I can’t very well go whining about cake crushing disaster that was the barbeque at the beginning of this month without discussing the cakes I made, then crushed. Now that I’ve got the holidays out of my hair, and now I’m comfortably in bed in my new fancy Orla Kiely sheets (thanks Mum), it’s time I typed up some recipes.
I keep maintaining that I resent the new cupcake cute, but, again, they’re my preferred format for a party cake. Here is what I like in my cupcakes: I like them to be tiny, ping pong ball sized things with a sensibly sized icing hat. To that end, I use what’s marked as a ‘mini’ cupcake tin rather than the standard one. I like the icing to be flavoursome and not overly sweet. I resent dry, flavourless wads of afterthought cake beneath giant, too-sweet 1M buttercream swirls, so the cake has to carry its weight, flavour and texture wise.
Both of these cakes did the job. The few uncrushed survivors were really good, delicious even. The stars of the show, however, were Kickpleat’s vegan cupcakes, which I finished with a neat swirl of sweded-together fake cream cheese icing. I decided to try my hand at seven minute icing to go with Joy’s red velvet cupcakes, mostly because I have a generous cache of egg whites and I wanted to avoid the fatty heft of a buttercream. It was… fine. In future I’ll try the cinnamon cream cheese icing, because cream cheese icings are universally loved.
Red velvet cakes with fluffy white icing
Via Joy the Baker. Makes… a lot of tiny cakes.
- 60g butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- An eg
- 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa
- 3 tbsp red food colouring for maximum crazy
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup and 1 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp white vinegar
Preheat oven to 160. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the egg. In a small bowl mix together red food colouring, vanilla and cocoa to form a thick paste. Add to butter mixture and beat until well combined, scraping up from the bottom of the bowl regularly.
Add half the buttermilk, beat to combine. Add half the flour, beat to combine. Beat in remaining half of buttermilk, followed by flour. Add baking soda, followed by vinegar. Scoop out into a lined cupcake tin. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centre cake comes out clean, around 10-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
For icing:
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
This makes a good-looking, perfectly white, rather sweet and generally inoffensive icing. In future I’d use a cream cheese icing, but this is a good recipe to have around for times when you need a structurally sound, quick icing.
Whisk together 1/3 cup water, egg whites, salt and sugar in a large, heat conducting bowl. Set over a pan of slowly simmering water and beat with a hand mixer on low. Gradually increase speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form, around 5 minutes. Remove the bowl from heat and steady it on a folded tea towel and continue to beat on high until the mixture has cooled, 2-3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Ice cupcakes as you see fit. I busted out the star tip and made marshmallowy little swirls, as you can see above.
Best vegan cupcakes ever, you guys
Via Kickpleat. Makes, well, see above.
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup neutral-tasting vegetable oil
- 1 cup brewed coffee
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp white vinegar
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In a large measuring cup combine oil, coffee and vanilla. Slowly pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and fold to combine. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar. Whisk in quickly until just combined.
Scoop into prepared cupcake tin, and bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
I made the icing as follows: I took one tub of Tofutti soy cream cheese. I added two heaped dessert spoons of Nuttelex. I beat them together. I then added icing sugar gradually, beating after each addition, until icing was stiff enough. I used a smaller star tip to pipe on swirls for the vegan cakes. It was heaps awesome.
