Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cake

I love baking!!!  That said, I was a bit scared of baking a red velvet anything but over this past weekend I decided to face my fears. I googled several recipes and decided on a mixture of some.

Ingredients:

For the cake;

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon strawberry red food colour

1/2 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

For the frosting;

Puratos – non dairy whipping cream used here

Sprinkles

Strawberries

The cast of characters
The cast of characters

In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Then set aside.

In a small bowl mix the cocoa powder and the food colouring and set aside.

Using a wooden spoon or a mixer beat margarine and sugar in a bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time.

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Beat in the vanilla essence and the cocoa and food colour mixture.

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Add a third of the flour mixture, then beat in half of the buttermilk.

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Beat in another third of the flour and the second half of the buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture.

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In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda, it will fizz. Add the vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine.

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Pre heat the oven, 370°F.

Line your cupcake tin with some muffin liners.

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Fill about 3/4 way.

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The recipe said to bake for 20-22 minutes but mine took about 15 minutes to bake.

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For the remaining batter I decided to bake a cake.

The cake, sliced in half.
The cake, sliced in half.

For the frosting, nothing fancy since it was just for our consumption.

Spread some whipping on one half and sprinkle some diced strawberries.

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Layer the other half and cover with the remaining whipping cream.

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For the cupcakes, I just dipped them in the frosting then sprinkled over some sprinkles 🙂

Done
Done

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I would like to mention that normally the frosting on red velvet cakes or cupcakes is cream cheese frosting not whipping cream. I didn’t have any cream cheese and honestly I’m still scared of making some O-o plus have you seen the cost of cream cheese? Jeeze!!

The cake is/was delicious.

Thoughts?

 

24 Comments

  1. Looks scrumptious. Which all purpose flour brand do you use, and which baking powder do you use? My cake baking missions always go south and I gave up trying to figure out what the problem was, but I want to start again. 🙂 Help.

     
    • Thanks Varyanne.For the flour, I use pembe… yeah just the normal one you’d use for chapatis.
      As for the baking powder chapa mandashi would do.
      At what temp do you bake the cakes, that could also be a factor?

       
      • I go with whichever temp. the recipe requires, and its always such a womp fest my poor cakes 🙁 But then I’m told altitude and climate changes the baking experience so the recipes must be altered. I’m no expert, so I’ll follow a recipe made in Kenya by a Kenyan chef,you. I’ll write you when I do get to baking, I’ll probably do the black forest recipe first. Thanks.

         
  2. Awesome!!! I have been afraid too but I will face my fears because every client nowadays wants to order a red forest!! Thanks for the recipe!! 🙂

     
  3. Funny thing with me is i never follow recipes on cake ..once i quickly go through the recipe i make the measurements kulingana na vile kichwa yangu inasema LOL ..have to admit some have backfired some were just ausome …my biggest issue now is to cream ..i have perfected the art of making the normal cakes…now to cream ..i tired a chocolate butter cream which wasnt bad.. i googled one made of bananas ..am worried it myt turn black ..LOL ..i love ur work though …u will be seeing more of me here

     
  4. Hi Gatwiri!
    i really enjoy your blog, its a good read and a rich source of info.
    which brand of food colour did you use and how much? i tried with a food colour brand that gave me an almost brown colour 🙁

     
    • Thank you Noni. For the red colour I use a colour called P4R, you can get it from a store on biashara street called Walibhai Karim.

       

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