Red Velvet Cupcakes Guest #AlexErickson #giveaway #Halloween

MADDIE DAY here, delighted to welcome my friend Alex Erickson to the blog with a yummy recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes and a giveaway of Death by Red Velvet Latte, his sixteenth Bookstore Café Mystery!

I forgot that today starts our two weeks of Halloween recipes, which means I forgot to tell Alex. You could still make these work by sticking a tiny toy knife in each cupcake or adding ghost faces! 

Take it away, Alex.

I’m not a cook. Or a baker, for that matter. But because I’m lactose intolerant, eating out is often a dangerous proposition, so it’s usually best to make my own food—desserts included. In Death by Red Velvet Latte, Krissy doesn’t have the same issues as me, so her red velvet wedding cake, along with the accompanying latte, would be similar to what you might find at a bakery or in a store. But for me, this little recipe works, especially when you use alternative ingredients that aren’t so milky.

Red Velvet Cupcakes 

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups white sugar

½ cup butter 

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk**

1 fluid ounce red food coloring**

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

2 cups all-purpose flour

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder** 

1 teaspoon salt

**Notes:

**Because of my lactose intolerance, I made my own buttermilk (1 cup of lactose-free milk with one tablespoon of distilled vinegar - let set for 5 minutes or until it thickens and looks like it curdled)

**Gel food coloring will give a more vibrant red color than a liquid food coloring.

**It’s preferred to use a regular cocoa powder. I used a Dutch-process cocoa powder which resulted in a darker chocolate color (combined with not having gel food coloring)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two cupcake pans with liners. Recipe will make roughly 24 cupcakes depending on pan size. Mine is smaller so we ended up with 28.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.

 

Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Mix in eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring, and vanilla.

Stir in baking soda and vinegar.

Stir combined flour and cocoa powder mixture into the batter.

Spoon batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to cool on a wire rack.

Frost with desired frosting (I used a store-bought brand that is lactose free, but feel free to make your own to taste). Frosting tip was an Open Star #32.

Enjoy with the hot drink of your choice and a good mystery!

Readers: Want to win a copy of Death by Red Velvet Latte? Just comment below with your favorite dessert—especially one that’s lactose free. I could always use more options!

As bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock worries over her wedding plans, the double murder of rival bakers really takes the cake . . .

At Krissy’s Death by Coffee bookstore café in Pine Hills, Ohio, she’s trying out a new red velvet latte, which she also plans to serve at her wedding along with the red velvet cake a local baker is making. But with the wedding only weeks away, the baker has to cancel due to health reasons. What should have been a cakewalk turns into a last-minute scramble. Krissy and her fiancé Paul meet with two competing cake decorators at the same time, who seem more interested in going at each other than baking her cake.

The next day, when Krissy walks into the bakery to make her choice, she finds both bakers dead with a red velvet cake splattered on the floor. Did they kill each other? she wonders. Over a cake? But soon it’s revealed this mystery has many layers, and any way you slice it, Krissy has to do two more things before she walks down the aisle: solve the murder—and find another baker. Piece of cake, right?

Death by Red Velvet Latte is the 16^th book in the Bookstore Café series.

Alex Erickson is a mystery author with a handful of books under his belt. He lives in Ohio and can be found online at alexericksonbooks.com or contacted by email at alexericksonbooks@gmail.com.

 

Scarlet O'Hara Cupcakes by Lucy Burdette

Red Velvet Cupcake

SCARLET O’HARA CUPCAKES


Ever since I finished Elinor Lipman's latest novel, THE VIEW FROM PENTHOUSE B, I've had the urge to bake Scarlet O'Hara cupcakes, as one of her characters did. 


But what exactly is a Scarlet O'Hara cupcake? 


 

I Googled of course, and came up with this amazing Scarlet O'Hara cake. I wouldn't have the patience...

So then I turned to my Facebook pals who made a lot of suggestions. Most everyone recommended red velvet as the base, except for the one vote for sweet potato. The icing was trickier--how to show Scarlet's sass? Ginger? Peach? Chocolate ganache? Lemon? Cinnamon? Jalapeño???

I settled on red velvet with a raspberry cream cheese frosting. I don't know how authentic they were, but they tasted amazing!

LUCY'S SCARLET O'HARA CUPCAKES

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons red food coloring (one 1-ounce bottle)
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

FROSTING

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
about 40 raspberries


Directions for the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put 20-22 cupcake liners in two cupcake pans.Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.
Add the vinegar to the milk in a glass measuring cup and let this sit ten minutes or so. Whisk milk, vanilla and eggs in large measuring cup.

Mix cocoa with food coloring in small bowl until smooth paste forms.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add one-third of flour mixture and beat on medium-low speed until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add half of milk mixture and beat on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Repeat with half of remaining flour mixture, remaining milk mixture, and finally remaining flour mixture. Add cocoa mixture and beat on medium speed until completely incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Distribute the batter into the cupcake pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes. Cool the pans ten minutes, then finish cooling the cupcakes on a wire rack. (The trick here is not to over beat or over cook, or cupcakes will turn out tough and dry.)For the frosting: Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Beat in the sugar and then vanilla. Set aside the 20 best raspberries, beat the remainder into the frosting. 






Frost the cupcakes and decorate with a raspberry. Refrigerate if you aren’t eating them right away.


 




You will find this recipe in the fifth food critic mystery, the one after MURDER WITH GANACHE, which will be out in February--though you can pre-order it now!

Don't forget to follow Lucy on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Red Velvet Cupcakes Can't Be BEET!

Hi, Everyone!

It’s so great to be back in the kitchen! Thanks for inviting me, ladies, and thanks for all of the wonderful recipes you share every day. You’re keeping my family safe from dying of culinary boredom and a diet consisting solely of cupcakes.

My next cupcake caper, DEATH BY THE DOZEN, comes out in October, so when Ellery invited me to blog, I knew it had to be one of the recipes from that book. The trouble was – which one? You see, this story finds our intrepid, over-sugared heroines Mel and Angie entered in the challenge to the chefs, pastry division, at the Scottsdale Food Festival. Their bakery rival Olivia Puckett joins the fray and the tensions run high as they have to bake delicious desserts from mystery ingredients such as beets, beer and chili peppers. Mel and Angie are up to the task until Mel’s mentor, Vic Mazzotta, who is judging the competition, is found murdered. Now Mel and Angie have to whip up amazing desserts and solve a murder before the killer makes sure they are out of the competition – for good.

So, you can see, I had several unorthodox recipes to choose from. My personal favorite is the red velvet cupcake made with beets, so that is the one I’m going to share with you today. For you non beet lovers, take heart. My Hub hates beets and he loved these cupcakes. And moms, it’s one more sneaky way to get those veggies in!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (using beets): A red velvet cupcake made with beet puree and topped cream cheese frosting and an edible flower (optional).

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup beet puree
1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg, room temperature

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Put 12 cupcake liners in muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, add in the oil, lemon juice, vanilla and egg to the pureed beets. Pour the beet mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix just enough to combine. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full and bake for 18 – 22 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla in large bowl until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until frosting is smooth. Put frosting in a pastry bag and pipe onto cupcakes in thick swirls, using an open tip. Decorate with an edible flower, such as a nasturtium.

ENJOY!

Jenn McKinlay

New York Times Bestselling Author of the Cupcake Bakery mysteries and the

Library Lover’s mysteries!

www.jennmckinlay.com