While comparing the SMS recipe to the Red Velvet Cake in Rose's Heavenly Cake, I learned that it's better to use baking powder instead of baking soda, to prevent the cake from turning brown-ish while baking. I also left out the vinegar as the buttermilk in the recipe provided sufficient acidity to the batter. For the red food coloring, I used McCormick's liquid red food coloring.
With the batter in the Pyrex cup, dividing up the batter was a breeze.
11 cupcakes total.
An inside look into the Red Velvet Cupcake.I made a third of the recipe and baked cupcakes. The batter yielded 11 cupcakes. When the cupcakes came out of the oven, I couldn't wait to try them. I was happy to see that the cupcakes retained their red color. As soon as they were cooled and just slightly warm, I broke a cupcake in half to look at the texture and feel the cake's moisture content. So far so good. Now let's have a taste... oh it has no frosting yet, you ask? I couldn't wait for that. This is my homemade Red Velvet Cake from scratch and I want to taste it NOW :o) I can't tell you how disappointed I was. I expected a chocolatey cupcake that happens to be red in color. Not the case. No chocolate flavor to be found. After you swallow, you get this weird and off-taste in your mouth. I have to believe that the food coloring is the culprit. This is the first time ever I considered throwing a baked good in the trash. For now, I bagged them in a ziploc bag and put them in the freezer. Maybe if I cut them up, doused them with a chocolate syrup and lots of whipped cream, I could make a palatable trifle with them. Needless to say, I decided not to "waste" a good cream cheese frosting on these. Sorry!
This oil-based chocolate batter came together quickly.
These cupcakes baked in a 300 degrees oven for quite some time, about 35 minutes, even though the recipe stated 20-25 minutes. It didn't negatively impact the cupcakes though.With this setback, I needed a backup. After all, I had my mind set on eating cupcakes that evening and they had to be chocolate. One recipe that's been on my todo list is Molly Wizenberg's recipe from her book, A Homemade Life. Molly is widely known for her award-winning blog, Orangette. You can find the recipe for these super-chocolatey, moist and fudgy cupcakes HERE. I made a 1/3 of the recipe which yielded 12 cupcakes and used a simple chocolate glaze to "frost" them. Hubby really liked these. He already had a dessert today so he was only going to eat half a cupcake. When I came back into the room, the other half was gone :o)
Doesn't that look gorgeous?
The cupcake in all its chocolate glaze glory. Bon appetit!Final thoughts/tips:
- Hubby didn't like the Red Velvet Cupcakes either. I didn't share with him my opinion until he told me his. He too said it had a "funny taste".
- Since the red food coloring was the only ingredient I don't normally using in my baking, I'd have to think that that was the culprit but I'm not sure.
- The recipe for the Red Velvet Cake can be found HERE. A big thanks to Rosy for hosting this week!
- The backup chocolate cupcakes more than made up for the RVC setback. They were absolutely delicious. I'm not much of a milk drinker but if you are, I'm sure you'd want a tall glass of cold milk with these cupcakes. They're very moist, fudgy and tender, and are deliciously chocolatey even without the chocolate glaze.
- If you're in a serious chocolate mood, try the Chocolate Cupcakes. The recipe can be found HERE.
- Don't forget to check out the other SMS bakers to see if they had better luck with this recipe.
