Guest Blog: Red Velvet Cupcake Swirl

December 28, 2012

We welcome Maxine from Why I Am Not Skinny to the blog today. She not only has a great blog herself, but found time to make us some cupcakes (YEA!!!). Take a look at her creation and check out Why I Am Not Skinny….

I love the whole concept of *Saved by Cake* by Marian Keyes. It appeals to the baker in me, not only because of all the delicious recipes but also because I do believe that there is a therapeutic healing power in mixing, baking and creating life out of flour & eggs (amongst other ingredients).

Marian Keyes is a well-known international bestseller with many books under her belt (including Angels, Rachels Holiday, Sushi for Beginners…. Etc etc) who suffered a bout of depression (or what she terms as a nervous breakdown) and found her way out of the black hole via a mixing bowl, batter and a fair amount of sprinkles and frosting.

So I recently treated myself to a copy of the book from amazon a few weeks back and have spent my free time, pawing through the pages (and drooling over the pictures) – all the whilst wondering on which recipe I need to try out first.

After reading it cover to cover at least three times, I realised that the only way to start the book was with the combination of chocolate red velvet cake mixture with a cream cheesecake-like swirl running through it.

Red Velvet Cupcake Swirl (Marian Keyes)

110g Butter (7.3 tbls)

170g Caster sugar (11.3 tbls) + 40g (2.6 tbls) caster sugar for cream cheese layer

1 teaspoon vanilla extract + quarter teaspoon vanilla extract for cream cheese layer

40g (2.6 tbls) cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

1 Tablespoon red food colouring

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

3 eggs

160g (10.6 tbls)Self-raising flour

200g (13.3 tbls) cream cheese

To make cream cheese layer – beat together the cream cheese, egg, 40g caster sugar and ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract – place to one side
To make red velvet mixture, melt butter and add sugar – beating well
Add vanilla extract and mix
Add cocoa powder and mix
Add salt and mix
Add food colouring and mix
Add vinegar and mix

All this mixing between additions of ingredients will create the magic of the red velvet mixture
In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add to mixture
Sieve in flour and fold through

Divide mixture among 12 paper cases, placing red velvet mixture at the bottom, cream cheese layer in the middle and the remaining red velvet mixture on top
Use a cocktail stick (or in my case a chopstick) – swirl the batters together (without making them one batter)