Green Velvet Cupcakes...the Cure for Pinkatitis

I just ate a green cupcake... a Green Velvet Cupcake...

 

 

it was; surprisingly satisfying, moist and nicely balanced with it's icing adorned with miniature shamrock quinns and sprinkles{ festive for this time of year}... I think, I liked it. Although at first glance I too was slightly unconvinced...so I simply followed my heart, and mouth... and let the cupcake do the talking.

 

Pinkalicious would have been surprised too to know she could have cured her "rare case of pinkatitis" with the likes of a green cupcake instead of yucky mushy vegetables of the green variety as prescribed by her doctor. Who knew? Cure a cupcake inflicted illness with another cupcake? Brilliant!

No! Not seriously, but for those of you are not well educated about Pinkalicious {Which is probably every person who does not currently have a young daughter, niece, granddaughter or sister below the age of lets say...10 or so}, she's the star in a series of children's books written and illustrated by Victoria & Elizabeth Kann. Pinkalicious is a delightfully witty little girl who loves everything...{you guessed it} PINK! There is never a dull moment in her adventures. You can find out more about her or order the books and even do activities here . Enough about Pinkalicious though, and more about the star of this post, the Green Velvet Cupcake.

With St.Patrick's Day right on the cusp and the kids wanting treats for their classes I did what I do often best...surf {the web} in search of fantastic ideas to use or inspire me to bake better. With luck I was brought to another blog Love from the Oven to whom had baked up this funtastic {yes, I said FUN-TASTIC, it's a word, in my vocabulary and should be in Websters too...you hear that Webster??} recipe borrowed from non other than Bakerella. No sense in reinventing the wheel if I don't have to, I work Smarter, not harder!

 

So here she is, Bakerella's Green {Or Red} Velvet Cupcake Recipe Tweeked* {because I didn't have all the ingredients :)...}

 

GREEN* {or Red..or any other colour for that matter...} Velvet Cupcakes

 

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups oil* (3/4 c vegetable oil for the cupcakes, Love from the oven used 1 cup)
• 1 cup buttermilk* (2% worked out just fine, less fat)
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 oz. red food coloring* ( 1 used 1 tsp of Wilton brand kelly green gel colour)

* note changes to these ingredient quantities

 

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans* (24 muffin cups, lined with wrappers of your choice)

 

 3.Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.

 

 4.Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.

 

 5.Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.

 

 

 

6.Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.* I used a 1/4 c. mashed potato scoop to get even amounts of batter in each of my pre-lined tins...I was able to make 24 cupcakes from this batch of batter.

 

 7.Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.* (cupcakes took about 20-22 minutes, they were spongey to touch when tested, and a toothpick inserted came out with a few moist crumbs on it.)

 

 

 

 8.After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.

 

 9.Then make the frosting of your choice*. {People normally put a cream cheese icing with red velvet cakes. I used a buttercream icing that seemed to just melt in my mouth.}

  

 

 

Happy St. Pattie's Day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baking - Uninterrupted

In less than twelve hours  my husband will be jet setting to another hotter, sunnier short-bearing destination for work....and lets just say I can think of somewhere else to be other than Manitoba too.  Needless to say he will be working, he won't 'be here... in Manitoba... where we still have lots of snow. 

Typically, when he travels in the winter months it usually blizzards {In fact my odds of it blizzarding when he's gone are far better at me ever winning a lottery} and I am left to fend for my kids and myself.  Believe it or not, I... {Yes, "I"} got a snow blower last year...how many women can say that?  But it was out of necessity, and yes, I know how to use it.

Half of the time he'll be gone, my son to will be away from the house in school (like his big sister). After wiping my tears and blowing my nose a couple times I plan on filling the empty hours with nothing but BAKING... all by myself, UNINTERRUPTED.  With St.Pattie's right around the corner, and my Dad's birthday too a cake will be in order, my options are unending.  My opportunity to make up the rainbow layer cake I've been gawking over from Sweetopolita with such vivid colours is at the top of my list. Who doesn't like rainbows? How could I pass this one up?



Sweetopolita's Rainbow Doodle Cake

Now, my Dad has never been a fan of fondant (I don't know why, he loves marshmallows and fondant can be made from marshmallows and icing sugar if you don't want to trade an arm and leg for a couple pounds of the premade variety) but that's fine, the lemon butter cream Rosie has suggested sounds Divine and will compliment the vanilla cake marvelously without doubt.

Now, if only I could break my little sunbeam kitchen stand mixer I would have real good reason to go and by my dream kitchenaid stand mixer...No, I am not planning anything - it broke, really.



Look at the rainbow... man, this is going to be hard to choose just one...it's like women and our shoes, why not have an assortment so they will match our outfit or our mood.  The orange is hot and so is the ice blue, er or maybe the apple green one, but if I pick a girly colour (PINK) my husband will be less apt to using my mixer and potentially breaking it.  I don't use his tools, so why should he use my mixer? Right?

Here's to baking tomorrow, rainbow cake in the near future and a few Luck o'the Irish Green Velvet Cupcakes for Ethan's class party on Thursday.  Stay tuned! This should be a week filled with posts!

Green Velvet Cupcakes to try from Love from the Oven

Smiles!