When I was doing my MASSIVE BAKING MISSION for my sister’s birthday last week, I decided to make quite a few different cakes and eats and treats for all the people who were round! I had to account for all the allergies and intolerances in attendance, so, along with the Berry Cheesecake I made, I also decided that (because I’m a ridiculously good sister or because I am ridiculously obsessed with baking… your choice…) I needed to make two more cakes! Granted the other cupcakes were the delicious Mrs Crimbles cake mix, made into vanilla cupcakes, but this one, this one is my own adaptation of a well known and widely replicated Red Velvet Cupcake recipe.

Now, before I go ahead and tell you the recipe, I’ll let you into a secret that will probably define me as ‘freak’ among many of you – I haaaaate chocolate cake. With a passion. Like… if it’s there and it’s the only sweet thing, I won’t have dessert and if someone requests a cake for their birthday and then requests chocolate, I will do everything I can to convince them otherwise. So, why I hear you ask is it that I’ve gone for the Red Velvet cupcake?!?! You’re crazy, I can tell you’re thinking. But no, I am not crazy (well maybe a little, but not on this one), I just know that once upon a time, the boyfriend surprised me and brought me a Red Velvet CupCake home in it’s own little box and it was theeee most delicious thing ever! So, with that fond memory, I decided to make some of my own!

This recipe is a low calorie version as I was making so many cakes I thought I’d do my bit for the old waist-line!! But if you want to make it ‘full fat’ then drop me an email and i’ll help you on your way! The original recipe called for a baking time of 20 minutes, but if I’m honest, I would take them out at 15 and leave to cool as I like a moist cake, and for me that is the main hold back from chocolate cake!! Anyways… on with the recipe…

Ingredients

120g I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Light

300g Sweetener

2 eggs

20g cocoa powder (make sure it’s gluten free!)

40ml red food colouring

1tsp Vanilla Essence

240ml Low Fat Natural Yoghurt

300g Gluten Free plain flour (I used Asda‘s Free From)

1tsp salt 1tsp bicarbonate of soda

3tsp white wine vinegar (Make sure it’s gluten free!)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170°C

1. Cream together the light butter and sweetener with a wooden spoon and then beat together using a whisk until it is really smooth and light.

2. In a small bowl, combine the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a paste. I used a small teaspoon and really pushed the colour into the cocoa powder to ensure an even spread.

3. Add the coloured paste to the butter mixture and using your whisk, mix thoroughly until the red colouring is blended evenly through the butter mixture. As you mix, have a spatula to hand and keep scraping down the sides to make sure you have an even distribution of colour.

4. Grab your wooden spoon again slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Continue mixing, and as you do, add in half the flour. Mix really well until everything is incorporated. Now add in the other half of the buttermild and flour and continue to mix slowly, using the same technique of scraping down the sides every so often to keep all the mixture in the bowl!

5. Once all the ingredients are folded in, really mix it up to beat through the air. Into this mixture, you need to add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar (if you’re baking with children they will love the ‘fizz’ at this point in the recipe! Or if you’re a big kid like me, you’ll love it too!!)

6. Beat until well mixed, then give the mixture one last, really big mix (this is an arm-toning recipe too!! My arms were accccching afterwards!! You can use your food mixer if you have one, but you will not have arms of a mixing queen like me! I don’t… I still need to go to the gym…)

7. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 mins, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.

8. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Frosting

The original recipe, and most Red Velvet recipes to be honest, call for cream cheese frosting, but as I was catering for someone who cannot cheese and wasn’t sure about Lacto-free or Dairy Free cream cheese, I thought it would be best to go with a buttercream frosting. So just make up a standard amount of buttercream frosting and use that to decorate your cupcakes once they are completely cooled.

Red Sugar

To make the red sugar that I used to decorate my cupcakes, I added 3 drops of red food colouring to 3 tbsp of caster sugar (you can use granulated if you want!), mix it up until all of the sugar is coated and is red. Then, store in a container if you have leftovers. This will last for ages, so don’t worry if you don’t use it all!

Assembling the Cupcake Stand

Here is my cupcake stand being assembled. I really recommend getting one if you have a party to cater for. It looks great and they collapse back down again for easy storage! Plus, if you look around, you can probably get one for under £10!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon