This little kitchen experiment was inspired by St. Patrick's day, which was last Sunday, March 17. Red velvet cupcakes are so common now so I thought if it was possible to make a green velvet cupcake instead. A Google search later I found that it has been done before by no less than
Bakerella!
I went through her
Red Velvet Revisited post and got the recipe for the cupcakes and the cooked frosting. Cooked frosting? *shrugs* I'm willing to try anything once.
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| Yellow liners |
I bought yellow cupcake liners specially for this experiment. Yellow liners enhance the color of the green cupcakes. We get our cupcake liners from Cooks Exchange.
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| You wouldn't like it when I'm mad |
The batter was really green. It looked...unnatural. But it looked just like Bakerella's photos in her post, so I pushed on.
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| Green finger |
Be careful when working with food coloring! I stained my fingers and a spot on the white plastic table I was working on. The color came out of my hands after a few washes, so it was okay.
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| They look cute already |
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| In the mini cupcake maker |
The cupcakes turned out really great! A bit oily, though, but moist and not too fluffy nor too dense inside.
Green Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
Yields around 32 mini cupcakes
| All purpose flour | 1 1/4 cup |
| White granulated sugar | 1 cup |
| Unsweetened cocoa powder | 1/2 tablespoon |
| Salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Baking soda | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Egg | 1 whole |
| Cooking oil (I used canola) | 3/4 cup |
| Buttermilk (I substituted this with plain whole yogurt) | 1/2 cup |
| White vinegar | 1/2 tablespoon |
| Vanilla | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Green food coloring | 1 tablespoon |
- If using an oven, preheat it to 350ºF / 176ºC. If using a cupcake/muffin maker you can plug it in later to preheat it once you’re done preparing your batter.
- Sift in flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Add sugar and salt and whisk until well blended.
- In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the egg. Then add other wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk/yogurt, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring). Whisk until combined.
- Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients. With a mixer, beat on medium-high for around a minute or until completely combined.
- Place batter into liners or cupcake molds, around 3/4 full. Let the batter sit for a bit to release air bubbles before cooking in the oven or the cupcake maker.
- Bake for around 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
The recipe above can also be used to make red velvet cupcakes, except replace the green food coloring with twice as much red food coloring.
Now, I was supposed to follow Bakerella's post to a tee and make cooked frosting along with these cupcakes. But when I tried it out it didn't turn out so well. The cooked frosting was still runny no matter how long I beat it with the mixer. I ended up throwing it out. I'm sure I did something wrong and I'm going to try making it again in the future. In the meantime I settled on using this
chocolate frosting recipe I found online. It went well with the cupcakes but when I make it next time I'll probably put less cocoa powder.
I still can't figure out why my frosting turns out grainy whenever I try to make a batch. I've researched and it might be the powdered sugar I'm using. Any tips from experienced bakers out there?
Chocolate Frosting
| Unsalted butter, softened | 1/2 cup |
| Powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar) | 2 1/2 cups (or adjust according to your liking) |
| Vanilla | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Milk | 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons |
| Cocoa powder | 1/8 cup |
- Combine butter and cocoa powder in a bowl and whip until smooth.
- Add vanilla and half a cup of the powdered sugar and whip until smooth and combined well. Taste and keep adding powdered sugar half a cup at a time until desired sweetness is achieved.
- Add a tablespoon of the milk and whisk. Add more milk until desired consistency is reached.
- Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl and whip until the frosting is light, fluffy, and smooth.
- Pipe or spread onto cupcakes and eat leftovers.
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| Green nom nom noms |
I sent Jex a photo of the cupcakes and he replied "Haha, ew. Green." Hahaha! He said that green is one of the colors he finds weird on a cupcake, but he doesn't doubt that it tastes good. And it does taste good! =P
