VALENTINE’S DAY CUPCAKE (BAKE A HEART INTO YOUR CUPCAKE)

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour-1 1/4 cup
2. Baking powder-1 1/4 tsp
3. Salt-1 pinch
4. Butter-1/2 cup
5. Caster sugar-2/3 cup
6. Egg- 2 nos
7. Vanilla extract-1 tsp
8. Butter milk-1/2 cup
9. Fresh beetroot juice- 3to 3 1/2 tbsp ( Or use beetroot powder or fresh beetroot puree)
10. Cocoa powder-2 ts
11. Vinegar-2 tsp(see note)

Method

• Preheat oven at 180 deg C.
• Sift all purpose flour,baking powder and salt together.Keep aside.
• Cream butter ,vanilla extract and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Fold in the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in 3 batches,alternating with the milk.
• Spoon 1/3 rd of the batter into another mixing bowl and add food color,cocoa powder and vinegar and mix well.(Keep the remaining 2/3 rd covered)
• Pour this batter on a baking tray lined with parchment paper .(it must be about 1/2 inch thick).Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean,
• Using a small heart shaped cookie cutter cut out heart shapes from the cake.Allow it to cool.(pop it in the fridge to speed up the process)
• Line the muffin tins with paper cases,spoon a dollop of the remaining 2/3 rd batter into each paper case.Place each heart vertically onto the batter(point side down)in each paper case.Now carefully spoon a dollop of the batter around the heart until it is almost covered.
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until  a cake tester inserted into the side of a cupcake comes out clean.
• Cool completely before frosting cupcakes.
• For frosting, tint whipped cream with fresh beetroot juice.

 Note : while using fresh beetroot juice as  food color ,the batter should be a few shades darker to the shade you actually require because the natural pigment  (betatin) may turn lighter during baking  due to the addition of baking powder  /baking soda.Adding vinegar helps to retain the color to an extend in this recipe.( When i tried this recipe for the first time ,i got a pale pink color  ,as you can see in  the  5th picture  .So the second time  i added  2 tsp vinegar and the result was much better.) You can read more about the use of  beetroot juice in baking here.If you are using beetroot powder ,follow the instructions given here.
 Important:Keep track of which direction the heart in the cupcake is facing.You can make small cut on the side of the frosting ,that way you can figure out which direction to cut or just bite into  the cupcake

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