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.
I have never understood the hype behind red velvet cupcakes/cakes. So much food coloring in a baked good. Just does not seem right. And since I do not understand the hype, I have neither attempted making one or ordering it in a bakery, except for one very unfortunate dry and unflavorful experience at a bakery once. So when my friend asked to make a red velvet cake for one of our coffee friends’ farewell party, I was in a fix. Being such a popular cupcake/cake choice I thought I should see what the hoopla is actually about and agreed to baking some.
What drew me to the recipe was actually the frosting. It called for cooking flour and milk together and then adding to the cooked mixture creamed butter and sugar. Its something I had never done or heard of before. It’s also how traditionally red velvet cakes were iced- with a french-style butter roux icing. And after reading the reviews, and how good the frosting and the cupcakes were I decided its worth trying. I was sure my friends would forgive me if they turned out bad.
Well, honestly, since the only experience I have had with a red velvet has been a dry, too-fake-red red velvet cupcake , these turned out to be very good. They were fluffy, moist, with a hint of chocolate too. The frosting, though, I was not sold. It wasn’t particularly bad, quite decent actually, but I think I am biased towards cream cheese frosting on top of a red velvet cupcake or any cupcake for that matter. So I missed the cream cheese flavor.
