I made these for the first time back in the summer. While they were super tasty, I felt they were better suited to the Christmas season. Maybe it’s the colour? Why is it that we turn to red at Christmas?

Think about it. Many of the emblems that are traditionally associated with Christmas are red. The little robin red breast in the garden. The shiny red berries on the holly. Santa’s suit. The deep colour of mulled wine. We’ve evolved with the colour red coinciding with the festive period.

My first experimentation with red velvet cupcakes didn’t fail to impress. I somewhat made up the recipe as I went along. If you feel it’s slightly to dry or slightly to wet, compensate with a small amount of milk or flour, respectively. Randomly, this recipe made 7 – I guess that is a baker’s half dozen.

Hope you enjoy

Amy x

Ingredients
50g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
135g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
100ml milk
½ bottle (20ml) liquid red food colouring
Butter cream icing and decorations

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a cupcake tray with paper cases.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the flour, egg and baking powder into the mixture and mix together while gradually adding the milk and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.

Add the red food colouring to the mixture.

Place a heaped tablespoon (maybe a little more) of the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and decorate.