Today I am sharing a special cupcake recipe from 'The Hummingbird Bakery'. With the distinctive red colour of the sponge, contrasting with the smooth white of the cream cheese icing, these little treats would be perfect to whip up for Valentine's Day.
Fairy cakes had always been around in England, but it wasn't until Carrie Bradshaw ate a large pink cupcake in series 3 of 'Sex and the City', that the larger more American style of cupcake came into fashion. The American Hummingbird bakery opened its first UK outpost in Notting Hill in 2004. There are now 6 stores in and around London and their most popular cake that they sell is the Red Velvet Cupcake.
Perhaps cupcakes are not as trendy as in the early 2000's, but there is no denying the allure of a desert pilled high with icing that you don't have to share and you can just pop in your mouth, no cutlery involved!
These take a bit longer to make (and are perhaps a bit more expensive) than your usual cupcake as you have the added elements of making a paste with vanilla, cocoa and food colouring and then adding buttermilk & vinegar. But if you fancy a treat and lets face it, we are not short of time these days, you can while away some happy hours in the kitchen with the radio on. Its quite fun watching the little red mounds rise in the oven!
Recipe:
120 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
300 g caster sugar
2 eggs
20 g cocoa powder
40ml red food colouring
1 tsp vanilla extract
240 ml buttermilk
300 g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
For the cream cheese frosting
600 g icing sugar
100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250 g cream cheese, cold
Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit and line two 12-hole muffin trays with 16 paper cases.
Put the butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on a medium speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to a high speed and slowly add the eggs. Beat until everything is well incorporated.
In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured. Scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.
Turn the mixer down and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Turn the mixer up to a high speed and beat until you have a smoot mixture.
Turn the mixer down to a low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool for about 15 minutes in the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
While the cupcakes are cooling, make the cream cheese frosting. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding mixer with a paddle attachment on a medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to a medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least five minutes. Do not overbeat as it can quickly become runny.
When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting onto each cupcake, gently smoothing over with a palette knife and making a swirl of frosting on each one.
You can put 1 cupcake into a processor and mix until you have crumbs which you can then sprinkle over the cupcakes as decoration.
Notes: the amount of icing left over was huge, so I would definitely recommend scaling down the quantity (unless you want to save some for a carrot cake, or just perhaps your own personal stash in the fridge!!!!).
For a really strong shade of red, try food-colouring paste by Sugarflair . Alternatively, you could use a 15g tube of Dr Oetker Extra Strong Red Food Colour Gel mixed with 2 tablespoons of water, although the colour won’t be as intense.
I also used quite flimsy cupcake cases and as the mixture is quite wet, I think a stronger foil case would have worked better. I do think they look nice when they are red to match though!
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