I remember the first time I attempted to make a Red Velvet cake with a friend and through all the effort we went to, it just turned out to look like a standard Chocolate cake. But after discovering Food colouring paste is the secret to getting bright colours, I decided to give it another shot. I looked up the recipe online and decided to follow Nigella Lawsons recipe. Her recipe is easy to follow and you're most likely to have these ingredients in your cupboard - although I did use a few alternatives. I'm very happy with the results, so let's jump right into it.  

The Ingredients you will need:

250g Plain Flour

2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspon Bicarbonate of Soda

100g Unsalted Butter

200g Caster Sugar

1 heaped tablespoon Christmas-Red paste food colouring

2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

2 large Eggs

175ml Buttermilk

1 teaspoon cider Vinegar (I couldn't find this in the shop, so I used distilled vinegar).

She also has a recipe up for a butter cream-cheese frosting, but I just bought a ready-made cream cheese style icing by Betty Crockers - mhmm!

Then add all the food colouring into this mixture, along with the vanilla drops. Now I only had a small pot of this, and so I used about half a teaspon of the paste. The colour looked beautifully vibrant at this stage as you can see, but I late discovered it could've done with a whole lot more. You can buy the food colouring paste for a cheaper price online and you tend to get more for your money.

I forgot to show  a picture, but you need to sift the flour and cocoa powder into a seperate bowl, it's important to use a sieve as cocoa powder can often be quite clumpy. Then add one tablespoon of the colour mixture followed by one egg. Beat it together and another tablesppoon of flour and a egg and beat again. Once it's all mixed, add the remaining flour to the mixture.

In a separate bowl, add the vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder so the mixture froths up and add it into the main mixture, along with your buttermilk. Fold it all together so it's nice and smooth. Notice how the mixture has gone rather dark at this stage, if you want it brighter, add more colouring!

This mixture makes roughly 24 cupcakes, so fill them evenly into your cupcake cases. About 1/3 of the way as they rise. A lot. Bake for 20 minutes.

Now, I was quite disappointed when these popped out of the oven. Firstly, I was expecting them to be a lot more brighter, but I reckon, even with more food colouring they will still go slightly chocolatey coloured on the top.

Add your Cream cheese icing on top, I used a knife for that messy kind of look, but you could be fancy and use a piping bag to make it look more appealing.

As you can see, the colour of the cake is a lot more vibrant when you bite into it, which impressed me a lot! They taste absoultely delicious! I am not ashamed to say that these didn't last long in my house, they're so moreish. It is such a simple recipe, that will impress your friends and family. You could of course decorate them with some coloured icing sugar or some pretty sprinkles, but I personally prefer them without. Don't forget to check out Nigella Lawsons website which is filled with easy to make recipes!