Sorry folks, haven’t had time to put together the bee tutorial yet – but here’s my adaptation of Magnolia Bakery’s red velvet cupcake recipe! It is very fiddly, as far as cupcake recipes go, but the end results give a cupcake that is unbelievably light, fluffy and moist – so it’s a winner for me!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
(adapted from ‘More from Magnolia‘ red velvet cake recipe)
Ingredients
520g plain cake flour (NOT self-raising), sifted twice
170g unsalted butter, softened
500g caster sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
4 tsp red food colouring gel
5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Frosting ingredients
400g block cream cheese (not the stuff in tubs), softened and cut into small pieces
80g unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
5 cups sifted icing powder
HANDY TIP 1: I find that most frostings are FAR too sweet for my liking, so I actually like to replace my icing sugar with icing powder instead. The reason for this is because icing powder is a mixture of icing sugar & corn starch, and the latter helps to provide bulk and thicken the frosting without as much sweetness as using pure icing sugar would.
HANDY TIP 2: Try and hunt down some good quality food colouring pastes or gels. Wiltons are superb and the colours are so strong that you only need a small amount to dye cupcake batter. The red I use for these cupcakes is the Americolor vibrant red and, as you can see, it worked very well. The reason you should use a gel or paste rather than plain water dye is because it gives more intense colour and adds far less liquid to your batter which can affect the texture and flavour.
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C and prepare your cupcake liners – you will need to spoon out ALL the batter as soon as its complete, rather than just doing it after the first batch have baked. Weigh out your butter and sugar and beat together till the butter is light and creamy in colour and texture.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition, till the batter is very light and fluffy.
3. Measure out the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food colouring gel, then mix together and add to the batter (this is to try and reduce the amount of cocoa powder that will become airborne). Add this to cupcake batter and beat till well mixed in and the batter has turned a lovely deep salmon colour. Add more food colouring gel at this stage if necessary – but bear in mind the batter will become a bit darker once baked.
4. Stir the salt into the buttermilk, then add it to the batter in three batches, alternating with the sifted cake flour. Make sure you do not overbeat as this will result in dry, tough cupcakes.
5. At this stage you should have a thick but still slightly fluid batter that holds soft peaks. Mix together the baking soda (aka bicarb soda) and the vinegar, then add to the batter, mixing it in quickly and lightly.
Be careful. If you undermix then you’ll end up with big air pockets in your cupcakes, but overbeating will mean denser cupcakes and not the light fluffy ones you’re meant to have.
6. As soon as the baking soda/vinegar mix is incorporated into the batter, you need to start dividing it between cupcake liners.
The reason for this is that as soon as the baking soda/vinegar mixture meets the rest of the cake batter, it begins chemical reactions which result in aerating the batter. The longer it sits and the more the cake batter is disturbed, the more air you will lose from your batter.
7. Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes each, or till a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cupcakes.
Make up the frosting: Beat together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and lemon zest till light and creamy. Slowly add the icing powder, 1 cup at a time and beating for about 5 minutes between each addition. REFRIGERATE the frosting for about 1 hour before using – this allows the frosting to thicken up enough so it can be piped without losing shape.
Once the cupcakes are baked, allow to cool completely on a wire rack, then ice with the rested cream cheese frosting. For another special touch, you could add some pastel sprinkles and a fondant heart!
Sorry there’s no fondant bee guide this week, folks, but I’ve been flat out! I’ll try for this time next week 
What have I been doing? Well, working, baking and taking photos of my gorgeous friends:
[tags]Magnolia Bakery, baking, cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, recipe[/tags]
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