I was always fascinated by the idea of red velvet cake but I only ever saw them in American movies or tv shows and it was only a few years ago that they started turning up in Australia. I must admit that I was a little bit disappointed when I discovered that Red Velvet Cupcakes are just chocolate cupcakes with red food colouring. I thought that they had their own special magical flavour. My disappointed ended the first time that I baked them because even though they are a light chocolate cake, the red colour just makes them fun and who doesn’t want to have fun!
Red Velvet Cupcakes are perfect for Christmas because they have such a festive look. They are also one of the most simple cupcakes to make. If you are in a hurry or you are tired after work but you need cupcakes for the next day then these are a great choice. The cake is moist and delicious and silky, soft icing tops it off beautifully.
- CUPCAKES
- 325g self-raising flour
- 265g castor sugar
- 20g cacao
- ½ tsp bi-carbonate soda
- 130g melted vegan margarine
- 1½ cup buttermilk (almond milk with 2 tsp white vinegar – mix and leave for 10 minutes)
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 2 flax eggs (30g golden flax meal mixed with ⅓ cup water – mix just before use)
- Red food colouring paste
- ICING
- 200g vegan margarine
- 400g vegan icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 20ml of aqua faba
- CUPCAKES
- Pre-heat oven to 175C (347F).
- Add flour, sugar, cacao and bi-carb into a large bowl and mix well.
- Melt margarine and add milk, red food colouring (enough to get a good colour but not too much as it can affect the flavour) and vanilla and pour into dry ingredients.
- Beat until combined
- Add flax egg and mix
- Spoon into cupcake wrappers in a cupcake tray - an ice-cream scoop gives the perfect amount.
- Cook for 18 minutes or a little bit more until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Transfer to a cooling rack.
- ICING
- Beat margarine until creamy.
- Add half the icing sugar. Beat until well combined.
- Add the remaining icing sugar & vanilla and beat well.
- Taste the icing and if needed, add some more margarine or sugar to suit your taste buds.
- Add aqua faba & beat for 3-4 minutes or until mixture looks soft and whipped.
- Leave one cupcake crumble over the top of others. The top is the easiest to crumble since it is firmer texture.
- Pipe icing onto the cooled cupcakes & sprinkle with cake.
- See cupcakes tips at end of post.
CUPCAKE TIPS
Flax Meal
My preference is for Golden flax meal. I feel like it works better in the cake batter but that could be my imagination. It definitely looks better in a light coloured cake because the brown flax meal can leave flecks of brown which you can see.
I used to get golden flax meal from a health food shop but when I couldn’t find the one I like recently, I bought Golden Flax seeds from my local IGA supermarket (Australia) and ground them myself in my coffee grinder. I am so happy with how my cakes turned out, that I grind my own from now one. It takes a few seconds in an electric coffee grinder and the meal is nice and fine.
I also only leave mine for a few seconds after I have mixed it but a lot of other recipes say to leave it for a few minutes. I find that it gets too think if left and doesn’t blend in as well to the rest of the cake batter.
Cupcake Wrappers
I also prefer to use the more upright cupcake wrappers in a thin cardboard rather than the traditional wrappers. The reason is that the traditional wrappers can be very fickle about peeling back from the cooked cake. If you undercook slightly then do it. If you keep them in a sealed plastic container, they do it. It doesn’t always happen but with the wrappers than I now use, it never happens and that make me happy! The other great advantage of these wrappers is that you don’t have to use a special pan. Then just sit on a flat tray and won’t lose their shape.
Ice-cream Scoop
This is the best and fastest way to get the perfect amount of cake batter in each cupcake wrapper. You need the old style scoop with the release handle. Makes baking so much faster.
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