Red Velvet cupcakes and balls and my keepcup

I should have tried another red velvet cupcake recipe but chickened out and just used Bakerella's again. Turned out nicely as expected - this made me enough cake for 40 balls, 10 mini cupcakes and 12 small-medium cupcakes. I used the same cream cheese recipe as below but added an extra 4-6 cups of icing sugar as I was wanting super firm icing for piping. I wanted to make icing roses but failed. I blame the icing for being too soft (I even had it in the fridge to firm up more) but it probably relates to lack of skill too - hah. Ended up piping most using a star tip. I'll try roses again next time I use buttercream frosting.

So cake balls/pops are pretty fun! There's a lot of room to be creative with these. I would have dipped them in coloured sprinkles after if I had some. Could put a nut or piece of chocolate in the centre of the cake. Could have another layer - I saw one recipe that coated it in a cheesecake mix and then crumbled biscuit THEN chocolate.

Red Velvet cake balls
Adapted from the Gonna Want Seconds recipe
Yields about 40 balls (tablespoon sized) 

Ingredients
1 red velvet cake (I used half of Bakerella's red velvet cake recipe)

225g cream cheese, softened (bring to room temperature or warm gently in microwave)
2 C icing sugar, sifted
115g butter, softened (bring to room temperature or warm gently in microwave)
1 tsp vanilla extract

375g white chocolate (I ran out so you might consider using more - next time I'd melt 500g)
1 tsp vegetable oil


Method
1. Crumble cooled cake into a large bowl (if the cake was overcooked on the outside at all don't include it in this - I did and regret it as you can detect a slight burnt flavour and crispy bits in the cake ball - not a disaster but not ideal).

2. Beat cream cheese and butter together in a separate bowl until pale and creamy - about 2 minutes on medium-high speed. Beat in vanilla extract. Add icing sugar in about 4 parts, beating after each addition.

3. Add icing mixture to the crumbled cake and beat together on a medium-high speed until fully blended (until you cannot see anymore white icing).

4. Roll tablespoons (or whatever amount you want) of this mixture into balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper. Insert a cake pop stick into balls at this point if you're making pops. Place these in the freezer until solid to touch - about 45 minutes.

5. Melt white chocolate with oil according to packet instructions (I popped it in the microwave for 1 minute at 50% power, stirred then another minute but checked and stirred at 20 second intervals until fully melted).

6. Dip cake balls into chocolate and lift out to allow the chocolate to drip from the ball until somewhat set. Place back on the lined baking tray. (I wasn't making pops so initially tried rolling them in the chocolate and taking them out with spoons - this proved to be quite difficult and messy so ended up using toothpicks to pull them out and removed the toothpicks once the chocolate set - it leaves a small hole (see pic) but could be covered with decorations or more melted chocolate later if desired). Place in refrigerator to set and chill completely. Suitable to freeze too.

I also made some mini cupcakes with a cheesecake filling earlier in the week. They turned out to be quite tasty. I used bakerella's red velvet recipe but just didn't add the red food dye.

Cheesecake filling
Adapted from Sugar Plum's recipe 
I made half of the original recipe which was more than enough to fill cupcakes made with 1/4 of bakerella's red velvet cake recipe.

Ingredients
112g cream cheese, softened
1/6 C caster sugar
1/2 a large egg (I lightly beat an egg and then separated it - using the other half for the cake)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C crushed digestive biscuits

Method
1. Beat cream cheese and sugar together on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes until pale and creamy.

2. Beat in egg and vanilla until fully combined.

3. Stir in crushed digestive biscuits.

Assembly - fill cupcake case 1/4 of the way with cupcake batter. Sprinkle some mini choc chips (as I did) or nuts next if desired. Add a dollop of cheesecake filling. Sprinkle more choc chips if desired, then fill the rest of the case with cupcake batter. Bake in the oven as per the cupcake recipe. I frosted these with cream cheese icing dyed pink.

Oh and I finally bought a keepcup after a long period of procrastination. Got a medium size after spending a long time in the store playing around with different colour combinations. Love it :)