It's Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day, my friends...

Yesterday i made this Red Velvet Cupcake because i'm curious about the taste. For the color, i put beet juice instead of red food coloring, and the result is there isn't any red color in it. After i search in some of the blogs, Red Velvet Cupcake made by beet juice won't have a bright red color but the color will become brown. Well, maybe next time i will try to bake another batch with beet puree as the coloring, hopefully it will make the cupcakes become red. Surprisingly, the taste is very yummy and there isn't any beet taste in it.

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Icing
Source: Wilton Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine , softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Red-Red Icing Color ( i used 9 table spoon of beet juice )
1 cup buttermilk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoons white vinegar ( i used lemon juice )
Cream cheese icing (recipe below)

Methods:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray two 8 in. pans with vegetable pan spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs and red icing color; mix well. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir baking soda into vinegar and fold carefully into batter. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

To Ice: Spread a thin layer of cream cheese icing on bottom cake layer. Top it with the second cake. Icing cake with the remaining cream cheese icing. Cover it with rolled fondant and decorate as your desire.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese , softened
8 cups confectioners' sugar (about 2 lbs.)
1 tablespoon milk

For Cream Cheese Icing:
In large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and milk. Beat on high until smooth (30 – 60 seconds). If icing seems too thin, add confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. If it seems too thick, add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time until icing reaches desired consistency

I only make half from the recipe above and it yields 10 cupcakes