I baked these delicious red velvet cupcakes yesterday while I was impatiently waiting for Mad Men to come on. That makes two weekend in a row spent in the kitchen baking my heart out. Last week was whoopie pies in case you missed them.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz. red food coloring (two bottles)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.  In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go.  Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda.  Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter 2/3 – 3/4 full.  Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Cool cupcakes in tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting :

3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter

1. Blend into a small saucepan the 3 tablespoons of flour and the cup of milk. Add the milk to the flour slowly, avoiding lumps.

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture resembles glue.

3. Cool completely.

4. Cream together sugar, butter, and vanilla until fluffy.

5. Add to cooked mixture. Beat, high speed, until very fluffy. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Tags: Food

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 12:18 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.