The Blues in Red

Sometimes when I get blue I bake because it makes me forget whatever is going on and lets me focus on something. 

Although Im feeling blue, I decided too change it up a bit and I took my first shot at Red Velvet cupcakes.

Red Velvet cupcakes

Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2 large beets
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup coconut oil
• ¾ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Remove beet leaves and scrub the beets clean. Place each beet on a large square of foil and sprinkle with the salt, olive oil and a splash of water. Wrap each beet loosely with the foil.
3. Place foil-wrapped beets on a baking sheet and roast until a knife or fork comes out with ease when inserted into the beet, about 30 minutes. Remove the beets and set aside to cool just enough to handle.
4. Preheat oven to 160 C. Line a 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
5. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
6. Peel the cooled beets and grate finely, until pureed.
7. Add coconut oil, milk, eggs, vinegar and vanilla to the beet puree and mix together. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, until combined. Scoop batter into lined cupcake tins, filling about ⅔ full.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9. Let cakes cool

Turns out cream cheese frosting is not easy when you don’t have an electric mixer. Yes I know, a baker without a mixer…crazy. Well until I invest in one it is all hand mixing for this little baker. Without the mixer my fluffy cream cheese frosting turned to a cream cheese glaze...which in the end was actually pretty nice…just not the effect I was originally going for.

Cream cheese glaze/frosting
Ingredients

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

Methods

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together. For best results use a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment or a handheld electric whisk on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. I on the other hand used a wooden spoon to begin with and then a whisk and mixed by hand.
2. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. If using a mixer, turn it up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Again for me I hand whisked it until it was mixed together, it just never really got light and fluffy, more glazy liquid.
3. If yours is fluffy spoon or pipe the cream cheese frosting on top of the cold cakes. For me I coated a few times with the glaze and let them dry.

If I do say so myself they tasted pretty awesome. An intense flavour and super sweet. One with a cup of tea will do the trick quite nicely.

Try out the recipe yourself and see how you like them…hopefully your icing works out a bit better than mine but either way they will taste great!

This little piggy

Sometime I just like to bake to make someone smile.

There is a girl at my work called Laura who has to be one of the sweetest, nicest people there. She has always been really lovely to me, even though she doesn’t know me very well.

One Friday a group of work colleagues went over to visit little micro pigs that were visiting our offices and unfortunately she wasn’t able to make it because she was to busy with work. This sucked because she was really looking forward to it and is a big animal lover.

I decided I wanted to cheer her up and see if I could make her smile. If she couldn’t go and see the piggy’s, I would bring them to her in cupcake form.

Laura’s Micro Pig Cupcakes

Cupcakes

Ingredients  

• 175g softened butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g self-raising flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 eggs

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C
2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until light and fluffy.
3. Pour in the vanilla essence and add the eggs and mix again to make a yellow batter.
4. Add the flour and mix until it is smooth. The longer mixing time enables air to get into the mixture which will make it lighter.
5. Pour the batter into the cupcake cases.
6. Bake for about 14 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They will be perfect when they bounce back to the touch and the top still looks slightly sticky. This will ensure they keep their moisture.
7. Leave on a cooling rack for 30 minutes or until cool.

 Frosting

Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup strawberry puree
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, nearly at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Add the strawberry puree to a small saucepan. Heat mixture over medium-low heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally until reduced by about 2/3. Should take about 10 - 14 minutes
2. Pour reduced puree into a small bowl and leave to cool.
3. In a bowl mix butter until pale and fluffy.
4. Mix in 1 cup powdered sugar, then blend in the reduced strawberry puree and vanilla extract
5. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and continue to mix until frosting is pale and fluffy, adding in an additional 1/4 cup powdered sugar if needed to reach desired consistency.

To decorate as little piggy’s like mine get red jelly beans for the ears, chocolate drops for the eyes and I got Percy pig noses to use as, you guessed it, the noses.

Layer on the icing when the cupcakes are completely cooled. You will need a decent amount of icing for your decoration to stay on and then just assemble to resemble little piggy's like below.

Unfortunately at the time I was making them I wasn’t aware she was vegan (rookie mistake) but I know she appreciated the thought and I know the rest of the team enjoyed them in her honour.

Give them a try. Cute, pretty easy to make, sweet and really tasty.