First things first, I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. Not because I don't have a valentine, but because I don't like 'the man' telling me when to appreciate them and show my love. It means more when it is a random Thursday, don't you think? That said, I love any excuse to bake and Valentine's Day is a pretty good one. So I decided to bake 3 dozen cupcakes (2 dozen for my husband's work and 1 dozen for my mom's group) a few days before V-Day.
I stumbled upon this recipe for red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting on Oprah's website.
Not many people have had red velvet cake before, it's definitely a Southern thing. Some people say it's just chocolate with red food coloring, but there is so much more to it than that. It is a subtle chocolate flavor balanced with buttermilk and a splash of vinegar. It is traditionally served with a butter roux frosting or cream cheese buttercream frosting. I was surprised this recipe used buttercream without the cream cheese, but I went with it. Baked is supposedly famous for their red velvet, so I thought I would give it a shot without modifying it too much.
My Grandmother used to make red velvet cake all the time because it was my Father's favorite. I'm pretty sure my Father's favorite is german chocolate cake, but my Grandmother loved any excuse for a sweet. She used to have dessert with every meal except breakfast! Now I will have to get her recipe for red velvet so I can compare.
A few tips before making the recipe below. The red food coloring (i.e. red #40) isn't very good for you. It has been linked to behavioral problems in children and generally I don't like to ingest anything that isn't natural for the most part. Next time I make this I would like to substitute beet juice for the red dye.
Most people (unless you live in the South) don't have shortening (Crisco) sitting around the house. I didn't see much point in buying it for a measly 2 Tbsp. so I substituted an equal amount of unsalted butter. It didn't seem to make much difference and I think it would have only affected the texture anyways.
Another item non-Southerners probably don't have in the fridge regularly is buttermilk. But you can easily make your own by adding 1 Tbsp of lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes. Alternatively you could use 1 cup of plain yogurt.
One last thing you need not make a special trip to the store for is the cake flour. You can make a great substitution by placing 2 Tbsp of cornstarch in the bottom of your 1 C. measuring cup and then spoon all-purpose flour to the rim (using a knife to make it level of course). Then sift with your salt as called for in the recipe. I used whole-wheat pastry flour because I had it on hand and I wanted to see if the whole-wheat would make the final cupcake more dense. You can learn more about different flours and their uses with this pdf.
Red Hot Velvet Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream
I'll vouch for their deliciousness! I think the world should put more energy into discovering southern cooking (especially in the cupcake dept.) Thanks for the treats!
Morgan