Fourth of July Red Velvet Cupcakes

Happy Fourth of July! In honor of this fine country, I decided to make something red, white and blue to bring to work to share with my poor suffering coworkers who also have to work on the Friday after the Fourth of July. I knew immediately I wanted to bring them Red Velvet Cupcakes.

I have the best Red Velvet Cake recipe ever. I never diverge from the trusted Red Velvet Cake recipe I’ve been eating since I was a kid.

But what’s the point of having a food blog if you’re not going to experiment with new recipes? And why post a new cupcake blog of an old cake recipe, when I could just point readers in the direction of my old recipe?

I *thought* someone (my mom? dad?) had recently sent me a different recipe for red velvet cake, which I immediately dismissed since I already have the best recipe in my repertoire. I was pretty sure I kept the recipe somewhere and decided to unearth it for this very special occasion.

So I pulled out this big boot box full of recipes. These are recipes I haven’t discarded, per say, but just set aside for another day, month or year. Recipes sent to me by my Grandma, aunts, parents, etc., that didn’t immediately strike my fancy. I thought I may have put the other red velvet cake recipe in the box. But the task was way too daunting for me to complete. A thorough sift through the box would literally take me days.

Then I turned to this pile of crap sitting on a wooden chair in my living room. This chair I’ve been intending to paint for about a year now. Within this pile of crap (bills, bank statements, pay stubs, etc.), I knew there were some recipes I’ve been intending to enter on my blog as drafts. In this pile of recipes I found this recipe and decided to give it a whirl.

This recipe is adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Best Loved Desserts.

ingredients.

• 2 1/4 c. flour ( I used two slightly heaping cups)
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 c. vegetable oil
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 oz red food coloring
• White Chocolate Whipped Cream
• Vanilla Bean Frosting

directions.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line 10 to 12 Texas-sized (or 18 regular sized) muffin tins with liners. Set aside.
3. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat at a medium low speed until combined. (The directions for the original recipe were slightly more detailed but the gist of it was combine all ingredients with wet ingredients and mix – so I condensed the details for this version.)
4. Spoon batter into the prepared cups, filling about three-fourths full. Bake 18 to 20 minutes for regular sized muffins or
5. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on racks.
6. Spoon White Chocolate Whipped Cream into a decorating bag fitted with a large round or star tip. Push tip into the top of each cupcake and force some of the whipped cream inside the cake.
7. Generously pipe or spread frosting onto the tops of cupcakes.

white chocolate whipped cream ingredients.

• 1 c. heavy whipping cream
• 3 oz chopped white baking chocolate with cocoa butter

white chocolate whipped cream directions.

1. In a small saucepan combine the white chocolate with 1/4 cup whipping cream. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is nearly melted. Remove from heat; stir until smooth. Cool for 15 minutes.
2. In a chilled large mixing bowl beat the remaining whipped cream with chilled beaters on medium until soft peaks form (tips curl). Gradually add cooled white chocolate mixture, beating on medium to high just until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). If desired, cover and chill for up to 24 hours.

I made these cupcakes twice within 24 hours. The first batch I threw out. For the first batch I decided I would see what brown sugar tastes like in red velvet cupcakes. In theory, it probably tastes good. When you don’t thoroughly mix the ingredients well, you end up with chunks of brown sugar speckled throughout one or two cupcakes while the remaining cupcakes end up bland/not very sweet. Word of warning, if you try all brown sugar in a cake recipe, make sure you mix the ingredients well.

I ended up substituting four egg whites for the two eggs. This is not because I was trying to make the cupcakes more healthy. It’s because I have eight egg whites (now four) chilling out in my fridge.

Substituting whites for yolks may have been the fatal flaw. (I never do this in baking.) While this recipe is OK, it’s just not as good as my mom’s Red Velvet Cake recipe. Even when I reverted back to white sugar, I thought the second batch still tasted like it needed more sugar. All in all, I probably wouldn’t try this recipe again.

That being said, the common folk (i.e. someone who isn’t a food snob or who doesn’t have such high expectations for food) would probably find these cupcakes more than fine. The common folk would probably find these cupcakes good, even.

Oh. And one more note on the White Chocolate Whipped Cream – do not use white chocolate chips. They do not melt well and will seize up if you add certain ingredients (like cream).

Recipe rating: 