Rose Red Velvet Cupcakes. These sweet red cupcakes made with a rose tea infused butter and topped with cream cheese frosting have us dreaming about Valentine’s Day.
Makes 18 cupcakes
2 cups plain flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 ½ cups castor sugar
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
200g tea infused butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp red food colouring
Tea infused butter
280g unsalted butter
2 tbsp Dilmah Exceptional Rose with French Vanilla tea
Cream Cheese Frosting
250g package cream cheese, chilled
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 cups icing sugar
1-2 tsp rosewater (optional)
1 Preheat oven to 170°C. Line 18, 80ml (1/3 cup) capacity muffin pans with paper cases. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir through the sugar.
2 Whisk the buttermilk, tea infused melted butter, eggs, vinegar and vanilla in a large jug until combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring. Divide the mixture among the lined pans.
3 Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
4 For the tea infused butter, melt the butter in a small saucepan until just liquid. Add the tea leaves and continue heating the mixture for 5 minutes over very low heat. Remove the butter from the heat and let the mixture stand for another 5 minutes.
5 Strain out the tea leaves by pouring the liquid butter through a sieve into a bowl. Press the tea into the sieve with spoon on order to squeeze out the butter it has absorbed.
6 To make the frosting have the cream cheese cold and butter at room temperature.
In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and rosewater until blended. Add sugar one third at a time and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. Do not overbeat.
When the cupcakes are cold, pipe the cream crease frosting on top or use an ice-cream scoop to dollop the frosting on the stunning red-domed cupcakes.
Notes: A certain amount of butter will be lost as it will stick to the
tea leaves. One cup of butter will yield closer to 3/4 cup of butter.
The recipe takes this into consideration, so only add 200g of tea
infused melted butter to the cupcake mixture.
