Red Velvet Cupcakes

These would be great for Canada Day. Canada 150 is already over, but before that my cousin was telling me that we should go to the local celebration. I was like, "What do you do there? I'll just stay home, bake these red velvet cupcakes, wear red and sing 'Oh Canada'." These red velvet cupcakes are really good. But I ended up not baking but going to the event. And it was pretty fun seeing the premier and winning stuff like a free t-shirt. :)

RED VELVET CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING (Makes 12) Ingredients CUPCAKES 1 1/4 cups self-rising cake flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tbsp. cocoa powder 56g unsalted room-temp. butter 3/4 cup white sugar 1 room-temp. egg 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup buttermilk (1/2 C milk + 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice) 1 tbsp. red liquid food colouring 1/2 tsp. white vinegar 1/2 tsp. baking soda Instructions 1. Line muffin pan with white muffin liners. 2. Sift flour, salt, and cocoa powder 2-3 times to omit the lumps of the cocoa powder. Give the dry mixture a good whisk in a medium-sized bowl to thoroughly incorporate. 3. In a large bowl, cream butter with wooden spoon. Add sugar, beat with a hand mixer until pale in colour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 4. Add the egg and beat until softly creamy. Add vanilla extract and beat to incorporate. 5. Add food colouring to the cup holding the buttermilk and stir together until homogenous, scrape the bottom and sides. Preheat the oven at this point to 350 degrees F. 6. Alternately add the dry and wet mixtures to the batter, dry mixture in three additions and wet mixture in two. Add wet additions with each 1/3 of the dry additions, and start and end with the flour mixture. 8. In a very small bowl combine vinegar and baking soda, see it fizz. Fold into the batter. 9. Quickly, divide the mixture with an ice cream scoop between the twelve muffin holes. Smooth the surfaces with a little spoon. 10. Bake for 16 minutes until a toothpick inserted to the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes by transferring them to wide plates. FROSTING Ingredients one 250g package of Philadelphia cream cheese 113g room-temp. butter 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract Instructions 1. Stir cream cheese with wooden spoon until workable, then cream with a hand mixer. 2. Add butter a chunk at a time and beat on high until well blended after each addition. 3. Pour in powdered sugar and vanilla together and beat only until incorporated. 4. Pipe this frosting with a star tip onto the cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!

Red velvet cupcake recipe adapted from Joy of Baking: http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCupcakes.html

Cream cheese frosting recipe from Desserts now Dinner later: http://www.dessertnowdinnerlater.com/best-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/

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