RED VELVET CUPCAKES

21/2/2011

A very happy 60th Birthday to my sister - Yoke Mea -

The lovey-dovey pair-

There is so much rave about Red Velvet cakes- one of my friends keep telling me that "it is very nice". These cakes are sold rather expensively. So what's the secret recipe?Curiousity got me and I looked up a few recipes.

One of the ingredients that caught my eye is the use of shortening. What?? Is this the secret recipe - shortening instead of pure butter? So how good taste can it get? Isn't shortening bad for our health? Also the rather large amount of red food colouring used to get that wonderful red colour in the cake. And use of distilled white vinegar in a cake? I was really very septical about this cake.
However, I tried it out last weekend-I know- these few weekends before the CNY is usually devoted to hectic spring-cleaning by almost all the Chinese communities. I had a sudden urge to try them and to make them as gifts for CNY - after all they are red colour- very auspicous offerings!

So I adapted a recipe and made some RED VELVET CUPCAKES. I found that the colour is too dark red and the taste is a more chocolatey than sourish -can't taste the vinegar- as it use only to enhance the colour I think. The cakes are fluffy/crumbly and moist. They are frosted with Cream Cheese icing and they are delicious! I find that the red colouring is too dark- too much cocoa powder. Change to use Pink colouring and I got a bright pink colour.
So I made some Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes for the CNY.
As the Cake Boss said, you have to serve this with the Cream Cheese Frosting(use good cream cheese).

Mini cupcakes waiting to be frosted.

Then again, for my sister Yoke Mea's 60th Birthday, I decided to make her this cake. I revert to the red colour and use only 1 tablespoon instead of 2 and 1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder only. Cream Cheese frosting as usual. Moist cake with that Cream Cheese icing. Topped with strawberries.

The Cream Cheese Frosting seems to be melting as we have left the cake out when we went out for the birthday dinner at a "old" chinese restaurant in Seri Kembangan.

Small crowd but big hearts of blessing to her!