red velvet cupcakes

well...the mini version that is. i made mini red velvet cupcakes yesterday. that's one more recipe i can scratch off my list. the wife and her sister, on their trip to NYC years ago told me about this place called the magnolia bakery, that sells the best cupcakes ever. i think the place was made famous because of the few episodes of SATC. i haven't tasted anything from the bakery, BUT! the last time i was in LALA Land, the wife got me the banana bread pudding from the magnolia bakery branch in LA (that just opened) and lemme just tell you that every mouthful was a sinful experience to remember...sedap giler!!!!! it was 80% cream, 15% banana...and until now, i still cannot figure out where the 5% of bread is in that tub of happiness. haha!

MB Banana Bread Puddin'

 so, naturally, when i was looking for red velvet recipes and found the magnolia bakery version here, mestilah nak try, right? and so i did. lemme just tell you that the cupcake itself, was really moist, there were an isolated 2 or 3 cuppies that was a bit bitter tasting at the bottom, that was my bad, my fault entirely because i think i didn't mix the batter thoroughly and the bitter bits were the soda and vinegar mixture...maybe? haha! the cake itself was really moist and not that sweet...i think the recipe was made to compliment the frosting, so that the taste will not be too overpowering. another booboo i made was i didn't follow the frosting recipe from the same site. mainly because i had a whole chunk (read: all 500g of it) of cream cheese sitting in the fridge and i don't want it to go to waste, so, i took the frosting recipe from this other website...unfortunately, it didn't turn out too great, think once again, i overdid it with the beating of the cream (hmm...what exactly is my problem with cream??) and i had to redo the whole thing (only three letters can explain this action O.C.D.) but i decided to use a recipe from here instead. and, alhamdulillah..it turned out just fine.

waaahhhh...very long one my explanation...bla bla bla like that...are you headache? hahahaa!!

okay, to make a very, very long story short...(i haven't even told you how hard it was to find red food coloring...it seems as if half of malaysia is making this, and i had to go to a few places to find red food coloring...but, nemindlah, no needlah, yes?) i will now share with you the recipe, taken from sarahmeyerwalsh's blog.  since the recipe is not in metric, i have taken the liberty to convert it for you guys. as for the instructions and bla bla bla, you can guys go over here okay?

ingredients:
437½g cake flour
170g butter
562g caster sugar (the recipe didn't specify what kind of sugar, so i used caster)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tbs red food coloring, i used up almost 3 tiny bottles of star brand food coloring
3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1½ tsp salt
1½ cups buttermilk*
1½ tsp cider vinegar
1½ tsp baking soda
1 batch creamy vanilla frosting, that i didn't do (stoopidstoopidstoopid *bang head to wall)

*if you don't have buttermilk, fret not, because who in malaysia has a stock of buttermilk in their fridges anyways, right? okaylah, if you're a hardcore baker, maybe you havelah...but i don't. so, i went online and found this guide on how to make your own buttermilk. easy, right? if you don't have milk and/or vinegar, then i cannot help you...but if you do, then you're all set. :-p

now for the frosting, i followed the recipe for the frosting taken from here. this is a very useful site because each recipe has its own metric converter.

wow! this is one heck of a long entry, i'm sure you guys are already sick and tired listening to my nonstop babble...i wish you all the best of luck in your red velvet adventure.

come back soon, aight?

red velvet recipe taken from: sarahmeyerwalsh.wordpress.com thank you!
1st frosting recipe taken from: www.joyofbaking.com thank you!
2nd frosting recipe taken from: allrecipes.com thank you and i LOVE you!!