Every baking book I own contains a recipe for Red Velvet Cake. Like the Lava Cake, Red Velvet seems to have been a fad in the early part of the century although it seems that it’s been around since the 1940s.

The story goes that a food coloring company known as Adams Extract needed a new gimmick to sell their food coloring. One fateful day, Mr. and Mrs. Adams were lunching at the Waldorf-Astoria when Mrs. Adams noticed a Red Velvet Cake on the menu. It seems the Waldorf-Astoria had been serving Red Velvet Cake since the 1930s. Beet juice was used to give it a reddish tinge. As fate would have it, Mr. Adams got the idea of using his red food coloring to brighten the color of the cake. Adams Extract shortly released the recipe for Red Velvet Cake: a chocolate cake dyed red with their food coloring.

According to the New York Times, red velvet cakes quietly meandered their way through the decades since Mr. Adams’ recipe but wasn’t really a wide favorite until the cupcake craze at the start of the millenium. Suddenly, there was a red velvet explosion – red velvet pancakes and waffles, red velvet Oreos, lattes. Even personal care products were not immune with red velvet bodywashes, scrubs, lip tints, anything.

While the fad has since simmered down, Red Velvet still maintains its popularity as a Valentine’s Day or Christmas staple. With all that red food coloring, it’s probably a good thing not having it to often. As for the frosting, the go-to nowadays is Cream Cheese frosting but if you’re a traditionalist, you can try out Ermine Frosting.

I’ve opted for a cupcake version to avoid the red food coloring overload. The little cakes are topped with Marshmallow Meringue icing since it’s easier to handle in a warm kitchen – despite its “sticky sweet” alert, it’s actually quite light. Otherwise, a dusting of powdered sugar is just as perfect.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe by Two Queens BakeDifficulty: Easy

Prep time

minutes

Baking Time

Ingredients

115g all purpose/plain flour
21g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
128g buttermilk, stirred
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp red liquid food coloring
115g unsalted butter, at room temp
141g sugar
2 large eggs

Instructions

Sift all dry ingredients, except the sugar, in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Combine buttermilk, vanilla extract, and food coloring in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 175C/350F with rack positioned in the middle. Grease or line cupcake pans with paper liners.
Using a handheld mixer, beat butter on low until soft.
Add the sugar in steady stream. Increase speed to medium. Beat for 5 minutes until pale yellow and fluffy.
With mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time, beating 20 seconds after each addition.
Without turning off mixer, alternately add flour in 3 equal portions with the buttermilk in 2 equal portions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. At the end, beat for 1 minute until smooth. Batter should be thick and fluffy.
Manually stir the batter a couple of times to ensure that all ingredients have been incorporated. Be gentle when stirring.
Fill cupcake liners half full. Bake 15 minutes.
Remove cupcakes from pan after 10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack – this is to avoid soggy bottoms. Cool completely on rack.
Frost or dust with powdered/icing/confectionery sugar right before serving.