Moist Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yup that's right. Together with my sister-in-law, we made red velvet cupcakes.

The first time I made them was with my FFLs at the Pasir Ris branch. Hurhur. I can't remember which recipe we used cos I wasn't the one choosing it, but I know it was on epicurious. It was quite tedious, the recipe method was kinda lengthy. I remember there's mixing of cocoa powder with water, and then mixing was in batches or something, and we used a whole lot of colouring! Like two bottles! The cupcake wasn't that special, and it had a weird taste from all that colouring.

I thought I'm never gonna make red velvets again since there's nothing special about them.

Then my SIL wanted to make some cos she and her husband love red velvet. So okay, I went on the search for the perfect red velvet cupcake recipe, and I'm proud to say I am the queen of recipe googling!! Hahahaha. I came across this super moist red velvet cupcakes from The Alchemist, and it was amazing!

I'm glad the cupcakes turned out well! :)

Our frosting sucks, though. We have to practise more! Haha. This one above is the nicest looking one, done by me! Haha

Ingredients 

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup normal cocoa
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 cup butter, melted
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk well shaken, (I added a 1 1/2 tbsp of vinegar to regular milk and let sit for a few minutes)
1 Tablespoon vinegar
2 Tablespoons vanilla essence
About 10ml cochineal fod colouring (star brand)

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Add flour, bicarb soda, salt and cocoa in a bowl and mix.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, melted butter and oil until smooth, about 3 minutes iusing a mixer.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the vinegar and the vanilla. 
4. Add half the dry ingredients and mix well, then add half of the buttermilk. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well, then add the rest of the buttermilk.
5. Add the colour bit by bit till yo get the desired colour. 
6. Scoop the batter into muffin cups lined with cupcake liners, about 3/4 of the way full. I got 26 cupcakes, the original recipe got 32.
7. Bake the cupcakes for 28 minutes. They're done when they pass a toothpick test.

The following is the recipe we followed but I think you can halve the recipe and further half the butter. The frosting we had was yummy, but wasn't stiff enough.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2, 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks (1 cup) (225 g.) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 Tablespoons Vanilla extract

pinch of salt

5-7 cups (625 g. to 875 g.) powdered sugar

I still have some leftover frosting in the fridge. Am thinking what to to with them. Cream cheese brownies? Chocolate cupcake with cream cheese? Haha. Maybe tomorrow I'll squeeze in baking brownies using a brownie mix and adding the cream cheese. Easy peasy.