Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Flour Frosting

August 31st was my friend Christine's birthday. And we were having a BBQ picnic at Locarno Beach Vancouver. Another friend Christy suggested we can give her a cake as surprised birthday celebration during the picnic. And she asked me to make some mini cupcakes for 40 people to share. I remember Christine likes romantic theme. I decided to make her red velvet cake. And I will decorate it with romantic theme. I put a heart shape icing decorations for each mini cupcakes. And I make a flower bouquet for her on a flower pot as well.

Since we were having picnic outside from 4:30-8:40pm. The weather is warm. I need to use an icing that can stand for heat outdoor. I found this recipe and it said it is less sweet and can stand from heat and keep the shape. I give it a try. And it is quite good in taste and the shape of my flower frosting can stay!

Beside making this cupcakes cake, I also need to prepare another cake for Sunday party and also prepare food for bbq party as well. To save time, I use Red Velvet cake mix, and spend more time on decorations. But I did make red velvet cupcakes before. Please refer to link below for Red Velvet Cupcakes recipe.

Red Velvet recipe:

http://winniemsfong.blogspot.com/2012/11/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-dental-fondant.html

Makes enough to frost 24 medium cupcakes (I frosted 50 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Butter
3/4 cup Caster Sugar (Not coarse sugar, not brown sugar, not icing sugar)

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk.

2. Turn on the heat to medium and continously stir until it thickens in order to avoid lumps. DO NOT STOP STIRRING.

3. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. Please make sure that the mixture is cooled complete or it will melt the butter. When it's cool, stir in vanilla. I put a cling wrap on top of flour mixture and put in refrigerator to speed up the cooling process.

4. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy for approximately 7 minutes.

5. Then add the completely cooled flour mixture and continue beating until the frosting combines perfectly. It took me about 2-3 minutes. Just beat it until it resembles smooth whipped cream and looks pipeable. You can now add colouring if you like.

 And you are done! You will get the most perfect vanilla frosting, not too sweet, light to the taste and can stand for outdoor temperature.

- See more at: http://phat-baker.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vanilla-frosting.html#

The weather is so nice at the beach. This is what I like the most in Vancouver.