Hello everyone! I did a poll recently on Instagram and Red velvet cupcakes were requested a lot. They are one of my favourite cupcakes because I adore a cream cheese frosting.

I’ve tried a lot of red velvet cupcakes that lacked in flavour so I wanted to try bring out a bit more of the cocoa flavour. I wanted a luxurious deep ruby red colour with loads of flavour. I made a delicious cream cheese frosting that is so tasty and I did a core of white chocolate ganache to make them even more luxurious. The white chocolate core is an optional step.

Important: When it comes to the red colouring you need to use a good quality paste or gel. Don’t use a liquid colouring. You don’t want to use a liquid colouring as it is very weak. This will mean you need to use A LOT!! This will add a nasty flavour to your cake and will also change the consistency of your batter. So you may end up waisting a load of ingredients. I used https://www.rainbowdust.co.uk/progelr-ruby.html . This is available in Super Value or online at https://sugarsisters.ie who are delivering at the moment.

Happy Baking!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 16 -18 minutes

Servings: 12

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 150g Plain flour
• 15g Cocoa powder
• 150g Caster sugar
• 1 Egg
• 100g Soft Unsalted butter
• 120ml Buttermilk
• 1 Teaspoon Vinegar (I used white vinegar)
• 1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• Red food colouring (I used 1 teaspoon of gel colouring- link above)

White chocolate ganache

• 150g White chocolate
• 50g Cream

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 150g Soft unsalted butter
• 180g Cream cheese
• 300g Icing sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Directions

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180C/ 160C Fan. Line a cupcake tray with your desired cupcake cases.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together till pale and fluffy.
3. Mix in your egg, vanilla, and red food colouring.
4. Add in your vinegar and buttermilk and combine. This will look very wet but that’s normal.
5. Sieve in your flour, Cocoa, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Fold through till just combined. Do not over-mix.
6. Spoon evenly into your cupcake cases and bake for 16-18 minutes. Or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool completely.

Ganache

1. Add white chocolate and cream to a bowl and microwave on 30 second blasts till melted.
2. Leave to cool.

Cream cheese frosting

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk soft butter till pale and fluffy.
2. Add in half of your icing sugar and whisk well.
3. Add in your cream cheese and vanilla and whisk till fully combined.
4. Place the remainder of your icing sugar in and whisk till combined.
5. Leave in the fridge to you are ready to pipe onto your cakes.

Decorating

1. Now that the cakes are cool with want to core them. I use a cupcake corer but an apple corer or knife will do the trick. Keep your cake crumbs for decoration.
2. Fill up each cupcake with white chocolate ganache.
3. (If using a piping back to decorate) Fill up your piping bag. I used a Wilton 1m Tip. Swirl cream cheese frosting on top of your cupcake.
4. Sprinkle with cake crumbs and decorate with anything you like. I used white chocolate curls and some gold dust.
5. Take a snap of your creation and send them onto me @gills_bakesandcakes.
6. Enjoy! Keep your cupcakes refrigerated!!

If you make this recipe I would love for you to tag me on Instagram!#Gills_bakesandcakes @Gills_bakesandcakes