Sweet Dreams are made of these: Red Velvet Cupcakes by FT!

Amongst the multitude of Red Velvet cupcakes, FT has decided to make her first from scratch

I was supposed to start my official diet day today, but since I already had my Phoa fix and was full to the brim, I decided that one cupcake making session won't hurt ;) So me, Bboy and Dada scurried around the grocery store to buy the ingredients. I didn't have the recipe yet but already had some idea of what was needed. So in went the cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar, flour, baking soda and cocoa in the cart and off to the counter we went.

Red Velvet CupCakes - on rack (by thesepeasarehoolow.blogspot.com)

Take note this is the "fistime" I have ever baked a cupcake. I've eaten tons of them but never attempted to make one. I always found it easier to snatch out money from my purse than to manually beat a batter. Also, I thought it's been a week since my last blog and that I was craving for something sweet, so why not make a batch of warm red velvet cupcakes on a cold  and rainy Sunday afternoon... perfection!
So when we got home, I quickly consulted the "mother" of all "do-it-yourself-home Ec-I-love-being-a-house-wife" guru... Martha! A quick search in her website gave me the complete recipe for the cupcakes and my fahaha-avorite cream cheese frosting. Scrumtilidicious! Mwahhh!

 

Red Velvet batter with red coloring

As I quickly gathered the ingredients I realized I didn't have any butter milk, which is not a common commodity here in the tropics. I was quickly able to substitute this with milk and vinegar...thanks again to the power of the Net. Another option to the milk-vinegar recipe is to actually make butter milk from scratch by using whole cream and putting it in a well sealed bottle. You're supposed to shake it till lumps of butter appear (this might take a lot of muscle power and time since it's like  churning butter the century old way). The lumps can be made into butter by squeezing out the liquid and adding salt. Viola! The liquid left by the butter is called the butter milk which one can now use for the cup cake recipe. Ingenious!

Lucky me I did't have any electric mixer at home so making the cupcakes actually helped my diet regimen out by covering my cardio requirement for the day ;) It was no problem as well since I put my child labor force to good use ;)

 

After measuring, mixing, baking and sweating a bucket, the finished poduct came to life. I made sure to leave out the "red coloring" cause I remember my in-law almost getting a heart attack after thinking he had passed-out blood in the toilet after eating a batch filled with one (sorry for being too blunt and graphic but I had to share it). So it wasn't a very red velvet cup cake only a tinge but the taste was ohhh sooo tangy, sweet and fluffy! Anyhoo, originally the cupcake never contained any red coloring. It only turned red due to the reaction of unprocessed Dutch Cocoa and vinegar in the recipe, or so they say.

Now for the verdict. I can easily convince you about how it tasted by telling you guys that my son, who I clearly advised to only get one piece, went behind my back and sneaked in another. As I told him to put it back on the rack he stuffed the whole cake into his mouth... end of debate... it was YAMMMY! The cake though was not in the pretty side since the center rose like a muffin instead of being flat, which rendered the icing/frosting placement a bit tricky. Also, since humidity and room temp was not in the low 20's, the icing was a bit runny. Nothing a quick trip to the ref can fix. All-in-all it came out superbly! Nothing like a yummy prize after a hard day's baking ;)

So, if I can make a yummy scrumptious cup cake from scratch so can you...yes you! All you need is a good recipe, some good quality ingredients, a lot of muscle power and your well on your way to being the cup cake queen or king of your neighborhood. Enjoy!

For the complete Martha Stewart Red Velvet cupcake recipe please click on the image above