July Cupcake Hero - Red, White and Blue

The July Cupcake Hero theme was chosen by Clara from I heart cupcakes and Nikki from Crazy Delicious. They went with the red, white and blue theme – I guess because of the Fourth of July. For someone who is not immersed in American culture it has been interesting reading blogs – I didn’t realise how big the Fourth of July is! Clara and Nikki said not to just use food colouring as the way of keeping with the theme. My cupcakes have ended up looking quite American, but I think they are kind of cute!

The cake itself is red velvet cake. This is something that once again is very American – I have never tried it before and have never seen it for sale in a shop in NZ. I used a recipe from the Whimsical Bakehouse mini cake book. The cake has a little cocoa powder, so tastes like a light chocolate cake. It also has red food colouring in it to give it the red appearance. The cake is very yummy – I was really pleased with the nice cakey texture – lovely and moist.



I filled the cakes with blueberry jam which I made myself last year, but you could use any blueberry jam. I tried to fill the cakes using a Bismarck tip which I bought but havent used yet (this is a tip which you more or less inject into the cake, squeeze and it fills the cake). Unfortunately, even though I whizzed the jam in my mini prep to make it smoother, the blueberries were still too big to fit down the tip, so I ended up cutting the tops off the cakes and filling the centres that way.



The topping is simply whipped cream with a little vanilla and icing sugar added. I then topped the cupcakes off with little shortbread stars which I covered in red and blur drageese. You could use the same approach for any shaped biscuits, but the stars are sticking with the American theme.



Red Velvet and Blueberry Cupcakes (adapted from Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse)

240g butter
1 ½ c castor sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp red food colouring
1 c butter milk
1 tsp each white vinegar and vanilla
2 tbsp cocoa
2 ½ c flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ c blueberry jam

· Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, one at a time
· Mix in food colouring, vinegar and vanilla
· Stir in dry ingredients and buttermilk alternately
· Spoon into cupcake cases and bake at 170c for 20-25 minutes
Once cold cut off tops and fill with blueberry jam. Top with a swirl of whipped cream and a shortbread star