Smooth Creamy American Buttercream Recipe

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This is my favorite recipe for american buttercream. It is creamy, not gritty and not overtly sweet. People confuse it for swiss meringue buttercream because of the gloss and shine  and velvet like texture it has and also the taste. Its the only american buttercream recipe I use.

American Buttercream recipe

Over the weekend, I hosted my first ever food styling and photography workshop in Chandigarh. When I started food photography I never thought that I would reach a stage where someone would like to learn from me. It has taken years of practice and even now there is so much to learn, but since so many people kept asking me to do a workshop, I decided it was time. With the help of my friends at Eighty.Tribe and Madras Prop Store, I set Saturday April 7th, 2018 as the date for the workshop.

As soon as I posted about the workshop on my instagram page, panic struck as to would any one even register. Luckily, people did and we had a full house. While I think everything went smoothly, there is always room for improvement especially if its the first time you are doing anything. For one, I should have taken more photographs of the space, the behind the scenes and should have at least taken one group shot with everyone! Well, that was a learning.

Another learning was I should not take on everything. There is so much work for a workshop. Between planning for the presentation and live styling sessions, I also decided to make the treats that would be served for the participants. Which meant staying up till late, the night before the workshop baking cupcakes, cookies, sandwiches and pound cake. And also, wrapping the small takeaways I had made for everyone attending the workshop (a hand painted board and napkins)

All that effort did pay off, since everyone loved the treats and the gesture at the end. A few people asked if the recipe for the buttercream frosting I used on the chocolate cupcakes was in the blog archives. That’s when I realized I hadn’t posted it.

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Mixed Berry Pie

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Mixed berry Pie. Make this easy to make, delicious mixed berry pie that can be made with either fresh or frozen berries. Customize the pie by swapping blackberries for some of the strawberries/blueberries or make this mixed berry pie with whatever berries you have on hand.

Mixed Berry Pie

Mixed Berry Pie

I love pies. I don’t make or eat them as often as I would like to, but I do love them. I love their buttery crust and fruit rich filling. I feel they are a great way to put to use fresh fruit of the season. Berries and stone fruits in summer, pumpkin and apples during fall. A slice of pie and some whipped cream/ice cream on the side. Perfection!

In my city, its not easy finding fresh berries, although strawberries is one thing that have become fairly easy to find. These days strawberries are bountiful so I decided to make a fresh strawberry pie. I had been eyeing this recipe on allrecipes.com and thought I had enough strawberries for the pie, but turned out I didn’t. So instead of shoving the plans, I decided to make a mixed berry pie, inspired from this recipe.

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Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting (Video Recipe)

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My favorite red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting recipe.  These red velvet cupcakes are light, have the trademark red color with a hint of chocolate flavor and a little tang from the buttermilk.  They are perfectly moist with the most delicious cream cheese frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes with the best cream cheese frosting {Video Recipe}

When I was working on my home based baking venture The Pink CakeBox, these red velvet cupcakes were the most requested cupcake flavor and I always got a great feedback from whoever received them. Even after I stopped baking for orders, there are a few customers who still come and request these red velvet cupcakes.

I have made this recipe at least a 100 times, if not more and it has never failed me. I do a mix of oil and butter in the batter. The oil makes these red velvet cupcakes moist, and the butter gives that great butter flavor that just oil cakes lack.

The highlight of these cupcakes is of course the cream cheese frosting, which I have perfected over the years. Its not overtly sweet, perfect amount of tang from the cream cheese and frosts well too. The trick to not getting a runny frosting is to make sure you don’t beat the cream cheese too much. That is why I always beat the butter separately to make it light and fluffy first, before adding the slightly beaten cream cheese and then once the cream cheese is added only beat for another minute or so.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with the best cream cheese frosting {Video Recipe}

I know I have posted a recipe for red velvet cupcakes before but for the past couple of years I have been using this recipe, so thought will post the recipe here. Since, its Valentine’s Day on the 14th, I thought these would be perfect for you to make for your loved ones or just for yourself, because why not!

I also did a video for the cupcakes. My friend helped me shoot it and I then edited it. I am planning to do more videos for the blog. Hopefully, between client shoots, I do get time to work on the videos I have planned. Let me know what you think of this one.

If you do make these cupcakes, please make sure you tag me on instagram, facebook or leave a comment here. While the recipe yields 12 cupcakes, it easily doubles to make 24.

Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe Video from Shumaila Chauhan on Vimeo.

Video: Anubhav Sood

Edit and recipe: MuddyChoux Photography

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