Red Velvet is (apparently) my girlfriend’s favorite cake, and I would love to say that I made it for her, but in reality she lives 3000 miles away in California – where the weather is currently much, much nicer – so this batch of cupcakes is all for me.
Which is probably not really all that great for my thighs.
This recipe is from Bakerella, and is incredibly, incredibly moist with an almost runny batter that made my stovetop look like the site of a massacre. They bake up deep red and soft, and look perfect with a huge dollop of cream cheese frosting on top. If this was actually for Valentine’s Day – when I started thinking about these – I might have tinted the frosting pink, but as February ends tomorrow, it stayed white. Regardless, the cupcakes look so good that I’ve already had two.
I halved the recipe, but the whole thing is posted here. I made a dozen cupcakes, a full batch would make twenty-four.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Courtesy of Bakerella
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring
Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.
Mix together flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa with a wire whisk and set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring until completely combined. Add wet ingredients to dry, and beat until blended and smooth.
Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for twenty minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool, and prepare cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 C butter, at room temperature
8 oz of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 t almond extract
2-3 C confectioner’s sugar
Beat butter and cream cheese together until thoroughly blended. Add extract and blend again. Add sugar until you reach your desired consistency and sweetness.
Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.
Perfect for a special occasion. Also perfect for a Saturday night when you’re not in the mood to do anything productive. Which is most Saturday nights at my place.
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This was originally supposed to be Chocolate Spice Bread from Nick Maligieri’s The Modern Baker, but I was, um. Out of sour cream. And then I accidentally added twice as much cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. And had to add an extra egg. And substituted goat cheese for the sour cream.
In other words, this is not Nick’s chocolate spice bread, but it is one of the most decadent chocolate desserts I’ve made, and that includes the afternoon I spent getting drunk on chocolate bourbon cake.
Chocolate Spice Cake Loaf
1 1/2 C AP flour
1/3 C dutch process cocoa powder
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 t ground ginger
3 eggs
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
5 T melted butter
4 oz goat cheese, softened
1 t almond extract
Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.
Whisk eggs with sugar. Add melted butter, goat cheese, and almond extract and beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients and beat until combined.
Spread in a greased loaf pan and bake in a 350F oven for 40-50 minutes or until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for five minutes, then remove and cool completely before serving.
I figured that yet another recipe full of substitutions and minor errors was the right way to end the year. It is, after all, the way I bake 90% of my recipes.
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Battle Two in my ongoing and unsuccessful war against my Bundt pan, I baked this cake for National Bundt Day. Which was two weeks ago. And had so many plans to bring it into work and wow the four other employees with my cake prowess, but again, I was defeated by a bundt pan that doesn’t want to release cakes.
Possibly I should stick with sheet cakes and round cakes and cupcakes, but I refuse to be vanquished by a Calphalon pan. But I digress.
This cake, other than the pan disaster, also heralded me realizing that my microwave had a minor smoking problem, required the purchase of alcohol and espresso powder, and had one of the most spatter-y batters ever, but it was incredible. When I dug into the broken quarter directly after it came out of the pan, I thought it was possible that I could actually get drunk on this cake. I don’t consider this a bad thing.
From the New York Times via Elise at Simply Recipes, it takes an entire cup of whiskey. Trust me on this: use it all. It makes for an immensely flavorful, immensely moist cake that, yes, you may be able to get drunk on.
Chocolate Bourbon Cake
1 C unsalted butter, softened
2 C AP flour
5 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/4 C instant espresso
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 C bourbon whiskey
1/2 t kosher salt
2 C granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 T vanilla extract
1 t baking soda
1/4 powdered sugar, for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 325F and grease and flour a 10-cup bundt. Set aside. Melt chocolate in microwave or over a double boiler. Let cool.
Place espresso powder and cocoa in a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to make 1 C. Add 1 C of bourbon. Stir until cocoa and espresso has dissolved. Set aside.
Beat softened butter until fluffy (2-3 minutes on high). Add sugar and beat until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, baking soda and melted chocolate, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.
With the mixer on the lowest speed, beat in a third of the whiskey espresso cocoa mixture. When liquid is absorbed, beat in 1 cup flour. Repeat additions, ending with whiskey mixture. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for Bundt pan (loaf pans will take less time, start checking them after 55 minutes).
Transfer cake to a rack. Unmold after 15 minutes and sprinkle warm cake with more whiskey. Let cool. Sprinkle powdered sugar through a mesh sieve over the cake before serving.
Everything went well until the unmolding part. Also, I didn’t bother sprinkling with more whiskey – it didn’t need it, but your mileage may vary here.
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