Red Velvet Joy

There are some cakes and bakes that feel a little bit like Holy Grails. Souffles, for example. Or Macarons. But when it comes to cakes, something that has been mocking me from the horizon is the Red Velvet Cake. I must explain for those of the American persuasion that Red Velvet is not a common cake over here in Blighty. I’d never even heard of it until about a year ago, when simultaneously my friend tried and failed to bake one, and a Buttercup cupcakery opened at my local shopping centre. But it looked so delicious! It tasted so delicious! It was gaudy and flouncy in all my favourite ways! I was desperate to try making some, but struggled to find certain ingredients, and was a little shy of trying it too.

However, the planets aligned. The stars spoke forth unto the sibyl, and I found myself with buttermilk, red food colouring, marscapone and whipping cream. It was time.

I found a recipe on Joyofbaking.com which I decided to try. The exact recipe I used (and then tweaked) has been changed on there, but as far as I can see it has mostly just been halfed. However, I have listed below the exact amounts I used, and the method.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

120g butter (I used stork)
300g golden caster sugar
2 free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g self raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
240ml buttermilk
2 tbsp liquid red food colouring (N.B this is about 2 whole bottles.)
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Preheat oven to 170 and prepare 15-20 cupcake tins/silicones, depending on the size of your moulds.

Cream together the butter and sugar. I actually ran out of golden caster sugar during this bake, so I used about 100g of soft brown sugar to compensate. This worked very well.

Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mix, and beat until thoroughly combined.

Combine flour and cocoa in a separate mixing bowl.

In measuring jug, measure out your buttermilk (N.B even though the carton said more than that, mine measured out as this perfectly) and add the red food colouring. Whip together.

Reeeeeeeeed :D

Combine the three mixtures by adding the flour and buttermilk to the butter a bit at a time. Stir gently until fully combined.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine vinegar and bicarb. Allow to fizz, then combine quickly but gently with the cake mix.

Making haste, not speed, divide the mixture between your cases and put in the oven to bake for 15-18 minutes.


Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
230g cream cheese
230g mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g icing sugar
360ml whipping cream

Remove items from the fridge. It is not essential to let them warm up, as you are going to be whipping them thoroughly.

Beat together the marscapone and cream cheese until completely combined and fluffy.

Using an electric whisk, whip the cream until stiff.

Sift the icing sugar into the cream cheese mix, and then fold the cream in to combine gently but thoroughly.

Spread or pipe as you like.

I think these are probably the prettiest cakes I have ever made. Ever. In my life. I was a little overcome, actually. And they were almost unnervingly delicious. The cream frosting was so light and sweet and moreish, and the cakes had the smoky touch of cocoa, but were so moist and delicious. If I could change anything about the bake, it would be that mine weren’t quite as dayglo red as some examples I’ve seen. I will happily and hungrily work on that!

Bananarama: Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Oh Dear Internet, how wonderful National Cupcake Week was! How much glee it brought me! How are did you celebrate National Cupcake Week? Me? By stuffing my face with frosted deliciousness, of course! Alas, I was unable to post at all this week due to time constraints and the dreaded 'Busy', but here I am, as promised, with a delicious recipe and bake to share!

Now, this post begins a theme; a series of recipe trials celebrating one of my favourite fruits; the humble banana. I’m currently looking for the perfect banoffee cupcake recipe to make it quadrilogy of deliciousness, but for now I have three fantabulous recipes that I will be sharing with you over the coming months.

To start us off, we have the Chocolate Banana Cupcake, with dark chocolate ganache frosting. The original recipe, pre my tweaks, is here.

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Makes about 24 good sized cupcakes

400g golden caster sugar
250g self-raising flour
75g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
2 large free range eggs
3 small ripe bananas (or about 2 medium, or 1 very large)
240ml warm water
120ml milk
120g butter, melted
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180/160. Melt the butter in the microwave.

In one bowl, combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder)

In another bowl, mash the bananas. Then whisk in the wet ingredients (butter, water, milk, vanilla and eggs) fairly vigorously to incorporate air.

For reference: the size of bananas I used beside a teaspoon

Combine the two mixtures together, adding wet to dry until evenly mixed. You will have a very liquid, aerated batter. This is normal. Do not panic.

Ladle or pour the batter into either a pre-lined muffin pan or, like me, into your silicone moulds. A regular cupcake mould should be full up to about ½-1 cm below the rim.

Bake for 15-20 mins. In my oven on 160-170, they took 18.

To ice and decorate:

230g very good quality dark chocolate
180ml double cream
14g unsalted butter

Break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl.

Heat the cream and butter in a pan over a gentle heat, stirring until the butter has melted.

Bring the cream just the boil, then remove from the heat immediately and pour over the chocolate.

Leave for 3-5 minutes, then come back and stir to combine.

Stir/Beat vigorously for 2-5 minutes, then allow to cool and thicken until thick enough to pipe or spread.

Pipe/spread onto your cakes as you please. Decorate with sprinkles, foam bananas etc.

These cupcakes did not impress me one bit to begin with. There was something about the flavour combo that just didn’t work for me. It was only after the cake was aged for a day or two that I really began to appreciate the smoky chocolate and indulgent fruitiness of these cakes. I’m still not 100% convinced by the ganache/cake combo, since the ganache packs a real hefty wallop against the most subtle flavour of the cake. The ganache is incredible on its own if you use the right chocolate, and makes very good truffles in its own right. However, flavours aside, the cake is very light, fluffy and moist, and flavours more subtle. I think if I make these again I’ll just chocolate/royal ice them, and stick a foam banana on top! How wonderfully gaudy! Squee!

I gave a plate of these to Looby because she wasn't feeling well. They certainly perked her up!