Category: Desserts

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients 

Red Velvet Cake

  • ▢2¼ cups (275 g) flour – regular all purpose (see note 3 if you want to use cake flour)
  • ▢3 tbsp (18 g) cornflour – also known as cornstarch
  • ▢3 tbsp (14 g) cocoa powder – unsweetened
  • ▢½ tsp baking soda
  • ▢1 tsp baking powder
  • ▢½ tsp salt – omit if using salted butter
  • ▢6 tbsp (86 g) unsalted butter – room temperature
  • ▢¾ cup (141 g) unflavoured vegetable oil – I use canola
  • ▢1¾ cups (344 g) white granulated sugar
  • ▢3 large eggs – room temperature
  • ▢1 tbsp (12 g) vanilla essence/extract
  • ▢1½ tsp white vinegar
  • ▢3½ tbsp (38 g) red liquid food colouring
  • ▢¾ cup (158 g) buttermilk – room temperature

Cream Cheese Buttercream

  • ▢1 batch of my cream cheese buttercream frosting recipe – see note 4 if piping rosettes around the cake like I have

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 160 °C (320°F) with the fan on (see note 7 if you don’t have a fan function) and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
  • In a bowl, sift together your flour, cornflour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
  • In another bowl, add in your butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine – see note 6), cream together for 2-3 minutes until light and creamy.
  • Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between eggs).
  • Add in your vanilla, vinegar and red liquid food colour, and mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
  • Finish off by adding in half of your premixed dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and gently fold it in with a spatula until just combined. Then add in all of your buttermilk, and fold it in until just combined. Lastly, add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold it into the mixture until just combined. Do not overmix (see note 1).
  • Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not to open the oven door too early otherwise this can cause the cake layers to sink (see note 2). Also avoid overbaking the cake layers otherwise they will dry out.
  • Once baked, allow them to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool before frosting with my cream cheese buttercream frosting. For tips on how to frost your cake, check out the blog post above where I walk you through how I decorated mine with pictures, or watch my YouTube video below 🙂

Notes

Note 1. By gently folding in the ingredients, it prevents too much gluten from forming, thus giving us a softer cake. Only mix until the strands of flour have disappeared and the batter is uniform. 

Note 2. Opening the oven door too early and allowing cold air to rush into the oven can cause cakes to collapse if the structure hasn’t set yet. If your oven runs hot and you want to check your cake layers earlier than the stated cooking time, then allow at least 3/4s of the cooking time to pass before checking the cake layers. 

Note 3. You can use cake flour in replacement of the all purpose flour and cornstarch in this recipe (293g total required). 

Note 4. If you’re doing a lot of additional piping like I did with my red velvet cake, then make 1.5x my cream cheese frosting recipe to ensure you have enough frosting. Otherwise, 1 batch will be enough. 

Note 5. Once your cake is decorated, pop it into the fridge to allow everything to firm up. This will make it easier to cut. We don’t want cold cake though, so bring it out of the fridge about an hour or so before it’s going to be cut. If you cut into the cake and it’s cold, just let it come to room temperature for about half an hour before eating. 

Note 6. If using a stand mixer, then use the paddle attachment for the initial mixing, but continue to do the last step by hand as stated in the recipe. 

Note 7. In this recipe I use an oven with the fan function turned on. The fan forced function cooks cakes/cupcakes faster, so if your oven doesn’t have a fan option, then you will need to increase the baking temperature to 175°C (347°F) so that the cake/cupcake bakes at the same rate as mine 🙂

https://cakesbymk.com/wprm_print/soft-red-velvet-cake

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened (113g)
  • 8 oz cream cheese softened (brick-style, not spreadable) (226g)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups powdered sugar* (500g)

Instructions

  • Combine butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer (or you may use an electric mixer) and beat until creamy, well-combined, and lump-free.
  • Add vanilla extract and salt and stir well to combine.
  • With mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined.
  • Use to frost completely cooled cake or cupcakes.

https://sugarspunrun.com/wprm_print/cream-cheese-frosting

GF Blueberry Muffins

  • 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill 1-to1 Baking Flour* (9 3/4 ounces / 275 grams)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened (4 ounces/ 113 grams)
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar (6 ounces/ 170 grams)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup milk (4 ounces / 150 grams)
  • 2 cups blueberries
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar optional, for topping

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 15 muffins cups or line them with paper liners.
  2. Whisk together the flour blend with the baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, combine butter and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-low speed until thick. With the beater still running, add the eggs. Beat until combined.
  4. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed. Mix until thick. Stop the mixer and add the milk and vanilla extract. Mix until a thick batter forms. 
  5. Gently fold in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.(If you are using frozen or cold blueberries, the batter will get VERY thick. This is totally normal.)
  6. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans. Fill each cavity about 2/3 full. Top each muffin with about 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. (The sugar topping is optional.)
  7. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
  8. Allow muffins to cool in the pan for five minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins

Tiramisu

Ingredients

Ingredient Checklist

  • 1 cup cold water
  • 1 (14-ounce) can condensed milk 
  • 1 (1.4-ounce) package vanilla instant pudding mix
  • 1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese, softened
  • 1 (8-ounce) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
  • 1 cup hot water (might have been a little too much water)
  • ½ cup Kahlúa (coffee-flavored liqueur)
  • 1 tablespoon instant espresso or 2 s instant coffee granules
  • 24 cakelike ladyfingers (2 [3-ounce] packages)
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

Directions

Instructions Checklist

  • Step 1Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Cover surface with plastic wrap; chill 30 minutes or until firm.
  • Step 2Remove plastic wrap, and add cream cheese. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended. Gently fold in whipped topping.
  • Step 3Combine hot water, Kahlúa, and espresso. Split ladyfingers in half lengthwise. Arrange 16 ladyfinger halves, flat sides down, in a trifle bowl or large glass bowl. Drizzle with 1/2 cup Kahlúa mixture. Spread one-third of pudding mixture evenly over ladyfingers; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon cocoa. Repeat layers, ending with cocoa. Cover and chill at least 8 hours.

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tiramisu-anacapri

Peanut Butter Cup Crack Brownies

Peanut Butter Cup Crack Brownies

Description

makes 25 squares

Ingredients

  • 1 box brownie mix (not family sized), prepared according to package directions in a 9×9 pan
  • 1/2 cup chopped salted or honey roasted peanuts
  • 12 peanut butter cups, chopped
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 heaping cup creamy peanut butter (or 1 1/4 cups)
  • 1 3/4 cups crispy rice cereal
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp – 1 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Bake brownies according to package directions in a 9×9 pan lined with foil.
  2. During last 5 minutes of baking, remove from oven and sprinkle chopped peanut butter cups and chopped peanuts on top. Return to oven for remaining 5 minutes to melt the chocolate.
  3. As soon as you pull them out of the oven, spread the melty peanut butter cups/peanuts with an off-set spatula to smooth over top. Let brownies cool.
  4. Next in a microwave safe bowl combine chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Heat in microwave for 1 minute, stirring when done. If needed, continue heating in 20 second increments until chocolate chips are melted.
  5. Stir in cereal, vanilla and salt until evenly combined.
  6. Pour over brownies and smooth. Chill until chocolate is set, about 2 hours.
  7. Cut into squares to serve

Notes

Store airtight for up to 3 days. You can store these at room temperature or in refrigerator.

From https://cookiesandcups.com/peanut-butter-cup-crack-brownies/