Red Velvet Cupcake

Red velvet cupcake is by far one of the most searched recipes in google. So why is this becoming so popular among cake lovers around the world. Maybe its the deep red color and the moist morsels, or the hint of chocolate. Now there are few tips and tricks that you should remember when baking your very first red velvet cupcake. Remember that it should be moist. No debates about this. So how will you achieve a moist red velvet cupcake. The vinegar when added in to the milk becomes buttermilk. Yes, this is not a rocket science thing, but any acid can be used just in case you ran out of vinegar. Next key factor to a moist and velvety cupcake is the use of oil instead of butter. There maybe some baking purist that might disagree on this one., but as for my own experience a neutral vegetable oil like canola or corn oil will do wonders. The butter and oil mixture can also be good combination. Well, I must admit that using oil in baking recipes sounds really convenient and it makes cleaning a little faster since I would not be using a hand mixer for this recipe. I should probably get a new hand mixer, and should invest on a heavy duty hand mixer. My uncle already gave me a Kitchen aid stand mixer 12 years ago and believe it or not it is still working really fine up to this time. Now going back to the recipe, over baking your cupcakes is the culprit is having dry baked products. A good 12 minutes baking time would suffice if you are baking 3 ounces cupcakes. Increase the baking time if your muffin pans are larger. If you are using the toothpick test, there still be streaks of wet batter in the middle of the cupcakes. Remember that there is still carry over baking. 

For the frosting, I just used a standard 1:1 ratio of creamcheese and unsalted butter, plus some confectioners sugar. 

Prepare all your ingredients. Oh did you notice those lovely cupcake liners? 

In a bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and eggs. Yes, you can use a hand whisk on this.

In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.

Now mix together, the milk, vinegar, red food color and vanilla extract. I know it looks like blood, but do not mind this part.

Blend together the oil-egg mixture and the milk mixture to the dry ingredients. You can also add these alternately.

The batter should look like this. Deep bright red!

Then transfer them to a 3 ounces muffin pans and they are ready to bake.

For the frosting, cream together your cream cheese and butter and add your confectioners sugar a little at a time and mix on low to medium speed until it becomes smooth and icing-like consistency.

It should look something like this.

Then let your cooled cupcakes be frosted using an open hole piping tip and a pastry bag.

And voila! Enjoy your red velvet cupcakes!