Читать книгу Geek Sweets - Jenny Burgesse - Страница 15

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet. All the most popular elves are talking about it, taking instagram “elfies” with slices of it, and wearing lip glosses flavored like it. But what is it, really, aside from the most popular cupcake in town?

It’s moist, it’s delicious, it’s… red. And it has a distinct flavor all its own. Most red velvet recipes are oil-based, which gives them their soft texture; red velvet also has a slight tartness from the inclusion of buttermilk (or sometimes milk curdled with vinegar). Red velvet recipes also usually call for cake flour, which gives them a lighter crumb. But their greatest intrigue lies in the cocoa: with not so much as to venture into chocolate territory, yet not so little cocoa that it goes unnoticed, the flavor of red velvet rides the line between chocolate and vanilla, and falls into the literal sweet spot between the two.

Makes 22-24 cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350° F and line cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

Add cake flour, cocoa, and salt to a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined.

With a stand or hand mixer on medium-high speed, mix together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and mixing well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl. (Mixture will foam! Fun!) Add fizzy mixture to batter, and mix on medium speed 10-15 seconds.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Carefully remove from the cupcake pan and allow to come to room temperature.

Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to two months in airtight containers.

½ cups granulated sugar

1 ½ cups vegetable oil

2 ½ cups cake flour

(not all-purpose)

2 tablespoons unsweetened

cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons red gel-paste

food color

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons white vinegar

Stand or hand mixer

Cupcake pan(s)

Cupcake liners

(color as recommended by the individual recipe)

No cake flour? No problemo! You can approximate cake flour by adding two tablespoons of cornstarch per cup of all-purpose flour. But… why? Well, to get a real light and fluffy cake, you need light and fluffy flour with less protein, unlike with bread, where you want increased protein for chewy, glutenous goodness.