Red Velvet Cupcakes

A week ago, my H bought a 6-cup muffin pan for his Yorkshire pudding project. To our dismay, it wouldn't fit into our tiny oven! Our oven is just the size of an oven toaster. We were really disappointed, but my H decided to make a surgical operation on the pan. He sawed off two of the cups, and it was successful! It's not the most polished muffin pan, but it's usable. Here's a snapshot of it.

So to christen our newly operated pan, I decided to do a cupcake version of the classic American red velvet cake. It's a really really good comfort food, and the sweet cream cheese frosting is indeed the icing on the cake. No wonder it's a popular southern cake.

The actual cake of the red velvet cake is a mild chocolate butter cake. It is said that it got it's name from the distinct red hue attributed from the chemical reaction between the acids (distilled vinegar and buttermilk) and the cocoa found in the cake.  The acids heightens the fierceness of the red anthocyanin found in the cocoa, but nowadays it's the addition of red food coloring that gives its vibrance. Some people even use beetroot to add color. 

All in all, my H's engineering work on the muffin pan was well worth it. And the red velvet cupcakes were a nice celebratory treat to baptize the new addition to our growing pan family. 

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte