Valentines Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have made these before and they are amazing and so perfect for Valentines Day. It's The Hummingbird Bakery recipe from their cookbook. I have tried lots of different recipes for this cake, but this one produces consistently beautiful cakes.

Ingredients:


Cake
60g unsalted butter at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr Oetker)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 white wine vinegar


Frosting
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold


Preheat oven to 170ºC.


For the cakes: Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg until well incorporated.


In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add in the butter mixture and mix until evenly combined and coloured. Slowly mix in half the butter milk and then half the flour. Repeat the process with the rest of the buttermilk and flour.  Beat until smooth. Then add the salt, bicarb and vinegar, stir in and then beat a little more.


Spoon mixture into 12 cases so that they are each about two-thirds full and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave them to cool while you make the frosting.


The frosting: Beat the icing sugar and butter together until well mixed. Add the cream cheese and beat until well incorporated, beat for at least 5 mins until mixture is light and fluffy. Do not overbeat as it can quickly become runny,


When the cakes are cold you can apply the frosting! Then lick the bowl. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do, I can not recommend the Hummingbird Bakery book enough, so many delicious recipes.