What’s Valentine’s Day without a sweet treat? Why not celebrate the most romantic day of the year with these indulgent and appropriately coloured red velvet cupcakes with smooth cream cheese frosting.
Makes: 24
Ingredients
Cupcakes
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp red paste food colouring
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cider vinegar
175ml buttermilk
Cream Cheese Frosting
125g cream cheese
500g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp lemon juice
Method
Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3 and line your muffin trays with 24 muffin cases. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. In a separate mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until you have a smooth, pale paste before beating in all of the red food colouring and the vanilla.
The mixture will be very bright, now carefully add only one tablespoon of the dry ingredients followed by one egg, then add another spoonful of the dry ingredients followed by another egg. Then add all of the remaining dry ingredients. Now, mix in the vinegar and the buttermilk before filling out your muffin cases. Bake for approximately 20 minutes – the muffins should be a deep maroon colour. Take them out and leave them to cool at room temperature.
For the frosting, put the icing sugar, cream cheese, and butter in a processor to mix. Add the lemon juice and continue processing to create a smooth frosting. Pipe the icing onto your cupcakes (which should be completely cold) and dust with cocoa powder to serve.
Enjoy your stunning red velvet cupcakes!
