Low carb grain-free red velvet cake in donut (and cupcakes!) form. With a delicious sugar-free cream cheese frosting.
But those of you who know their red velvet cake are probably wondering at the rather lurid pinky-red colour of my red velvet cakes and donuts. Ah, well, there is a funny, and somewhat embarrassing, story to go along with that. See, this recipe was requested by a reader, Carla, when I opened the floor for requests. I saw her comment and thought to myself that it would be an easy one. I thought I knew what I was doing. It’s a classic case of baking hubris, I believe. I knew that my cake batter recipe from the Lemon Cream Cake would be perfect for modifying into red velvet. And I knew that it took cream cheese frosting, which I have perfected over the past year. And I thought I would get all fancy and inventive, and put some of the batter in my donut pan for fun. No problem, easy peasy.
I didn’t even really look at any conventional red velvet recipes, since I was so very certain I knew what I was doing. I made up my batter and added my red food colouring, and even then, it didn’t really occur to me that anything was wrong. It literally wasn’t until I was taking the cakes out of the oven that I thought “Gee, these are a really ugly colour”. And then it hit me that maybe, just maybe, red velvet was supposed to take some cocoa powder to give it a much deeper, darker red. I quickly ran to my computer and looked up a few red velvet recipes and yup, cocoa powder is a key ingredient. I looked at my pinky-red cupcakes and donuts in dismay. They were perfectly good little cakes and I wasn’t about to throw them out, so I decided to go ahead with them as planned and tell my readers the truth…I thought red velvet was simply white cake with food colouring and cream cheese frosting. I thought I knew what I was doing.
T he Results: I figure you will forgive me, given my foreign upbringing and all. I can’t be blamed for my ignorance! I will say that the cakes were delicious just as they were. This cake recipe is so very, very good and infinitely adaptable and as such, I am very confident that it would be just as good with a few tablespoons of cocoa added into the mix. So, for those of you who really want true red velvet, I am writing up the recipe to include the cocoa. The frosting was spot on, there were no complaints there! My pictures show some of the donuts with sprinkles…that was just to make them fun for the kids.
Since I did some as cupcakes and some as donuts, it’s hard to tell exactly how many these would make. My donut pan doesn’t hold much in each hole, so two donuts would probably be the equivalent of one cupcake. Which would amount to 9 cupcakes or 18 donuts, whichever you want to go with!
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These look great, the ingredients are what scare me. Are these easy to get? I'd love to make them!!
I was tickled by the color. 😉
Red velvet donuts and cupcakes….girl you are a rockstar!
Congrats on top 9–the cupcakes look great!
Cocoa powder or no cocoa powder, these cupcakes look fantastic! I love the idea of making donuts with the batter :).
Both the donuts and the cupcakes looks so pretty!
Congrats on the Top 9 today!
Brilliant idea to use the batter for donuts! congrats on top 9!
Congrats on the Top 9, with your beautiful red velvet donuts and cupcakes! Pretty good for a mistake 😉 We love the hot red color!
LOL, how funny!!! I used to think the same! But nevertheless, they sound WONDERFUL! YOu invented something! PINK velvet!
Beautiful! Especially the frosting. Yum!
I can completely relate to your post, Carolyn. Tailgating, marching bands and homecoming were all new things to me when I moved to the U.S. I love the look of these pretty donuts!
I love the new look, Car!
Oh how wonderful those look! I love both cup cakes and donuts..so pretty and irresistible!
Hi Carolyn, I love this post! I agree with you that red velvet is pretty American. I love Steel Magnolias, on of my favorite movies ever! I love your donuts too, they look delicious!
How very "male" of you to decide you already knew to make something before reading the recipe, that's the kind of thing I do LOL.
I love the idea of using the donut pans
Congratulations on Top 9, nothing like a delicious edible mistake!
And I was thinking i'm the only one left that has never tried red velvet cake…
I love the pinkish color, although I see them bright red. I think I'd pick one donut and one cupcake. They both look great, hard to decide between the two
What a fun idea, and unique! I don't believe I have ever seen a red velvet dounut:-) You are on to something! They look gorgeous, I will take a dozen:-) Hugs, Terra
They look so wonderfull 🙂