BE MINE Red Velvet Cupcake with Pink Mascarpone-Cream Cheese Frosting

I had never seen a Red Velvet Cake until I moved to the north of the Americas 8 years ago. I have to admit that although I fell in love at first site, it was NOT love at first bite. For many years I only had tried bad Red Velvet Cakes. And for me (I am not a frosting lover), the frosting was always too sweet and heavy on cream cheese. But a little over a year ago, on my daughter's 4th birthday, I decided to make that cake at home for the first time - I thought the color would be appropriate for my very girly girl. I was lucky enough to stumble upon this great recipe on The New York Times website. Since then, I became a Red Velvet Cake advocate! What made me fall in love head over heals for this cake was the moist and fluffy dough and the light, melt-in-your-mouth frosting that is just sweet enough to keep me coming back!

Mine did not turn out SO red because my daughter forced me to add some blue and purple food coloring into the batter!!

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought it would be appropriate to share this lovely recipe with you. This is a fun one to cook with kids, to share with friends and your loved one! 





Red Velvet Cupcake with Pink Mascarpone and Cream Cheese Frosting
makes about 35 cupcakes or 3 cake layers
(It makes lots of cupcakes. If you want to cut all ingredients by half to make less of them, use 2 eggs)


For Cake
3 1/2 cups of cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of canola oil
2 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) of red food coloring
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups of buttermilk
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar
Cupcake liners and picks (mine are from Meri Meri)


For Frosting

2 cups heavy cream, cold
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
12 ounces mascarpone

½ teaspoon vanilla

1½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 to 3 teaspoons of neon pink food coloring depending on the tone of pink you want

Directions:

Cake

1-Preheat oven to 350F. Place cupcake liners on a muffin/cupcake baking pan.


2- In a bowl sift together flour, cocoa and salt.


3- Place oil and sugar in a bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.


4- Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.


5- Fill cupcake lines 2/3 full and bring it to the preheated oven. Cook until a cake tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove cupcakes from baking pan and place them on a cooling rack. Wait until they are completely cooled to frost them.


Frosting

1- Softly whip cream by hand, in electric mixer or in food processor. Cover in bowl and refrigerate.

2- Blend cream cheese and mascarpone in food processor or electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla, pulse briefly, and add confectioners’ sugar. Blend well.

3- Transfer cream cheese mixture to bowl; add food coloring; fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate until needed.


Visualize


Preheat oven. Line cupcake baking pan. Sift flour, cocoa and salt together and set aside:

Beat oil and sugar until well combined:

Add eggs, one at a time:

With the machine on low, add the food coloring (my daughter put some blue in there before I added the red, sorry!)

Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches:

Mix the baking soda with the vinegar and add it to the batter. Beat it in low speed for another 10 seconds.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake until a cake tester comes out clean.

 For the frosting: whip heavy cream, transfer it to a bowl and place it in the refrigerator.

 Using the same bowl beat mascarpone cheese and cream cheese.

Add the sugar and beat until mixture is smooth:

Finally fold in the whipped cream and the food coloring:

Get ready to frost the cupcakes:

All done:

Have a lovely Valentine's Day!