Impress Your Valentine With Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe from Magnolia bakery (courtesy of Epicurious):


Cupcake Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons red food coloring
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Frosting Ingredients:
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour three 9- by 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

Cupcake Directions:
In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well.

In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

When the cake has cooled, spread the frosting between the layers, then ice the top and sides of the cake with Creamy Vanilla Frosting.

Frosting Directions:
In a medium-size saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk until smooth. Place over medium heat and, stirring constantly, cook until the mixture becomes very thick and begins to bubble, 10-15 minutes. Cover with waxed paper placed directly on the surface and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, on the medium high speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating continuously for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat well.

Add the cooled milk mixture, and continue to beat on the medium high speed for 5 minutes, until very smooth and noticeably whiter in color. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes (no less and no longer—set a timer!). Use immediately.

Epicurious Test-Kitchen Tip:
This recipe also makes 2 dozen cupcakes. Use 2 muffin pans, each with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups, and line each cup with a paper liner. (There's no need to grease the cups.) Arrange the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and bake the cupcakes, switching positions of the pans halfway through baking, until a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack before icing. To ice, mound about 1/4 cup of frosting on top of each cupcake and use an icing spatula to make a swirl on top. If desired, decorate with colored sprinkles.

Brooklyn Cupcakes

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that cupcakes have made a real come-back in the last few years thanks to bakeries like Magnolia, Crumbs and Buttercup. (Artie Lange from Howard Stern even has his own cupcake at Crumbs.) No longer are these trendy, bite-sized (sometimes 5-8 bites worth) of sugary deliciousness reserved for birthdays alone.

For work birthdays, we used to get to order from LES favorite Sugar Sweet Sunshine, but now we make them ourselves to show off the domestic goddess inside. But I really love the cake portion of the cupcakes from Magnolia as they are closer to a biscuit in consistency and texture, than a cake. But who wants to wait on that line unless you have someone from out of town coming to visit?

That's why a posting on a blog devoted to cupcakes caught my eye. It spotlights a Williamsburg bakery called Kumquat. The tiny cupcakes look delicious. From their Web site:

Keavy MacPherson has been making cupcakes from scratch, for her friends, for years. Word of mouth quickly spread about her delicious mini-cupcakes and catering orders started piling up. For the past few months she's been selling her delicious mini's underground to anyone who's heard about them, but now they're available to all.

Still I'd love cupcakes in DUMBO. I saw some good looking homemade ones at Forager's. The same blog mentioned above gives high marks to the cupcakes from Almondine. I also came across an old post in Gothamist about a cupcake bake-off last April at Brooklyn Kitchen. I will have to attend next year's event!

Anyone had cupcakes from Brooklyn that they love? Tell me!

If you are feeling adventurous, try to make the famous vanilla Magnolia cupcakes yourself, recipe courtesy of Food Network. Or, if you're not up to making cupcakes from scratch, my favorite "fake-out" is to buy a box strawberry cake mix and then frost with vanilla confetti icing.

Cupcakes:
* 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 2 cups sugar
* 4 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:
Vanilla Buttercream, recipe follows

Directions:
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
* Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.
* In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
* In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
* Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
* Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.
* Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full.
* Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
* Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream:
The vanilla buttercream used at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners' sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 (9-inch) layer cake.