Red Velvet Love For YOU!

Well my friends I am finally back home! We arrived late last night, exhausted but safe and sound. Thank you to all of you who left comments and emailed me privately to encourage me to keep my head up and stay positive and to not be bothered by petty anonymous commenters. I appreciate it more than you know. And I definitely felt an abundance of love. So to thank you and to send a little love your way I have these special little cupcakes for you!

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes- ah! Yes I know. I can't take credit for these though. I found them at My Baking Adventures and she got them from Cookie Madness. Either way, they're genius. They combine a wonderfully red and tender cake with a cream cheese center, so there's no need for frosting. They're not very sweet so I guess you could call these muffins but they're much more exciting. I made these before we left on our trip to DC but they would be perfect for your Valentine this weekend.

This cake is made with sour cream, which is unlike any red velvet cake I've ever made, but it worked. They rose and domed perfectly and the cream cheese filling accented them nicely. Since they have cream cheese in them they need to be refrigerated but their flavor tastes best with the chill taken off of them. So allow them to sit at room temp for a bit before serving or heat them ever so slightly. The only thing I would change next time is to add more filling and up the cream cheesiness. That's never a bad thing. Another good thing about these cupcakes is that this recipe has already been cut down to make 8-9 cupcakes so you don't end up with so many leftover.

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes from Cookie Madness via My Baking Adventures

Filling:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons lightly beaten egg (break egg, mix with fork, measure)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Batter:

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 tablespoons sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 (I needed 9) muffin cups with paper liners.

Prepare filling first. With a mixing spoon, beat together softened cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and stir until smooth. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a second mixing bowl, stir together oil, sugar, vinegar, egg, red food coloring, vanilla and sour cream. Mix very well, then add the flour mixture and stir just until blended.

Measure out approximately 1/3 cup red mixture and set aside. Divide remaining red mixture among the 8 muffin cups – each cup should be a little over 1/3 of the way full. Spoon cream cheese mixture over red mixture, dividing evenly between all cups. Drop small spoonfuls of reserved red batter on top of cream cheese mixture, making a bulls-eye pattern.

Bake for 20-23 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Carefully remove lift muffins from cups.

Best served slightly chilled. – Makes 8-9

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love. We plan on staying home and making dinner together (ie. I make dinner and Mr. H eats it!) or going to my moms for Sunday dinner, which is something we do often. Either way, there will be chocolate!

Sending lots of red velvet love to you all!

Red Velvet If You Please

I missed last months cake for The Cake Slice Bakers but there was no way I was going to miss the cake this month. After all, it is one of my favorite cakes ever- Red Velvet Cake! I'll eat this cake any which way I can get it. I'll eat it in cupcake form, cake balls, from the grocery store bakery department and from a box. I don't discriminate when it comes to Red Velvet :-)



Props to you if you got the musical reference (turn your speakers on!) in my title :-) I was however a little hesitant when it came to the frosting. It's a milk and flour cooked frosting in which you add butter, sugar, nuts and coconut. I liked the texture in it but I've made a cooked frosting before and it was a disaster. That doesn't mean this one would have been bad but I went the cream cheese frosting route- always a winner in my book! I left out the coconut but I did add the chopped pecans and it was delicious!


I ate a slice of this cake immediately after I frosted it and while it was fall apart tender and oh so moist, it didn't make for a lovely picture. So I refrigerated it then sliced it for a cleaner slice. Pretty, no? I had a slice of this cold and a slice at room temperature and the room temperature slice was much better so keep that in mind when you eat this.



If you've never had Red Velvet cake before let me tell you a bit about it. It's not a white cake colored red (as I once read and was very offended by) and it's not a chocolate cake either although it does have a tiny bit of cocoa in it. It's a slightly tangy cake and moist (if it's a good recipe). And it just happens to be red, although I'm sure you could color it any color you'd like or leave it out if you don't care for the dye-- but that's part of the appeal, dontcha think?

 

Red Velvet Cake
from Southern Cakes

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• 2½ cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk*
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp red food colouring
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar or white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line them with waxed paper or kitchen parchment. Grease the paper and flour the pans.

Prepare three separate mixtures for the batter. Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and use a fork to mix them together well. Combine the cocoa powder and the red food coloring in a small bowl, mashing and stirring them together to make a thick smooth paste.

In a large bowl, beat the butter with a mixer at low speed for 1 minute until creamy and soft. Add the sugar and then beat well for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl now and then. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one until the mixture is creamy, fluffy and smooth. Scrape the cocoa-food coloring paste into the batter and beat to mix it in evenly.


Combine the vanilla with the milk. Add a third of the flour mixture and then about half the milk, beating the batter with a mixer at low speed. Mix only enough to make the flour or liquid disappear into the batter. Mix in another third of the flour, the rest of the milk and then the last of the flour in the same way.

In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and vinegar and stir well. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to quickly mix this last mixture into the red batter, folding it in gently by hand. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes until the layers are spring back when touched lightly in the center and are just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans.

Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 15 minutes. Then turn them out onto the racks, remove the paper and turn top side up again to cool completely. Frost with frosting of your choice.

NOTE: If you can’t find buttermilk, stir 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar into 1 cup of milk and leave to stand for 10 minutes before using.

Cream Cheese Pecan Frosting from Monica H.

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Then add the vanilla extract and powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Fold in chopped pecans. Use immediately.

Be sure to check out all the other Cake Slice Bakers' creations!

Sam's Birthday Cupcakes

I made these for my son Sam's 2nd birthday. He's in Heaven, but I'm sure he would have loved them. Or maybe he would have thought they looked funny because they're red! He would have loved them if they were covered in sprinkles, that I'm sure of. I thought they were really good and pretty!

I love the deep red color of this southern cake. Originally thought, the vinegar and buttermilk mixed with the cocoa when baked turned the cake red. But if that were true than any and all chocolate cakes that included buttermilk or something else acidic would turn the cake red, and it doesn't. Nowadays, it's made with red food coloring- lots and lots of red food coloring! You might want to wear an apron and rubber gloves :-)

Red Velvet Cake

adapted from The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook

• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. shortening
• 2 large eggs
• 1-1 oz. bottle red food coloring
• 3 tbsp. cocoa
• 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 c. buttermilk
• 1 tbsp. vinegar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3- 8 inch pans or line 18 muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.

To make the cake, in a bowl cream the sugar and shortening. Add the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl make a paste with the food coloring and cocoa. Add the paste to the shortening mixture. In another bowl combine the flour and salt, and add to the mixture. In a cup mix the buttermilk, vinegar and soda, and add to the mixture. Pour the mixture into prepared pans.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the cake pans and 15-20 for the cupcakes, or until done. Let the cake cool in the pans completely before removing.

When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting (recipe below).

NOTE: I made this cake in one large bowl. I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the eggs, then alternately added the dry ingredients with the wet. I then added the food coloring at the very end.

The original recipe called for 4 ounces of red food coloring. I only used one 1 oz. bottle and it was plenty red. If you want to add more, go right ahead. This would also be fun to try out other colors, like blue, green, or even purple.

This recipe makes one 3-layer cake or 18 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 4 tbsp. butter, softened
• 3 c. powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

In a medium bowl, cream the cheese, butter and vanilla til smooth with a hand mixer. Slowly mix in sifted powdered sugar til light and fluffy. Frost cake and top with nuts. Eat right away or refrigerate any leftovers.

Happy Birthday my Love!

Samuel Andrew - August 15, 2006