Usha Singh

Red Velvet Cupcakes-each and every one of us want to indulge in these red-chocolate flavoured cakes that are usually topped with a slightly tangy cream cheese frosting—myself and a few of my family have always watched others dig into and enjoy these beautiful bits of heaven all put together in a cup cake—then came the day that I could not just stand by and drool while watching others indulge in these delights.

Well there you have it—that is how I started experimenting to create my eggless, light, spongy and delicious Red Velvet Cupcake-well I have been baking it for months now—sharing them with everybody and waiting for feedback—ahh and the feedback has been “is it really eggless?” and “please can I have the recipe—so here we have it—my tried and trusted recipe for  Eggless Red Velvet Cup Cakes-it has become a staple Friday treat for the princess. I served it at the Diwali tea that I had at home and then I baked some for my sister who took it to a Christmas Tea on Sunday.

Red Velvet (makes 12)

 80ml melted butter

250ml evaporated milk

100ml water

10ml vanilla extract

10ml vinegar

300ml cake flour

40ml cocoa

5ml red powder food colour

2.5ml salt

2,5ml baking powder

2.5ml bicarbonate soda

200ml castor sugar

 Method

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees and grease baking pans of your choice (cup cakes or 20cm round pans)
2. Melt butter and allow to cool slightly
3. Put the evaporated milk and water into a small dish and mix in the essence or extract and then add the vinegar and allow mixture to curdle slightly
4. Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, and then stir in the sugar
5. Pour the milk mixture into the melted butter mixture and mix
6. Using a spatula or whisk and ensuring there are no lumps forming, add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients very slowly and mix
7. Do not over beat-just use folding in method to ensure that all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed
8. Pour into the baking pans and bake cup cakes for 20minutes and round cake for 25 minutes or until a skewer/toothpick inserted comes out clean
9. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 3-4 minutes before removing from baking pan, once removed allow to cool for about 25-35 minutes
10. Make frosting/icing with cream cheese and icing sugar to ice the cakes and decorate

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