Red Velvet Cupcake Bites - Recipe

Sponsored by Philadelphia

I love cupcakes! Love. But sometimes they are too much - especially for the kids. If you think of the size of a regular cupcake, it really is the same size as a large slice of cake. When the lovely people from Philly invited me to try some of their products and share them with you I knew I would be making some sort of cake, but I decided to modify these to make them suitable for little appetites!

Red Velvet Cupcakes - yum. The gorgeous chocolate flavour with the added tang of buttermilk and a cream cheese icing. This recipe is largely taken from the recipe in the Philly Simply Heaven Volume 3 cookbook, however I've changed it slightly to make it a bit more pantry friendly.

The recipe calls for buttermilk. I find buttermilk difficult to buy - large supermarkets stock it however smaller ones don't and I know my mother-in-law, who lives in a country town, finds it hard to purchase certain items like this. There is a quick way you can make buttermilk, which I've shared below. First - the recipe:

Ingredients (makes 36 mini cupcakes, 12 regular cupcakes)

75g softened butter
3/4 caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tbs lemon juice OR white vinegar
1 tsp red food colouring (no flavour) or 1/4 tsp red gel colour
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frosting - 250g Philadephia Frosting Cream Cheese with a hint of Lemon Flavour

1. Preheat your oven to 160C (320F). Line a mini cupcake pan with papers.
2. Make your buttermilk - add the tablespoon of lemon juice (or vinegar) to the cup of milk. Set aside.The milk will curdle slightly - don't be alarmed - this is meant to happen.

3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat well.
4. Fold in the sifted flour, cocoa and baking powder.
5. Add the buttermilk and the red colouring and mix well.
6. Combine the vinegar and the bicarbonate of soda, and stir it through the cake mix.
7. Half fill each mini cupcake paper with cake mixture. Bake for 10 minutes or until they spring back when touched.

Cool on a wire rack then pipe or spread the Philly frosting. A small little dollop is perfect for these bite size cakes.

These little cupcake bites are the perfect size for a treat for my girls. Be wary though - you might not be able to stop at just one!

To find more great Philly inspired recipes you can check out their website. I always use Philly Cream Cheese in my cheesecakes and you can see my favourite cheesecake recipe here.