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)
- Bake for 25-30min at 180Degree’s celcius (350 F)
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
Oh those look divine! Love the eye lashes too. 🙂
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Very yummy too! (also love the eye lashes!)
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This is a must try!
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These look so good! I have her book too, it’s pretty great 🙂
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Wow, these look great! Love red velvet anything!
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loving the red velvet!
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Thanks all!! The lashes unfortunately are not real!
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Yum-ola! I’ll take a dozen. 🙂
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I enjoy lookig through a post that will make men and women think.
Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
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