Absence makes the heart grow fonder…Right??

Its been close to a month since I last posted and am hoping that my absence from the blogosphere has only made you want me more.

And if not, then hopefully these red velvet christmas themed cupcakes kind of make up for my absence. 🙂

Its just that ever since I have been back from India I have been at my lazy best and am “busy” enjoying the break from doing nothing. Of course, the occasional cooking/baking happens (somebody has to feed the husband and well…make cupcakes). I have been instagramming about the above mentioned cooking adventures but haven’t been able to get myself to write a whole blog post about anything.

Until now.

I have blogged about red velvet cupcakes before. And have complained about not getting the hype behind these red colored baked goodies.

That said, for the past few weeks (months?) I have kind of been obsessing about them. Everyone I speak to, after hearing that I love baking, starts professing their love for red velvet cupcakes. And I mean everyone. In fact, if a TLC survey is to be believed, red velvet cupcakes are one of the most popular flavor of cupcakes, often outselling all other flavors, including chocolate and vanilla. It has to be the deep red color for this obsession. Because otherwise they are just plain cupcakes with a slight chocolate flavor.

Well, not really. Besides the visually appealing color (which I admit is pretty), the vinegar reaction make the cupcakes fluffy, and are moist, plus with a generous slapping of some cream cheese frosting on top it does make the whole thing quite unique.

Last time I adapted a cake recipe to make cupcakes. This time though I went for a cupcake recipe (not that cake recipes can’t be adapted to cupcake recipe- they can be, just that I wanted to try a different recipe and see how it compared to the previous one).

To be honest, I do not remember the taste of those cupcakes. I know they were good but were they better than these? Somehow my memory is kind of leaning to these being better. V, loved them. Really loved them. I had made these for the coffee group christmas party potluck and V must have told me ten times to make sure I save a few for him to eat later. I, too, am a fan of these. They were moist and with a hint of chocolate quite flavorful.

I decided to top a few with Mr & Mrs Claus toppers and the rest I frosted with cream cheese frosting. The credit for the creativity behind the topper design goes to the talented Sheryl Bito’s, of Buns in the Oven. She has a great craftsy class for the same, do check it out. The cupcakes that had the toppers, I filled them with cream cheese frosting. I loved the taste of this frosting but would suggest to start with cold cream cheese and butter to make a more stable frosting. Also putting the frosting in the refrigerator before piping might help if the frosting is too runny.

Red velvet Cupcakes

 

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Recipe type: adapted from allrecipes.com

Serves: 26-30

Ingredients

• 2¼ cups flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2¼ cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup buttermilk ( I make mine by adding 1 tbsp of vinegar to enough milk to make ½ cup)
• 1 (1 ounce) bottle Red Food Color
• 4 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

For the cream cheese frosting: (the cream cheese and butter must be cold, resulting in a less runny frosting)

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• ½ cup butter
• 2-3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar ( the original recipe calls for 2 cups, but I had to add more to make a more stable frosting. That said, the added sugar did not make the frosting too sweet)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Mix in sour cream, buttermilk, food color and vanilla.
5. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup ⅔ full. ( I got about 26 medium sized cupcakes)
6. Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Make sure you do not over bake them else they will be dry.
7. Cool in pans on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. Beat the COLD cream cheese, butter and Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl, and beat again. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth.

note: If the frosting is too runny, put the frosting in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, beating it again, then piping it on. Also make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled.

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