I wanted to find a way to incorporate red wine into a cupcake batter, so I thought that the best combination would be red wine and chocolate. There is nothing better than at the end of a meal, enjoying some dark chocolate and a glass of red wine. So why not mix the two together and eat some cupcakes?

This is how to make my delicious red wine velvet cupcakes.

Ingredients;

– 430g Demerara sugar
– 400g Pain flour
– 150g White granulated sugar
– 225g Unsalted butter at room temperature
– 130g Good quality cocoa powder
– 4 large eggs
– 1½ tsp baking powder
– ½ bicarbonate of soda
– 530ml red wine (choose any bottle you would like)
– Pinch of salt
– Pinch of ground cinnamon
– 2 ½ tsps pure vanilla extract

Butter Cream

– 500g Philadelphia cream cheese
– 250g Icing sugar
– Pinch of salt
– 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

This is what you do;

Set the oven to 180C and line your cupcake tin with paper liners. In a clean, dry bowl place your butter and beat well for 5 minutes until the butter has changed from a yellow colour to a pale cream colour. Once the colour change has occurred and consistency has become smooth and creamy, add the Demerara sugar and the white granulated sugar into the butter until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, ensuring that each egg is mixed in well, before adding in the next. Once all the eggs have been incorporated, add in the vanilla and red wine and stir well.
In a separate bowl, add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder and cinnamon all together and stir. Then, add the flour mix into the butter mix 1/3rd at a time. Ensuring you mix it all in well before the next 1/3rd. Do not over mix so once everything has been incorporated, using a spatula fold the mixture to avoid the air bubbles from being destroyed.
Add the mixture into your cupcake holders until they are 2/3rd full, this leaves enough space for the cupcakes to rise in the oven. Place the cupcakes in the oven for 20 minutes until you can place a skewer through the middle and remove it without any batter on it. Another way to see if the cupcakes are done is to press down gently in the middle of the cupcake and if it springs back, then the cupcakes are ready. Ensure you are very careful as the cupcakes are extremely hot.
Once the cupcakes are ready, remove them from the oven and leave to stand in the baking tray for 10 minutes. Then, remove them from the baking tin and leave to stand on a wire cooling rack until the cupcakes are completely cold.

Whilst the cupcakes are cooling, this will give you the perfect amount of time to make the cream cheese butter cream. In a clean, dry bowl place the cream cheese and beat well until smooth and creamy. Using a spoon, add in the icing sugar, stirring well with each addition. DO NOT use an electric mixer as the icing sugar will go everywhere. Once you have added all of the icing sugar, add in the vanilla extract and the pinch of salt and mix in well. You can now use an electric mixer until all of the ingredients have been combined. Pipe onto your cool cupcake and leave in a cool, dry place until you are ready to serve.

There you have it… my delicious red wine velvet cupcakes.

Enjoy!