The whisk taker!

I vividly remember as a kid how one day when we had guests over, my parents decided that they wanted to make chocolate mousse for everyone.

Though I come from a family of bakers, neither of my parents had any interest in baking, so it was kind of a big shock for everyone.

Still I remember how much fun it was trying to make a dessert together. This is the very first memory that comes to my mind when I think of baking.

I hate being idle. I always need to do something with my time and that is exactly how I discovered my passion for baking. I've been lucky enough to know what I wanted to do at a young age.

I was 17 when on a Christmas day, my friend and I randomly tried baking a dessert. That was my first proper attempt at baking.
Baking as a profession has been a dream come true. Even though I model and act in movies from time to time, it is baking that has helped me achieve my goal of being independent.

That is all I ever wanted. Now that I have a successful baking school and supplying business, I feel that I have achieved my goal.

Coming to my recipe, 'Red velvet cupcakes' are a dessert that are very special to me.

I believe these little cupcakes were a huge turning point in my career. I remember trying out various recipes for my newly established business - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and caramel - I had tried them all. But it was these 'Red velvet cupcakes' that changed the game for the business.

Once these were introduced, I remember getting orders for 400 to 500
cupcakes on a regular basis.

It's amazing how such a simple recipe could bring about such a big change. I hold this recipe very close to my heart.

Tessa Vellara

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

4 tablespoons red food colouring

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 ½ cups sifted all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

For icing

½ cup cream cheese, softened

¼ cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups icing sugar

Method

For cupcakes

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease two  
12 cup muffin pans or line with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food colouring and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter until it blends. Spoon the batter into prepared cups, dividing evenly.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Let the cupcakes rest for some time on a wire rack.  When cool, move onto the frosting.

For the icing

Beat the cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar until smooth and voila, the frosting is ready.