Friday, February 15, 2008

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting


Influenza and possibly strep have hit our household hard this week. Balanced with an out of town husband due to work (not to mention over worked husband!), Valentine's really took a back seat this week.

Finally getting around to preparing our family celebration for this tonight.

My husband has had a desire, no, a CRAVING for Red Velvet Cupcakes. I think we saw a Bobby Flay Throwdown about it within the last few months which just magnified his craving. Now, my husband does not NEED to be gluten-free, and for the most part is not. Except when it comes to baked goods prepared in my kitchen. They are ALL gluten free. Then became my quest for Red Velvet Cupcakes I could make for him. A special treat for him for Valentine's day. I even had the heart-shaped molds from Reynolds!

This recipe is not too loosely based on the Gluten-free Yellow Cake on Allrecipes.com . I have always altered the recipe for my own tastes by adding extra vanilla and pudding powder...this made it taste more like the box-mix type cakes. After searching for tradtional Red Velvet Cupcake recipes, I decided to alter a tried and true instead of starting over! :D

The yield will be about 12-15 standard cupcakes if filled 2/3 full pre-bake. And about 12 of the Reynolds Heart Molds if filled half full.


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 Cup White Rice Flour
1/4 Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1/4 + 1/8 Cup Tapioca Flour
1/4 Cup cocoa powder (watch your source on this one!)
2 Tbs Chocolate Pudding Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Xantham Gum
2 Eggs
1/3 Cup Mayonnaise
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs Red Food coloring (liquid)


Sift together rice flours, tapioca flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, baking powder and xantham gum. Set aside.

In bowl of your mixer - or in a large bowl - mix eggs, mayonnaise and sugar together until light yellow and very fluffy. I start on a low speed until well combined, scraping down the sides often, and then turning speed to 8 or 10 until really light and fluffy.

Set speed to low and gradually add in half of flour mixture. Scrape sides and return to mid-range speed, add half of the milk and 1 tsp vanilla. Return speed to low and add remaining flour mixture. scraping sides again, returning to medium speed once combined, adding milk. Once all the cake ingredients are combined well, turn mixer off and add 1 Tbs of the food coloring as close to the center of the bowl as possible. Slowly bring speed up to middle allowing food coloring to mix in well. Repeat this step, only add a tsp at a time until the red is your desired color (some are redder than others, and you don't want to over add b/c it will change the liquid balance. OR if you're using a paste or powder color, the ratios are much different). I went for a blood red color! :D

Pour batter into lined cupcake pan or the molded liners and bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting



Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese, softened (if you prefer the tang of the cream cheese, use 8 oz and no butter)
4 oz butter, softened
2 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract or flavoring (watch this one, sometimes can be gluten containing)
2 to 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Whip cream cheese and butter together until very smooth (or if you chose all cream cheese, whip until smooth). Add 2 Tbs milk. While mixer is running, slowly add 2 cups sugar. If it's not the consistency that you like, add more. Be careful not to overdo the sugar it will make it too stiff.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look fabulous! I'll have to give them a try with casein-free cream cheese, margarine and rice milk and see if they survive : ) Here's hoping!

Anonymous said...

They worked really well as casein-free, Krista! : )

The only thing was for the cream-cheese frosting, I used the Tofutti brand 'Better Than Cream Cheese' and for some reason it went really runny on my first try. I had to skip the milk, go really light on the vanilla and heavy on the confectioners sugar, but they turned out really nice : ) Thanks!

(I'll post my casein-free modifications eventually and link back to you when I do)

Anonymous said...

I have been craving these lately also. And the funny thing is, I don't even remember if I really like them. I think it's the fact that everytime I turn on the tv or open a magazine there they are.

I will definately be trying these. They look wonderful.

I hope everyone is feeling better.

JT said...

I would never have thought to use Mayo in a frosting. I best it will give it an interesting texture and flavor.

Paula said...

These are excellent! (I have to be gluten-free as well as casein-free, so I used a marshmallow cream frosting instead of the one suggested.) Unanimous thumbs up from my family. You did a fantastic job adapting the recipe! Thank you.

Unknown said...

THANK YOU! I'm really glad you and your family enjoyed them!

Anonymous said...

I made the frosting for another cake, so I didn't use the red velvet cake recipe. But the frosting did NOT go well. I tried the alternative to butter, which was use 8 oz. of cream cheese. My final product had cream cheese chunks all through it, even though I used a hand mixer for at least two minutes. I was very disappointed, and would never recommend this recipe to anyone.

Unknown said...

I'm very sorry that the frosting was disappointing to you. I have made it the way it was listed many many times with no issue. Did you make sure that your cream cheese was at room temperature? And did you use the beater attachment or whisk attachment to the hand mixer? I have found it is VERY crucial to make sure that your ingredients are at room temperature (which means sitting out for almost 24 hours OR to defrost in microwave at 10 sec increments until very soft but not melted)

Again, I'm sorry it did not work for you.

Anonymous said...

what temp did you bake these at???

leanne

Carlito said...

Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting sounds good. I don't like Red Velvert though