Diwali special Red velvet Cupcakes and Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting

So, well I did not make a traditional sweet at home, infact we almost always buy ladoos and pedas

So how to you help the sweet tooth on diwali? I decided to make something special which would look gorgeous and festive

Red velvet cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream – heavenly goodness!

This recipe has quite a few steps and I will try and explain each. I have made everything from scratch including the colored sugar sprinkler

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue ButterCream Frosting( Vanilla Butternut Flavour)

For those of you who havent tasted these beauties – Red velvet cake is a gorgeous cake recipe which has a hint of cocoa and a whole lot of red food coloring.

Well red food coloring is not something we got to use all the time- but this is festive, so we have the leverage!

This recipe should yield you 12 regular sized cupcakes ( They gave me 11 though maybe my spooning of the batter was inconsistent! )

For the red velvet cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake flour (Not all purpose flour) – recipe follows

1 TBSP cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup softened butter ( at room temperature)

1/2 tsp vinegar

1/2 cup buttermilk ( recipe follows)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 TBSP oil

1/4 tsp salt

1 TBSP liquid red food coloring

For making cake flour

In India cake flour is available only at selected stores at exhorbitant rates! So I just make my own . For every 1 cup all purpose flour , replace 2 tbsp of flour with corn flour. Sift these two really well.

So here , I have replaced close to 2.5 TBSP  All purpose flour with Corn Flour. Thats a quick fix for Cake flour. SO easy!

For Making ButterMilk

We are not talking about chaas or lassi here!!!!

Add 1 TBSP white vinegar to 1/2 cup milk, and let it stand for 5-7 minutes. It sort of curdles and our quick fix buttermilk is ready

Method

PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 180 DEG CELCIUS

1. Sift together the prepared cake flour, baking powder ,salt and cocoa. Set aside

2. Now beat the butter and sugar till fluffy. Should take around 3 minutes. Use hand mixer or countertop mixer( if you are lucky! ) . If you dont have either, I am assuming you are regular at the gym!

3. Now to this add eggs slowly, one at a time.

4 . Add vanilla extract and oil, Beat

5. Now add 1 TBSP liquid red food coloring to buttermilk. Gently stir

6. Add this colored buttermilk and flour to the sugar+butter+ egg mixture, alternating. Beat on low speed till everything is well incorporated. Dont beat a lot! A lot of beating starts building gluten and it results is very dense cupcakes

7. Now the last step . To the 1/2 tsp vinegar we have, add the baking soda and immediately add this fizzy mixture to the batter. Fold with spatula.

8. Now arrange cupcake liners in cupcake tin. Add the batter to 3/4 th fulls of the liners.

9. Bake for around 20 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean

Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting

This is the first time I have made Swiss meringue buttercream, and I was VERY VERY tensed

At a point , It got on my nerves and I wanted to toss it into the kitchen sink, glad I didnt – will get back to this later!

 Ingredients

3 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup unsalted butter

1 tinyyyyyy pinch salt.

Vanilla extract or any other flavour you want to add. I used Vanilla Butternut Oil ( LorAnn brand). If you using concentrated oil, you need a drop!

Method

This would be very very tedious to write, let me guide you to an awesome video that I refered to!

TroubleShooting

This is going to be a keeper for you, coz like I mentioned before I had a whole bunch of issues getting this right, and nailed it at the end

Issue one – If you think your SMB is too soupy, stick the bowl in the fridge for 20 mins, remove it and then gently beat it .

Issue two – This is the one that happened to me. If your SMB curdles , dont panic, I almost got a stroke- but let me tell you SMB is very forgiving. So I google searched, how to fix a curdles SMB, and I got a lot of info! Thank you google! Take 1/4 of the entire batch of SMB and heat it in microwave for 10-15 secs. Add this mildly heated mass to the rest of the curdled mass, and beat it on medium speed for approx 3 minutes – Voila MAGIC! My entire world came together, and I had smooth as silk, gorgeous  Swiss Meringue Buttercream – Oh la la!

Frosting and Piping

I made two toned pipe swirls for frosting. If you do wish to know how to go about doing that, mention in the comments and I will update this post. I used the medium sized star tip

Colored sugar

Take caster sugar, add a drop of your prefered coloring. and mix. If you think your sugar has become soggy, let it air dry for 15-20 minutes. Use as desired, store the rest .

I sprinkled some on the frosting to make them look more like “Diwali Cupcakes”

I have tried and explained all that I have learnt in the process , and the various tips and tricks. If theres something that you feel isnt covered, please mention the same in the comments section below

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI! 

© Poonam Maria Prem and Mommygyan, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mommygyan with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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