c.m. wilson : Making Red Velvets

Hey, even writers have to eat, right? And sometimes we need to find inspiration by making something tanglible with our hands. I find that cooking up something sweet does just the trick to unblock my creativity when I'm feeling dull. Baking, or any kind of cooking for that matter, can be quite a sensory experience, and what better way to wake up the senses than by baking something fun. These moist and tender gems are not only fun to make, they are also tasty to eat - especially if you need a sugar rush - and their vibrant red color will wake up even the most uninspired minds. I don't pretend these cupcakes are in any way healthy, but they are simple and fun to make - perfect for when you are feeling blue. I followed Auntie Em's recipe (see previous post) and came up with these red lovelies below.

Gather your ingredients, and start with the dry ones first. This recipe is super easy, and uses flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and unsweetened cocoa powder. I reduced the sugar (see wet ingredients part) considerably for mine, but it's up to you to decide how sweet you would like your cakes to be. Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and set aside.

Next, prepare your wet ingredients. This is an old fashioned recipe, which calls for buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and - gasp! horors! - red food coloring. You add your sugar now, so this is the part where you can decide to adjust the amount you use. Auntie Em's recipe calls for 13 oz of granulated sugar, and I figured that to be about 3.5 cups. That seemed like waaay too much for me, so I think I added about 2 cups. You also need to add your eggs and some vinegar, here. The red color is truly a shocker, but it is kind of exciting, once you are committed!

Slowly add your dry ingredients to the wet, and mix together. You can stop periodically, and scrape the sides of the bowl to get everything you can into the middle of the bowl. Mix on slow speeds at this point to avoid over-mixing.

Meanwhile, get your cupcake pan ready. I only had one pan, and was expecting this recipe to only make 16 cupcakes, so I used an extra cake pan and stiff cupcake cups for mine. As it turned out, this recipe made over 2 and one half dozen cupcakes, and I had left-over frosting as well.

Spoon your cake batter into the muffin tin or cupcake cups in your baking sheet or pan about three quarters full. Remember that they will rise a bit in the baking process. It's OK to make a mess: t's part of the fun! After all, this is part of your creative process!

These are ready to go in the over now! You should have preheated your over to 350 degrees before you started ( I forgot to mention that, but it's in the recipe in my previous post). Bake for about 20 - 30 minutes. I baked mine for about 25, and I think 22 would have been perfect, since they continue to bake once they come out of the oven.

Prepare your icing while the cupcakes are baking. This recipe called for 1 1/2 pounds of cream cheese and 1 pound of butter. I hadn't bought enough cream cheese at the grocery store, so I only used 1 pound of cream cheese and 1 stick less of butter (about 3 sticks, since 4 is a pound).

Whip together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla, and then add your powdered sugar. I was impatient and forgot to add the powdered sugar last. Instead, I dumped it all together and it made a huge mess. But I kept the speed on low, and it all turned out OK, as you can see here!

Look how beautiful they came out! The ones I overfilled and put on the cake pan came out extra huge, but they are just as tasty, and in my opinion, are less uptight as these perfect little red sugar bombs.

Let them cool for quite a while. Go do something else while they are cooling, I did! Oh, I also decided to put the frosting into the fridge while the cupcakes cooled. The butter and cream cheese is easier to spread when it's cold from the fridge.

Use a knife to spread your frosting on, starting with a large blob on the top. Work your way around the sides, just like frosting a mini-cake. You can get quite creative with swirls and peaks. This part is very meditative, I found.

Go one by one, until you have them all frosted. It takes a while, and a lot of patience, but if you slow down and enjoy the process, it's quite rewarding. Top with sprinkles, or raspberries, if you like. I used these peppermint sprinkles and they add a little crunch. Super cute and fun!