Red Velvet Cupcakes

Last weekend, I decided to make Red Vels for some friends for their birthday. This was my first time making Red Vels. As more posts come, you'll learn that a lot of these are my first times, well at least from scratch. In order to make these cupcakes, I had to look at some recipes. There are TONS of Red Velvet recipes out there and they're all really different. So, I did some researching on what particular ingredients do and came up with a recipe of my own. Of course, I'm not going to share that information (it's a secret) but I could tell you some of the things I learned about baking.


LESSON #1: KNOW YOUR OVEN!!
This lesson alone could have its own post. I can't tell you how important knowing what your oven is capable of doing is. The oven I currently use takes around 30 minutes to preheat and it kills me. So, it's very important that when I decide to bake I plan ahead. The reason I found this lesson so applicable is because like most ovens the top is much hotter and of course the top of the cupcakes cook faster than anywhere else. Therefore, my first batch of cupcakes came out with a crusty top. Moving the cupcakes half way through cooking to the bottom rack made for perfect heating the second time around. The most important aspect of an oven is the heat capacity. 350 degrees on one oven may not be 350 degrees on another. So becoming familiar with how your oven cooks is vital in how your food turn out.


LESSON #2: DO NOT USE SELF-RISING FLOUR
Of course this lesson was a little exaggerated but still important to note. If a recipe calls for just flour use just flour not self-rising flour. Recipes with just plan flour generally contain baking soda or baking powder, which is created to make batter rise when baking so self-rising flour will only turn cupcakes into muffins.

Don't use self-rising flour

But remember, cupcakes are snacks and muffins can sometimes be meals!

The last thing I learned about the Red Velvet recipe was my cupcakes turned out too red. Red Velvets are suppose to be a dark reddish brown because of 1) the cocoa powder and 2) the red food dye. However, it is possible to have all ranges of reds when it comes to this recipe but I'd prefer it to be darker.

Red Velvet Cupcakes: ★★★★☆

**Extra**
Why are Red Velvets red?
Back in the day, the reaction of vinegar and buttermilk brought out the red in cocoa.However, cocoa has changed a bit and doesn't turn red but to keep the history of the cake, red food coloring or beet juice is added. Next time, I'll use beet juice. It is said to retain moisture. Everyone loves a moist cake.

As Always, Sweet Dreams!

How to Make Your Own Cupcake Stand

So one day I decided that I wanted to make a cupcake stand. I'm not sure what gave me this idea but I decided to go with it anyway. I started my search on the internet and found some really cute stands. I took some of the ideas I found on the internet and went to Walmart to buy the materials. To the right is the finished project and below are the materials I used. I'll give a summary below of how I put them together.

Materials

As you can see from the picture, the materials I used were foam, cans, rubber cement, ribbon, super glue, brown construction paper (not pictured) and scissors.

First, I used a big foam presentation board and traced three descending or ascending circles, whichever you choose, from three circular items I found around my apartment. This is probably the hardest part. It involves a lot of patience and precision. I'm pretty impatient so my circles didn't exactly turn out perfectly circular.

After that I lined the circles with brown ribbon and used super glue so that the fabric would stick.

I then took the cans, which were orginally filled with peaches (yummy) and removed the lining and placed brown construction paper around it with the rubber cement. Then I took the thicker ribbon and made a top line and bottom line on each can.

After that, I used super glue to attach the circles and cans to make a stand!
At first, my stand ended up like this...

But then I decided to add a little more to it with ribbon decorations, which was quite tedious. Nonetheless, I enjoyed making this a lot and cupcakes will look great on it. Not sure when I'll use it but I'll always have it if need be.

If you decide to make something like this, here are a few tips:

1. Do not use rubber cement! It's really messy and doesn't stick very well. It also takes a lot of time to dry. Instead use super glue. It bonds very quickly. The only disadvantage is that it's sold in very small quantities so you'll need multiple packages.
2. It's always smart to visualize exactly what you want to create ahead of time in your head or on a sheet of paper so you know exactly how you want things to turn out.
3. Don't be afraid to try something different. It might turn out really cool.

As you can see from these pictures, this isn't the perfect cupcake stand but it's okay. Remember your first time doing anything isn't going to be perfect. It takes mistakes to perfect your craft.

As Always, Sweet Dreams!

Hello

Hey there!

I decided to start my blog just by saying hi! I have a lot of ideas and baking projects I would like to share. So, this blog will contain baking tips, craft projects, baking materials and of course, the cupcakes I bake. Yay! <---- that's one of my favorite words, so don't mind me using it a lot because I will. Anyway, I'm excited to get this blog started and I can't wait to hear what people think!

As Always, Sweet Dreams!