Red Velvet Cupcakes

The red velvet cupcakes and cakes had been my husband’s request for quite some time and the Valentine’s Day was the best day to try it out. The amount of red food coloring used may be scary for some people but I wanted my cupcakes really RED..!!! The same recipe could be used to bake a red velvet cake.

This recipe makes 18 cupcakes and each cupcake provides approximately 149 Calories.

Ingredients:

250 grams plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (sifted)

2 teaspoons baking powder

100 grams soft unsalted butter

200 grams caster sugar

1 heaped tablespoon red food colouring

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

175 ml buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and line 3 muffin trays with paper cases.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking powder in a bowl.
3. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beating well, and when you have a soft, pale mixture beat in the food colouring and the vanilla.
4. Into this mixture, still beating, add 1 spoonful of the dried ingredients, then 1 egg, followed by some more dried ingredients, then the other egg, followed by the rest of the dried ingredients.
5. Finally beat in the buttermilk and divide the batter between the 18 cases. 
6. Bake in the oven for about 55 minutes.
7. Leave them to cool on a wire rack and don’t ice with the frosting till cupcakes are absolutely cold.

Recipe by Chaya Ranasinghe

Coffee Chocolate Cupcakes

This is my second attempt at baking cupcakes. I have a very long way to go to master the art. As my husband is a coffee lover, I baked this batch. This recipe is very simple and easy to bake; also it can be doubled or tripled to bake more cupcakes.

This recipe makes 7 cupcakes and each cupcake provides approximately 356.5 Calories.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

1 tsp instant coffee granules

30ml warm water

60g butter

80g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp cocoa powder

75g All purpose flour (Maida)

40g ground almonds

60g dark chocolate

90ml milk

For the butter cream:

50g butter

100g Icing sugar

1tbsp milk

1tbsp coffee

Method:

For the cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare cupcake cases on baking tray.
2. Combine instant coffee and water and set aside.
3. Mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add egg and mix until combined.
5. Sieve together flour and cocoa powder and add half to butter mixture.
6. Melt the chocolate and add to the butter mixture.(I melted in the microwave)
7. Add milk, remaining flour/cocoa and coffee to butter mixture and mix well.
8. Divide into cupcake cases and bake in preheated oven for approximately 55 minutes.
9. Leave them to cool on a wire rack and don’t ice with the frosting till cupcakes are absolutely cold.

For the butter cream:

Beat butter until creamy and then fold in icing sugar and coffee, adding a little of each at a time until you reach the required quantity and taste.

Recipe by  Chaya Ranasinghe