Red Velvet Cupcakes

Like sunny days or the smell of fresh mown grass, it’s hard not to love a cupcake.  They’re light, bright, colorful, fun and irresistible.  It’s not that innovate bakers haven’t produced beautiful and elaborately decorated cupcakes, or used savory ingredients like salmon or blue cheese.  It’s not like there isn’t a place in baking for ganache or pate choux.  While those things are lovely, they’re foreign to the essence of a cupcake, which has more to do with simple and unbridled joy than sophisticated or complicated tastes.  Biting into a cupcake should make you feel happy, should be just enough for one person, and should be easy to look at and eat.  When you bite into a cupcake, your only culinary thought should be if it tastes good, and judging by the reception my red velvet cupcakes recently received, they got an enthusiastic yes.

The origins of red velvet cake are unclear.  One food historian will assure you that it’s a southern specialty while another will tell you that it originated in a Canadian department store.  Still others think that it’s a recipe developed at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the 1920s.   There are a few things everyone can agree on: the cake is red, contains cocoa powder, but not too much, and is usually topped with cream cheese frosting.  I had heard of but never seen it until sometime in the mid 1990s, when every New York City bakery started to offer it, first by the slice (or whole cake, if you were feeling either festive or piggy) and then in convenient cupcake form.  It’s easy enough to make at home, and because the batter doesn’t take well to large production methods, it’s also easy to improve on the red velvet cake and cupcakes of the most popular bakeries.  My cupcake recipe follows below, but first a few notes on the baking process in general and the red velvet process in particular.

• In baking, the proportion of dry to liquid ingredients is important, as is your oven temperature.  Be as precise as possible, work as carefully as possible, and only use large eggs or your liquid measures will be off.
• Make sure to completely integrate the flour mixture into the batter to insure an even crumb.
• In general, cake recipes do not always translate seamlessly into cupcakes, so if you’re using a cake recipe, do a test batch before serving to company.
• Unless you’re fortunate enough to have a completely non-staining countertop, like quartz, you will want to put something down on your work surface when adding the food coloring.   Otherwise, be prepared to put some elbow grease into removing the stain; red food coloring has a way of getting all over.
• I use a stand mixer, but a small handheld will work just fine.
• You will want to do some quality assurance, as well you should.  Resist the temptation to “test” your cupcakes when they’re still warm; the texture will not be the same as when served.
• Wait until cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES

The Ingredients:

 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon salt

 1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, softened

 1 1/2 cups sugar

 2 large eggs

 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, preferably Dutch processed

 2 ounces red food coloring (you can use a one-once bottle and it will still be plenty red, or go for the full two ounces; it’s a matter of how bright you like your cake)

 1 cup buttermilk

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 2 ounces water

 1 teaspoon white vinegar

 1 teaspoon baking soda

The Method:

• Let butter soften at room temperature
• Preheat oven to 350 and place pan liners in muffin or cupcake pan.
• Beat butter and sugar until creamy.  You’ll want to do this at a high speed.
• Add eggs and blend well.  You’ll want to reduce the speed or you’ll have a nasty mess.
• Make a paste of the cocoa and red food coloring and add to the butter mixture.
• Sift flour and salt together into this mixture, adding about ¼ of the total and blending in before adding more.  Use a low speed and be careful not to over beat.
• One at a time add the buttermilk, vanilla and water, integrating each before adding the next.
• In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda.  Remember making those volcanoes in grade school?  Same thing.  The mixture will get foamy.  Carefully fold this frothing mixture into the batter – the bubbles will make for a lighter and fluffier batter, so you don’t want to beat.
• Pour the batter into cupcake tins.  The neatest way to do this is to spoon, rather than pour the very red mixture.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.  For me, this was closer to 20 minutes, but your mileage may vary.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool before remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool more.  If you have leftover batter (you probably will) wait until the tin is cool before putting in more liners, the rest of the batter and baking.

The Icing:

This is classic cream cheese frosting.  Some people like it sweeter, and if you’re one of them, by all means, use more sugar.  If you like and want truly psychedelic cupcakes, you can add a different food color to the frosting, but I prefer the contrast of red and white.

Ingredients:

2 8 oz. bars cream cheese

1 stick softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

The Method:

Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy.

Add vanilla.

Add the sugar, ½ cup at a time until you have the desired taste and consistency.

Frost cooled cupcakes with a spatula.

If you like, you can decorate with confetti or other cake decorations, or for the Fourth of July, try a garnish of fresh blueberries.

Have fun!