February 14, 2012

Red Velvet for Valentine's Day!

What will you being up to on Valentine's Day? Do you plan an extravagant dinner, with roses, cards and chocolates? Or do you lay low and just spend quality time with your other half, maybe cook something up together? I personally prefer the latter, as restaurants during V-day are just way too hectic. The staff are usually overwhelmed, the food prepared waaaay ahead of time to serve the dinner rush. Then there are those random people who wander around trying to sell roses to couples. Not cute! I think that buying me 2 dozen (over priced) giant red roses is a huge waste of money; I'd rather get something I'd put to use! Like a new camera lens, duh! But last but not least, I'd rather be at home in my boyfriend's company...though I think we might go out for a late night dessert. Wednesday might be date night, hopefully it won't be as busy.

Inspired by such a red/pink and white themed made up holiday, I decided to bake up my first ever batch of red velvet cupcakes! I based my recipe off of the one from browneyedbaker. I took one look at her photos are I just knew these would turn out great. (Yes, I am kind of shallow like that.. but check out the 'crumb' photo at the end. You just know it'll turn out with the perfect texture.) Another thing I liked about her recipe is that there's only a quarter cup of butter for 12 cupcakes!

Not only were these terrific red velvets, they were vegan to boot!


Sugar and v.butter

Creamed together until fluffy


A mixture of cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food colouring, set aside


Flax egg. It looks super gross, it's slimy and totally goopey but it's the best egg replacer in baked goods! Whip.


In goes the red mixture


Stir to combine, make swirls, etc etc. Just make it all one colour!


Stir in half the flour


Then half the v.buttermilk, stir to combine.


Salt and baking soda, stir, stir, stir!


and finally the vinegar. Mix it in fast, but gently, we don't want to over mix.


Get yourself some pretty cupcake liners! These are from Ikea.


A vintage ice cream scoop to help with dividing the batter


Pressed heart candies, that taste like pineapple!


Heart shaped cut out sprinkles


Frosted with vegan cream cheese frosting


I even  made minis! (for Denise)


Texture picture. Super moist and fluffy!


Richard ate 2 minis and 1 regular sized cupcake before I frosted them. I ate two..one frosted, one naked. So good!


Vegan Red Velvet cupcakes
Makes 12 standard sized cupcakes

Ingredients

v.butter = vegan butter aka. vegan Becel margarine
v.buttermilk = soy or rice milk with vinegar
Flax egg = 1 heaping tablespoon of ground flax seed + 2 tablespoons of cold water, mix and let set for a minute or two
  • 4 tablespoons v.butter
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 Flax egg
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons liquid red food coloring
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup  v.buttermilk
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with (cute) paper liners.
  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and v.butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the flax egg. Scrape the bowl down with a spatula to make sure you've got everything mixed in!
  3. In another bowl, combine the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla. Mix it all together so it's uniform in texture, no lumps.
  4. Pour the red chocolate mixture into the creamed butter and stir that around until it's one even shade of red.
  5. Alternate the flour, v.buttermilk twice. (Half flour, half v.buttermilk, rest of the flour, all of the milk.) Scrape bowl.
  6. Stir in the baking soda and salt. Make sure this is really well incorperated.
  7. Finally, the vinegar. Mix fast and fill your liners ¾ of the way up and bake them immediately for about 20 minutes or when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Cool them in the pan for about 10 minutes then cool them fully on a rack. Frost and decorate to you liking! I used canned frosting. Shhh!!



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Hi, I'm Janetta from Toronto. I cook, bake and often veganize recipes. I photograph nearly everything and those photos will most likely end up being posted here. I've got a little black cat named Tank, who's really cute and a little bit nosy. You'll see a lot of photos of her too!

Contact me at: jubesandtank@gmail.com

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