How to get your Red Velvet fix

It was last week sometime and I was having a god-awful day. The only thing that I thought could make me feel better was a couple of Red Velvet Cupcakes from CakeBread, Pudding & Pie, so I hoped into my jalopy and made my way down to Roeland Street only to find the doors closed with a note in the window. Upon further investigation and coffee with Sam, I was informed that Capetownians, brimming with good taste and ever better sense, have recieved the wiles of CakeBread, Pudding & Pie so well that Mari-Louis and Callie have had to increase the size of their kitchen and staff component to deal with the demand. Yes, dears, seems that common sense is rife in these parts!! 

So it's been a week and I am still lusting after a Red Velvet made by the hands at CakeBread, even though I attempted to make some myself. 

Yes, I am one of those people that CAN bake. I think it gives my O.C.D side some time to shine. I'm pretty fastidious about precise measuring and the temperature of the ingredients, so a good dance with my oven and food scale are always fun times. Unfortunately, I was a bit too eager and googled a few recipes for Red Velvet Cupcakes, as any foodie worth her salt would and while I was measuring out the dry ingredients, I mixed up the recipes (a tad). So pretty much from the word go, I was on the back foot. But I powered through and shrieked with delight at the sight of the bright pink batter as I ice-cream scooped into it into dainty white cupcake cups! Admittedly, my kitchen was left with streaks of pink, my fingers look as though I've been eating that horrible tomato sauce from street food vendors and this morning, I found a pink spoldge on my kettle - this is a bloody affair!  

After much deliberation on twitter about the virtues of Butter icing versus Cream Cheese, I was wooed into submission with the latter. And just for good measure, I called Mari-Louis just to check if I was making the right choice and confirm that my cupcakes were being made in the image of the ones from CakeBread. Unfortunately, even with confirmation from her and support from my foodies, the cupcakes lacked a certain something. 

With a heavy heart and a body doused in red colouring, I've resigned myself to the thought that instead of spattering red across my walls again that I'd simply pop in to CakeBread when they re-open tomorrow to get my fix. I'm smacking my elbow vein as we speak.