Bakery Review: Red Velvet

I love baking my own cupcakes, but sometimes it is fun to visit local bakeries and try out their offerings.  It is a great chance to compare my own recipes to what is on the market and discover some new ideas.  This morning I was in downtown DC and found myself right in front of one of DC's acclaimed cupcake bakeries- Red Velvet.  Of course I had to pop in for a cupcake.

Red Velvet is located near the corner of 7th St and E St in NW DC.  Cupcakes are $3.25 each or $36/dozen.  This is a bit more than some of the other cupcakeries charge for, but not unheard of.  The bakery offers a wide variety of flavors (10 were available when I was there), but there is no seating area.  You can take your cupcakes next door to the frozen yogurt shop if you want to sit.  However, although the bakery is small it has a simplistic but charming decor and the cupcakes are the main attraction.

As the name of the bakery suggests, Red Velvet is included in the array of flavors.  On a previous occasion I tried the red velvet, or "Southern Belle" as it is referred to on the label, on a previous occasion, so this time I opted for another flavor.

I went with one of their new recipes- Hazelnut Cafe.  Their website describes this cupcake as "A delicious new wake-up call for coffee lovers-- a rich and moist hazelnut cake topped with a sexy espresso buttercream and completed with just a pinch of espresso."

The description definitely reflects this cupcake quite accurately.  The cake was rather rustic- instead of a light and fluffy hazelnut-flavored cake, the cake was a bit denser and moist with shavings of hazelnut baked inside.  The espresso buttercream was well flavored and a very soft (almost melty) texture, although I attribute some of this to the heat outside today.  The cupcake to frosting ratio was excellent and the two flavors complemented themselves well.

Overall, I enjoyed my Red Velvet Cupcakery cupcake.  The rich, denser cupcake is not the kind that I often opt to make since I prefer the lighter fluffy cake, but with this flavor combination it worked quite well.  It would definitely be worth visiting again when I am in the area, but I wouldn't necessarily make it a destination, mostly because I have several other fantastic bakeries very close to me!

Margaret

Pizza Night

Pizza is one of those special meals that I have never in my life disliked.  As a kid I was a very picky eater, but pizza night never began with any complaints.  Pizza night became even more special when we started making our own pizzas rather than ordering them out.

After going through a few pizza stones, we recently settled on a cast iron pan on the grill as our preferred pizza cooking method.  It makes incredibly crispy crusts- much better than the standard pizza pan for the oven.

My pizza of choice is the classic Margherita- tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil.  I also add a bit of garlic and olive oil before the sauce goes on and finish with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Pepperonis and prosciutto also go nicely with the original Margherita and add a bit extra flavor.

Pizza on the patio on a warm summer evening is one of my quintessential summer meals- and I have two more months of pizza nights to look forward to this summer.

Margaret

British Tea Cupcakes

It has been quite awhile since I have baked cupcakes.  It has also been quite awhile since I have had non-mint tea (the Moroccans love their sweet mint tea).  So when I stumbled upon this recipe the other day, I knew that these cupcakes were for me.

The recipe calls for warm milk to be steeped with black tea leaves to give the cupcakes their namesake flavor.  I chose my sister's favorite blend- straight from Fortnum and Mason in London.

The cupcakes are light and fluffy (thanks to a great recipe which uses cake flour rather than regular flour), and the frosting is a perfect combination of sweet and tart, which complements the cupcake rather well.

 I may even have to try this recipe with some other types of tea- flavored tea with a complementary frosting such as raspberry green tea cupcakes with a raspberry lemon buttercream sounds stupendous!

Happy Baking,
Margaret

Summer Blueberries

Blueberries are one of my favorite summer fruits.  They are best in the middle of summer in just about any baked good- pies, cupcakes, and of course muffins!  After returning from my long trip to Morocco I was dying to bake some good summer treats, and this recipe looked irresistible.

I love adding lemon to blueberry muffins, but this recipe called for lavender as well.  I couldn't resist trying it out.  The recipe uses lavender buds, but I substituted them for a half teaspoon of lavender extract.  Next time I may add just a splash more for a little more lavender flavor.

Even so, they came out fantastically.  Bake them on convect at 350° for the first 8 minutes or so to give them a nice crisp top.

These muffin make a fantastic summer breakfast treat or snack, and the lavender adds just a bit more depth to the flavor- absolutely lovely!

-Margaret

Tea and Tagine

It has been quite some time since this blog had any attention, so let me explain why.  For the past six weeks I have been in rural Morocco working with an Engineers Without Borders student group on a bridge building project.  On the way over, due to flight delays, we had a five hour layover in Paris, so we took the opportunity to head into Paris for a few hours, see some sights, and eat plenty of macaroons.

Once we arrived in Morocco, most of my time was spent on the worksite.  However, every day we were treated to lunch at a different house in the village.  Lunches were delicious but enormous!  The Moroccan standard for hospitably is to present everything they can on the table.  This slightly conflicts with the American tradition of cleaning your plate, which we soon learned was impossible with the portions provided! 

Lunches traditionally started with tea- a combination of Chinese green tea steeped with mint leaves and saturated with as much sugar as possible.  Tea was generally served with either homemade cookies and nuts or an assortment of homemade oils and honeys for bread dipping.

After tea came the main courses.  The traditional Moroccan dish is a tagine.  Tagine is actually the dish that the meal is cooked in, but the dish is referred to with the same name.  The tagine is a clay dish with a conical top, filled with lamb and some vegetables and topped with either fries or potatoes.  We would also get eggs and dates on some of our tagines.

One tagine was enough to fill our whole group up (especially because you eat all of your food using bread to scoop bites from the center communal dish), but oftentimes we would get at least one other main dish- sometimes two!  My favorite was the chicken.  The women would cook whole chickens in a lemon-saffron seasoning and top them with fries.  The chicken was some of the best I have ever had.

The last main dish (and the most difficult to conquer) was the cous-cous.  The cous-cous would come out in a heaping pile, topped with vegetables and lamb.  Cous-cous was actually my least favorite of the Moroccan dishes, but I think that mostly had to do with the fact that I was stuffed by the time it came out!

To close out lunch, we were always served watermelon and some other assorted fruit.  It was watermelon season during our visit, so it was always plentiful and delicious!  It was also our favorite way to hydrate before returning to the site for a long afternoon of work.  Morocco was an incredible experience, and the food absolutely reflected the community's excitement about our project and their willingness to give their best to us even if they had very little themselves.

Margaret

Farewell Cupcakes!

Today is my last night in the original cupcake suite.  It is bittersweet- I am looking forward to this summer and next year very much, but I am also sad to see how fast this year has gone by.  It was without a doubt a very special year, filled with very special people.  It was the first time that I have cooked for myself (and my wonderful suitemates).  We all cooked; we gathered around a tiny little table at dinnertime and enjoyed family meals together.  We made lots of desserts too- chocolate mousse, baklava, scones, cookies, loaves, pies, and cupcakes.  After all, it was the cupcake suite, of course we had cupcakes.  For our last few days in the suite I made a couple batches of cupcakes (chocolate strawberry and raspberry lemon).  We finished them up just in time to pack up all the dish ware and the kitchen-aid mixer.

Au Revoir,
Margaret

British Tea

My family recently went on a trip to London during my little sister's spring break.  I was very jealous that I didn't get to go, but they did bring me back some fantastic little British treats- tea and biscuits to be exact.  This little cookie was almost too adorable to eat, but I did bring myself to snack on it with a cup of tea.  It was absolutely delicious!

Good Morning!
Margaret