anna olson's red velvet cupcakes

At Inniskillin's Canada Day celebration I had a chance to speak briefly with Anna Olson. She mentioned that she's been putting some of her recipes she's working out online for people to test. They are posted here. I decided to give her Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting a go.

I've always wanted to make Red Velvet Cake. I don't have any history with this type of cake other than having tried a cupcake at Kickass Cupcakes in Boston, MA. I figured this was a perfect excuse to try out a recipe.

I think Red Velvet Cake is a great science experiment. Not that I know anything about chemistry but it seems as though this batter is example of a perfect execution and control of acid and base. You have baking soda, baking powder and then buttermilk and vinegar all working in harmony. The batter even changed its properties right before my eyes. It went from glossy, wet and pink as it came together, then by the time I spooned it into the cupcake wrappers it was light brown, airy and matte. My oven read VERY low at 250 so the baking time was drastically extended. But when I took these babies out of the oven they had baked up perfectly! 10 minutes out of the oven these cupcakes tasted so wonderful I only wish I could have shared them at this point! I'd say I've hardly ever had a cake so soft and moist. I was really thrilled with the result. The flavour is slightly cocoa-y but definitely its own thing that is a bit difficult to describe but you'd just have to try.

The cream cheese icing recipe was a perfect match and execution. However, I didn't have my icing tips ready in time and decided to chill the most perfect cream cheese icing until the next morning. I then took out the icing the next day and gave it a good beat to mix. It deflated and separated. Lesson learned there. Luckily the taste was still delicious, so I iced the once beautiful icing onto the cupcakes and brought to a picnic anyways. No one complained and most people loved them, so I'm thinking this recipe is a total winner. I'm really looking forward to making this again with the light icing the way Anna recommended. Kudos Anna!