This months' theme Love at First Bite, which was no doubt inspired by Valentines' Day, had my mind focused on making something delicious and special for my lovely husband for the day. Valentines' Day is something that we don't normally celebrate; personally I would much prefer a bunch of flowers or a nice surprise romantic dinner, when the calendar doesn't dictate you do! I remember being single and feeling very much like Bridget Jones, when it was Valentines' Day, particualary watching over smug women, walking past with their red roses!
I have never had a red velvet cupcake, but I had heard all about theme and knew that they are one of the latest things at the moment, the cake to have! I talked to a few people about it and decided that this was something that I wanted to make! With my mind made up I started searching the net for recipes.
I found a Red Velvet Cupcake recipe on Taste, that had 5 stars http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/26697/red+velvet+cupcakes. It was a gluten filled cupcake, but writing this blog has given me more confidence in my baking skills and converting a gluten filled recipe into a gluten free one. This is what I did with this recipe and I must say I am quite proud of myself as it is honestly my best gluten free creation I have made. Or at least, up there with the best.
I couldn't believe how easy it was to make, virtually it was sift dry ingredients and mix in the wet ingredients. The only thing which I will admit I goggled on how to do was buttermilk; I simply added a tablespoon of lemon juice first and let it sit whilst I collected all the other ingredients. No mix master, no hand held mixer, this is a very easy cake to make. What makes it even better is that you put them in paper cases, saving on the washing up even more! What's not to like about that!
When it came to the icing, I read the comments, originally the recipe called for 2x 250g of cream cheese! I agreed with the majority of comments which said they halved the icing, so 1 250g of cream cheese and 1 cup of icing sugar. The icing is where you need the hand held electric mixer, as you need to mix, butter, cream cheese and icing sugar. Make sure you have the cream cheese and butter out at room temperature! Once everything was mixed up, I dipped my finger into the bowl, and was overwhelmed by the cream cheese flavour. To me, it didn't match with the chocolate red infused cakes that I had made! In the end to get the right consistency, so it tasted like icing and cream cheese wasn't the overwhelming flavour, it took the addition of another cup of icing sugar and then we had the perfect match! It took alot of will power to stop eating the icing from the bowl.
The next step of this adventure was to add the icing to my perfectly formed cupcakes, which were more like muffins. As I had added more icing sugar, there was a fair bit more icing, so the cakes were well covered with icing. I lathered them up rather well, and I was impressed with the overall turnout.
As much as they were calling 'eat me, eat me', I held back and waited until my hubby got home from work and together with a nice cup of tea we ate our Red Velvet Cupcakes at the same time! It was most definitely Love at First Bite! I have to say this was the nicest, moistest gluten free cake I have tried, and the icing was the perfect accompainiment! The only reason you would have known they were gluten free is that if you knew I was a Coeliac.
I have to confess I ate more than my fair share of the cakes, but I figured that's one priviliege as the cook you get to have! And I was in love; I just couldn't stop eating them! I have some baby showers coming up and I can guarantee these will be on my menu of gf things that I will be bringing.
I have to give a warning, it does contain red food colouring, so be aware when giving it to children. My sister gave my 18 month old nephew some and within 30 minutes he was slightly hypo, we only realised when he was running around a bit loony like, that there was red food colouring in the cake. An example for all those people who claim food colouring doesn't affect children, I can vouch yes, it does!
Just writing this recipe for you makes me want to make these cakes again. For all those Coeliacs or Gluten Intolerant people out there, you can have a delicious, scrumptious cake that doesn't taste dry or crumbles. And yes you will fall in Love At First Bite.
When you make them, don't tell people they are gluten free and see what response you get, I can almost guarantee it will be full of praise, as people have their mouths stuffed with cake, telling you how good it tastes!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup gf cornflour
1/2 cup gf flour
1tsp bicarb soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 cup butttermilk
200g butter, melted
2 eggs lightly whisked (at room temperature)
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp red food colouring
1 x 250g cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar (add more to taste)
60g butter at room temperature
2-3 tsp vanilla essence, (for icing, add more to taste).
Method:
Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcisus. Line 12 muffin pans with paper cases (or 18 patty cakes). Sift flour, cocoa, bicarb soda into a bowl. Stir through sugar. Whisk buttermilk, butter, eggs, vinegar and vanilla in a large jug until well combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture, stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring. Divide the mixture into the paper cases. Bake for 20-25 mins, or until skewer comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, extra butter and vanilla until smooth (I added another cup of icing sugar to meet my taste, so perhaps start with 1 cup and adjust to your individual taste). Spread over cupcakes.
Buttermilk: Add 1 tbs vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk (I used lemon juice). Allow to stand for a min of 5 mintures before using.
