Joy of Baking when I saw this photo of a cake. It looked simple but the combination of colors caught my attention. The burst of red made it interesting and intriguing. I studied the recipe and read it over and over again. I haven't even started yet but I was already intimidated. I couldn't quite figure it out but somehow my subconscious knew that I was doomed for a failure. And I did. I made it that day and even after the 40 minutes were up, the cake still looked creamy and nowhere near completely baked. I replaced it in the oven and baked for another 5 minutes... and another 5... and another 5. In the end, I baked it for twice as much as was said on the recipe and the top was burnt and I had to cut that part.

Two years later, I saw a recipe for red velvet cupcakes using a different method. So I tainted my hands with red yesterday and I dare say, they were really good. They were the softest cupcakes I ever made and tasted! It's not as red as I hoped it would be but that can easily be repaired. What's important is, I FINALLY found the perfect recipe! 

RECIPE                                                                                                                                                    

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted

1 cup vegetable oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp vinegar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 oz (30 ml) red food color

1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 deg C). Line muffin tins with cupcake liners
2. Measure cake flour in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, vinegar and salt.
4. In the bowl of your mixer, beat sugar and oil until well blended.Alternately add flour and wet mixture in three additions beginning and ending with flour. Mix in cocoa powder and food color.
5. Fill muffin tins to half-full and bake to 15-17 minutes or  until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in tins for a few minutes. Remove from tins and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Note:

       *Makes about 30 3-oz cupcakes

       *I am using a small oven that can only accommodate 9 cupcakes at a time. What I do is bake

         them on the lower rack for 15 minutes and then transfer them to the middle rack and bake for

         another 3-5 minutes.   

Recipe adapted from She Make and Bakes