How To: Red Velvet Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting (Lunar New Year Edition)

Hey Nibblers!

     Happy Lunar New Year! May this year bring you good fortune and happiness. Tomorrow, I'll be going to my Aunty & Uncle's house to celebrate the new year with the family. So with a free day to chill, I thought I would try making my first every batch of 'Red Velvet' cupcakes from scratch! Plus it's lucky to be wearing, eating red so why not? The recipe I based this one on is from allrecipes.com.au. I made a few tweaks along the way but, the end result turned out deliciously moist and will definitely be a crowd pleaser.

What you'll need: (To make 14 small/ medium sized cupcakes)
- 125g softened room temperature butter
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 187g of self-raising flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 Tbs. cocoa
- 125ml of buttermilk (helps aerate the cake batter/ keeps the cake moist)
- 1/2 tsp.vanilla essence
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3 tsp. red food colouring

How To:
1. Pre-heat fan forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Line tin with cupcake paper
3. Sift self raising flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder and giving it a quick stir until well combined then set aside
4. Beat soft butter and sugar together until the resemble fine bread crumbs

5. Add an egg one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture and beat until well incorporated
6. Add vanilla and red food colouring, beating until the food colouring is mixed thoroughly
7. Add half of your dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk and beat on a high for 3 minutes

8. Repeat step 7 until all ingredients have been mixed
9. Divide batter equally into cupcake moulds leaving for 3 minutes so the batter can set into place for an even rise

10. Pop into the oven for 18 minutes, checking with a skewer to ensure the cupcake is cooked
11. Leave cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes before decorating

For Buttercream Frosting:
I'm using the same butter cream frosting I've used in my previous blog posts but here's a recap:
- 200g sifted icing sugar
- 250g softened butter (room temperature)
- 3 tsp. vanilla essence
- 2 Tbs. milk

How:
Beat the butter on a high for 6 minutes (scraping the sides to ensure an even mix)
Add 1/2 of the icing sugar and beat until well combined
Add vanilla and milk and beat until mixed
Add remaining icing sugar
Beat frosting for a further 6 minutes before decorating

Decorating 'Lunar New Year' Style:
I wanted to keep these cupcakes simple so all I did was:
1. Spread a thin layer of the buttercream frosting to 14 of my cupcakes. (I wanted to spell/ say 'Happy New Year' in Vietnamese)
2. In four separate bowls, I scooped about 3 Tbs. of the frosting and dyed one bowl, purple (1 drop black food dye, 1 drop red food dye) another, pink (1 x red food dye), third one, black (3 drop black food dye) and lastly yellow (1 drop yellow food dye).
3. Wrote the letters in purple slightly to the left side of the cupcake
4. Used a star nozzle and piped three small yellow flower petals
5. Repeated step 4. with the pink
6. Added the branches using the remaining black food dye
      And voila! Chinese New Year themed cupcakes at the ready to enjoy.

       Hope you all loved this quick and easy post. I know I had fun making them. If you have any other questions please feel free to comment below or if you do decide to make these, please do email or tag me in your instagram pics! I would love to see them.

        Happy weekend!
Nibble Away,
           Jo.