Red Velvet Cupcakes

Hello there! Following on from my 'How To: Mushroom Puff Pasties' post here, today's post is another recipe! This time it is a baking one. I found the recipe for these red velvet cupcakes in Everything Alice by Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech. This book is really good, it contains recipes along with other crafty ideas all with the theme of Alice in Wonderland. I would say this recipe could be used for a special occasion, or if you have quite a bit of time on your hands. I wouldn't suggest trying this if you only have a spare hour or so as there's quite a bit to it!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake

-170g self-raising flour

-1/2 tsp baking powder

-pinch of salt

-2 heaped tbsp cocoa

-1 tsp red food colouring (+water)

-55g unsalted butter

-170g caster sugar

-1 large egg, beaten

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-120ml sourcream or buttermilk

-1/2 tsp white vinegar

-1/2 tsp baking soda

For the icing

-50g butter 

-100g icing sugar

Process:

-Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Place cases into tin.

-Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.

-In a small bowl combine the cocoa powder and food colouring and blend together until thick, shiny and with no lumps.

-Cream the butter and sugar together in a separate bowl.

-Slowly add the egg, then the cocoa paste and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

-Add sifted flour and sour cream/buttermilk, stirring in alternate spoonfuls until the mixture is well blended. In a cup mix the vinegar and baking soda and combine this with the cake mixture.

-Spoon the mixture into paper cases. Bake for 20 minutes.

-Once cooled, you can make the icing. Mix the butter (softened) and icing sugar together. I added a few drops of the red food colouring to make the icing pink! If you need more liquid add a drop of milk. Ice the cupcakes, I find using a teaspoon is best as you can swirl it round the whole cake well.

I really enjoyed making these cakes but they were a bit tricky! I wouldn't use this recipe all the time, but I would make them again for a birthday or something. If you have a go at it please tweet/email me a picture! 

Love Jess xxx