Red Velvet Cupcakes

I recently promised to make dessert and send it in for my old co-workers, but I was having trouble deciding what to make that would be easy to send in for them, easy to package and travel well... Plus, they wanted something chocolately with no fruit, so my choices were a bit limited. Then Anna Olson posted a new recipe on her Facebook page and it was perfect - red velvet cupcakes! Chocolately batter with a pretty pink colour and a rich cream cheese icing to top them off and make them look beautiful. These cupcakes are light, fluffy and moist and the icing compliments them really nicely. The recipe says it makes 15 cupcakes, but I got over 20 cupcakes, but I think I make mine smaller than Anna did. Remember to adjust your cooking time based on how many cupcakes you decide to make!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe from Anna Olson

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp butter, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
• 6 tbsp white sugar
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 tbsp finely grated raw beets
• 2 tsp white vinegar

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Beat butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together 1 minute or until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In yet another bowl, stir buttermilk, grated beets, and vinegar together. Add the flour mixture alternatively with the buttermilk mixture, blending well after each addition. Spoon batter evenly between the cupcake liners. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until the top of the cupcakes spring back when pressed gently. Cool cupcakes 10 minutes in tins then remove to a rack and let cool completely.
3. For the frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat gently until sugar is incorporated, then beat vigorously until icing is fluffy. Pipe or spread frosting onto each cupcake.
4. Store cupcakes in fridge, but serve at room temperature. They will keep for 3 days in the fridge.

I hope you enjoy this recipe - I know all of my guinea pigs (whoops, I mean ex-co-workers) loved this recipe as did all of my friends I shared them with! Let me know what you think of this recipe. One thing to note about the recipe is that using beets will give the recipe a nice subtle pinky tone - if you are after the vivid red colour found in commercial bakeries and store bought products, you'll need to load this recipe up with red food colouring. Its completely up to you, but I prefer the natural way of colouring the batter... the colour is soft, subtle and pretty and you don't get that yucky processed taste that food colouring can add to your food. And you don't load up on the chemicals and artificial colouring agents that are in food colouring. :)

Let me know what you think of this recipe when you get the chance to try it out! Happy Baking my Friends!