"Red" Velvet Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Birthday Little J!  

After months of nagging, I finally made these "red" velvet cupcakes for my sister and on her birthday no less.  If you're wondering what is up with the quotations around "red", well, it's because they're supposed to be red, but I decided to opt out from adding the red food colouring and so they're just regular chocolate brown.  And, since red velvet cake is usually paired with cream cheese frosting, I made a strawberry cream cheese frosting to finish them off.

The recipe for these cupcakes was taken from The Golden Book of Baking which has over 300 recipes.  This would be my second time using this book.  The first time, I made Portuguese Custard Tarts which were alright.  So far, I feel that this book gives recipes that work but are mediocre at best. 

 

Thoughts on the results:

Texture & Appearance: The cupcakes themselves didn't quite turn out to have that velvet look to them - they had quite a few air pockets making it look more like a sponge than a luxury piece of cloth.  I did however like how their dome-shape held up, which is probably due to all the flour that was used.  In terms of texture, they were somewhat moist, but fairly dense despite all the air pockets in them (which is again, probably attributed to the amount of flour used).  As for the frosting, it was a bit too thin/soft which is due to the added strawberry puree (I used 4 teaspoons), but at least it held its shape. 

Taste: A bit too sweet for my mother's liking (which is what many Asian parents would say), but I thought the sweetness level was OK.  In terms of chocolate, I find it lacks depth, but it was still alright.  Maybe the addition of some spices would give the chocolate a little more oomph.  As for the frosting, it has a slight tanginess from the cream cheese that isn't overwhelming and has a really nice strawberry flavour that reminds me of strawberry ice cream.

Would I make this again? Maybe.  I know this recipe works for a regular chocolate cupcake (not so much for a red velvet cupcake though).  So IF I really needed a chocolate cupcake with a lot of structure, I'd use this recipe again.  I did find that regular sized cupcakes were too big being domed and all, so next time, I would use a mini cupcake pan instead so that there's a good cake-to-frosting ratio.  Probably not.  The cupcakes are too dry and dense.  They are only semi-OK just after they come out of the oven.  They seem to only be good for pictures. 


"Red" Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 15 regular-sized cupcakes
Adapted from The Golden Book of Baking

300 g all-purpose flour
75 g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
125 g unsalted butter, room temperature
300 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
250 ml buttermilk
2 tbsp red food colouring (optional - I left it out)
1 tbsp white vinegar


PREPARE OVEN and PANS

Preheat oven to 325 degF.  Line cupcake pans with paper cups.  

PREPARE CAKE

Combine and sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 
In a separate large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition.  
With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk, food colouring (if using), and vinegar.  Now by hand, scrape the bowl using a spatula or bowl scraper to ensure that all the dry ingredients have been incorporated (make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl).  

ASSEMBLE

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop and release batter into prepared pans filling approximately 3/4 the way up for each cup.  
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting.


Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 2 1/2 cups


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz (1/2 brick) light cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
2-4 tsp strawberry puree
1/2 pk of Crystal Light Singles Drink Mix in Strawberry Orange Banana Flavour (optional)


In an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until pale and creamy.
Using a sieve, sift icing sugar into butter-cream cheese mixture and beat until creamy.
Add drink mix (if using) to strawberry puree, then add puree 1 teaspooon at a time to frosting mixture and beat until well incorporated.  Be careful not to add too much puree as this will result in a very thin frosting which will be difficult to use for piping.

Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake..Donuts!

Lately I've been pretty obsessed with the donut shape.  I don't know what it is about donuts that makes me so happy.  Maybe it's because the thought of donuts conjures up images of Homer Simpson or maybe it's because I'm on a quest to make all my desserts individually sized and donuts fit the bill perfectly.  Whatever it is, donuts are wonderful!

I've recently been participating in Food Network Canada's Cooking Club Challenges and this month's challenge is to make Anna Olson's Apple Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  I was pretty excited as a cake would mean I would be able to transform it into a baked donut!  So over the weekend, I made this coffee cake using a donut pan and although the picture above shows two fairly nice looking donuts, I have to admit that these were the only two out of the twelve that I made that came out actually looking like donuts.  The thing with coffee cake is that it has a really delicate crumb, so when using something small like a donut pan, it can be extremely difficult to de-pan without it just falling apart.  I suppose had I properly greased the pan, I wouldn't have had this problem.  

Despite the crumbly mess I made, these cake donuts were really delicious.  Crispy and sweet outer layer, crumbly on the inside and topped with sweet apples and brown sugar..very yummy.  I will definitely make this again!

Note: When greasing the pan, I used butter and coated it with granulated sugar.  The granulated sugar gives the bottom a nice crispy and bubbly texture.  Be sure to grease the pan completely so that there are no spots left bare.

I'm going to attempt to make this again sometime before the month-end, but I'll probably grease the pan and coat with flour instead of sugar...maybe!  I do love the effect the sugar has on the bottoms of these donuts though.

May 21, 2010 - UPDATE:

OK, so I made these donuts again today, this time really greasing the pans well, I mean, REALLY.  I used a cooking spray to really coat the donut moulds then dusted one pan with flour and the second pan with sugar.  The result: The donuts came out of the pans in a cinch from both flour and sugar coated pans but they all had super crispy bottoms.  Why: I sprayed way too much cooking oil onto the pans such that there was this thick layer of sugar/flour on the bottoms of the donuts (kinda gross actually), plus it was as if the bottoms were deep fried, in other words, really crispy.  Was it good?  Eh. The bottom half was not the best, I will stick to using butter but knowing to ensure that I don't miss any spots the next time.  The top half was moist though, so at least it was half good :D

Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake...Donuts

Makes 12 donuts

Adapted from Anna Olson's Sugar

FOR THE PANS

Granulated sugar

Butter/shortening/pan grease

FOR THE CAKE

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup 14% m.f. sour cream

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

FOR THE APPLES & TOPPING

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 cup apples, diced

PREPARE PANS

Grease donut pans completely with butter/shortening/pan grease.  Dust with granulated sugar to coat.  Remove excess sugar.

PREPARE THE TOPPING

Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, walnuts and butter in a bowl and stir.  Pour half of the mixture into a separate bowl and mix with diced apples.

PREPARE THE CAKE

Preheat oven to 350oF.   In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth and pale.  Beat in egg until well incorporated.  Add vanilla and sour cream.  In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking  powder, baking soda, and salt) and stir into wet ingredients until just incorporated.

ASSEMBLY

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tube with the cake batter. Pipe a thin layer of the batter into each donut mould.  Sprinkle with walnut-sugar topping (no apples) then pipe another thin layer of batter overtop the topping.   Sprinkle tops with apple topping.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until tops have turned golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool and carefully remove cake from pan.