FOOD: VALENTINE'S DAY RED VELVET CUPCAKES/MINI-CAKES BY MR. WILL-W.

Red Velvet Cupcakes are all the rage as you know and in celebration of Valentine's Day, I decided to bake my Mavenati some goodies.  To save time, you can purchase Red Velvet Whoopie Pie Cake Mix from Williams & Sonoma at $20 CAN/box. It comes with Butter Cream Frosting Mix and rest assured, just because it's instant doesn't mean the quality's not there. They use the finest ingredients in their mix including exotic Callebaut Red Cocoa.  Otherwise, you can use your favourite Chocolate Cake recipe, adding a few drops of Red Food Colouring and some Vanilla Extract for a similar effect. 

1. Prepare your cake batter.

2. The secret to any moist cake is to add pudding to the mix.

3. I got these adorable heart-shaped pans from Crate & Barrel.  Grease these well and only fill them sparsely with about two tablespoons of batter.  Bake at 325° for 17 to 20 minutes.  Do not overbake - remember, we're baking cakes, not bloody Scones! Well bloody, yes. Scones, no.

4. Prepare the Butter Cream Frosting.  Instead of using Butter, you could use Cream Cheese as this complements Red Velvet Cake beautifully.  I prefer Butter Cream though.

5. Ta-dah!  A pair of hearts.  I sliced the excess puffy bits off the cakes and created these sandwiches with that gorgeous Butter Cream Frosting.  You can get these cute heart-shaped sprinkles at Williams & Sonoma for approximately $10 CAN.  The will last a while.

6. Alternatively, you could take your batter and make Red Velvet Cupcakes out of them, spooning two tablespoons of batter into your muffin liners.  These also take about 20 minutes to bake.  Ensure that your cakes are cooled fully before frosting them.  And at all cost, avoid refrigerating your cakes as this will dry them out.  Try to consume them within a day or two.

Enjoy!  Happy Valentine's Day, Mavenati. 

xoW