Katina is definitely the creative one. She is the genius who baked a Canberra inspired cake for our cakeup at Essential Ingredient and really impressed us all with potato as her secret ingredient!
So when Katina mentioned she had baked 100+ cupcakes for her brother's wedding we knew it would have most definitely been a success. So much so that we tested our luck by asking her to bake some for the Forage Event! How lucky are we?
Not only has Katina so kindly donated the winning recipe she used to make the 100+ cupcakes, she will be baking them for our Forage Event on the 5th of July in New Acton. Need any more convincing to come and pay us a visit? For more details on the Forage Event visit www.theforage.com.au. Thanks Katina!
"Is there anyone here because they're going to make a wedding cake?" the cake decorating teacher asked. Apparently there is usually at least one in each of her CIT courses. My goodness, I thought, why would anyone agree to do that?
Fast forward a few years and my brother asked if I would consider doing the cake for his wedding, at that point 10 months away. It would just be one tier, he promised, with cupcakes. Red velvet cupcakes. One hundred red velvet cupcakes. I agreed and spent the remainder of the year baking (nearly) monthly decorated cakes for my colleagues to practice those ganaching and fondant skills. The cupcakes would be fine as long as I could find a good recipe, I figured.
That proved not as easy as anticipated and I must have visited six different bookshops to find any book with red velvet in it (naturally a week after that hunt Donna Hay magazine put out an edition with eight different red velvet variations...). I made a few practice batches and things were good to go.
The week leading up to the wedding I worked early morning shifts and came home every afternoon to bake two dozen cupcakes which then went into the freezer. My oven only has one tray (no idea why) so this was a fair chunk of time each afternoon. Let me tell you, I was utterly sick of cake batter and red food colouring by the end of the week!
The wedding was wild and rainy and generally terrible for fondant but nearly all the cupcakes disappeared. And almost enough time has passed that I'm now ready to bring out the cake tins and the cocoa and the red food dye once more.
Here's the recipe I used, from The Cupcake (published by LOVE FOOD/Parragon Books).
Red velvet cupakes
Makes about 22 (original recipe is doubled)
280g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbsp cocoa powder
230g butter, softened (or use margarine in a pinch)
280g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250ml buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp red food colouring
Pre-heat oven to 180C. Put cupcake papers out (or don't – I never do this at the start).
Measure out flour, bicarb soda and cocoa powder all in a bowl together so they're ready to go (the recipe says sift them but really, who has time?). Mix them together a bit.
Beat butter and sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in egg and half the flour mixture (that's why you should mix the dry ingredients up).
Beat in buttermilk, vanilla extract and red food colouring.
Fold in remaining flour and stuff. The mixture doesn't go super runny; it's kind of stiff and keeps its shape when you dollop spoonfuls out.
Spoon mixture into patty cases.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (in my oven 17 minutes was perfect) or until risen and firm to touch. Cool slightly in tins then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Best eaten immediately (like any cake!) but keeps okay frozen for about a week-and-a-half.
These guys are awesome with cream cheese icing as follows:
250g full fat cream cheese, softened
150g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
It's important to soften the cream cheese and butter first or else you end up with lumps. Trust me on this. The recipe says to blend together the butter and cream cheese by hand with a spatula but I did it in the electric beater which was much faster. Add in the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
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