Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Red food colouring 
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

For the frosting:

• 2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 1 1/3 cups cold heavy whipping cream

Directions

Make the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius. Line a cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a bowl beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, white vinegar, vanilla extract and enough red food coloring until the mixture is well combined and reaches your desired color.
3. In a separate medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, 1/2 a cup at a time, mixing between each addition to avoid any lumps in the batter.
5. Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full with batter and bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
6. Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely (place in the fridge to help speed up the process if you need to frost the cupcakes soon).

Make the frosting:

1. In a bowl beat the cream cheese until smooth. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl, beating to combine, then add the vanilla essence.
2. Scrape down any cream cheese from the sides of the bowl, and then with the whisk beating at medium-high speed, stream in the cold heavy cream until the frosting is thick enough to pipe.
3.  Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your desired pastry tip. 
4. Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and serve immediately.

(recipe adpated from here)

Vanilla Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream

Since it has long been a tradition to bake a sugary filled treat upon every arrival of Eid (religious celebration for Muslims that occurs twice a year) within my household, I opted for something slightly more creative. I stumbled across this recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes from Linda Lomelino's "Call Me Cupcake" blog and adapted it to my preferences. This recipe yields enough for 12 scrumptious and fluffy vanilla cupcakes that'll leave you savoring the heavenly flavours till the last crumb. 

Ingredients (Vanilla Cupcakes)

• 300 grams plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 125 grams butter
• 150 grams white sugar
• 3 large eggs or 4 average eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla essence
• 100 ml milk

Method

1. Heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line you cupcake tray with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy in texture. Then proceed to beat the eggs one at a time and finish it off with vanilla essence.
4. Add the dry ingredients and milk to the mixture slowly in small parts until it is entirely incorporated into the same bowl.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake cases and only filling them 3/4 of the way.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the baking tray.
7. Let the cupcakes cool completely (preferably overnight in an airtight container in the fridge) before attempting to frost. 

Ingredients (Rose Buttercream)

• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 1/2 cup icing sugar
• pinch of salt
• 220 grams white chocolate (not choc chips or candy melts)
• 1/4 cup thickened cream (that can be whipped)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp rose water

Method

1. Put the chopped white chocolate into a small bowl. Heat the chocolate in 30 second increments in the microwave set to 60% power. Stir after each increment, and continue to heat 30 seconds at a time, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside and allow to completely cool.
2. Once white chocolate has cooled, sift the salt and powdered sugar over the butter, in a large bowl. Cream the butter and sugar mixture together until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Measure the whipping cream into a cup, and stir in the vanilla essence and rose water.
4. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually pour the cream mixture the bowl.
5. Once the cream mixture has been incorporated into the frosting, fold on the melted (but cooled) white chocolate until incorporated.
6. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high, and beat frosting for an additional 3 minutes.

(Makes about 2 ½ cups of frosting)