Red Velvet White Chocolate Cupcakes, Lynn Crawford and a Giveaway

Two weeks ago my mom and sister and I braved a Canadian snow storm to go see Lynn Crawford speak at George Brown College.   If you happen to not know who Lynn Crawford is here is the run down....

• Worked at the Four Seasons Hotels for over 20 years
• One of Canada's Top Chefs
• Appeared on Restaurant Makeover
• Now appears on Pitchin' In on the Food Network
• Has her own Cookbook called Pitchin' In
• Co-owner of the restaurant Ruby Watchco in Toronto
• Co-owner of Ruby Eats - Gourmet Food Store  - which I need to check out ASAP.   The downside of living in the suburbs.  :-(

She is very cool and down to earth.  Very inspiring and and listening to her makes me want to cook more, cook local and appreciate the food we have available to us.   I actually recorded 90% of her talk before my playbook ran out of entire memory.   It will be a great reference when I need a little kick in the pants.   I will try and edit some clips and post on her for you ( once I figure it out )

Me and Chef Lynn

The other bonus of going to she her speak is you get her cookbook - Pitchin In (signed and personalized).  The cookbook is full of over 100 fantastic recipes.  She has one or two recipes focusing on key ingredients, similar to how the show is set up.  There is a lot of seafood and shellfish (which I don't eat) but the rest of the book makes up for it,  Especially the desserts - WOW!  I literally can't wait to bake them all, especially the bacon caramel sauce.

The first recipe I decided to try was her Red Velvet Cupcakes but with a Sweet Twist spin, of course.  We had a dinner to go to last weekend and I offered to bring dessert, thinking cupcakes are always a good choice.  Is it me or has Red Velvet desserts exploded lately?   Maybe it is just Valentines day but they are everywhere and spun in every fashion.  Cookies, crepes, ice cream, brownies, there are a lot of pretty cool ideas out there. 2012 is the year of Red Velvet.   Who can blame us, Red Velvet desserts are tangy and sweet with nice sublte chocolate undertones.  
Here is my easy spin.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Cupcakes

(Adapted from Lynn Crawford - Pitchin In)

Makes 9 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcakes

• 1 1/4 cup sifted cake and pastry flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp red food paste
• 9 white chocolate Lindt balls, unwrapped and frozen

Icing

• 1 - 8 oz package light cream cheese
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 3 oz white chocolate, melted

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a muffin tin with 9 liners ( recipe called for 12, but I guess I made them bigger).
2) In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

3) In a measuring cup combine buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and food paste and whisk together.

4) In a large bowl or with your mixer, beat together butter and sugar until creamed.  Add egg and beat to combine.

5) Alternate adding the dry ingredients (3 additions)  and buttermilk (2 additions)

6) Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Add one Lindt ball to the center of each cupcake, pressing down, then use a spatula or spoon to just cover the Lindt ball with the mixture.

7) Bake 20 minutes, turning the pan half way through.   Obviously you can not stick a tooth pick in because of the Lindt ball, the top will look set when done.   Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack
8) Make the icing - In a large bowl or mixer bowl beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy and smooth.  Add icing sugar and vanilla starting on low, gently moving to high as icing sugar is incorporated.
Add cooled melted white chocolate and beat to combine.
9) Place into a large piping bag with a star tip and swirl on cupcakes.  If the icing is to soft place in fridge to cool for 10-15 minutes,

I also made a peanut butter chocolate filled Lindt using these chocolate cupcakes and this peanut butter icing

Red velvet white chocolate is a great combination.   I am not sure what it is but cupcakes with a creamy chocolate center are oh soooo good.

MEG's RATING : D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!

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COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY!!

Lucky for my readers when I was at the event I picked up an extra signed Pitchin' In cookbook from Lynn.  Leave me a comment with one of your favorite ingredients to cook or bake with.

For 4 more additional entries do the following and come back and let me know

1) Follow me on Facebook
2) Follow me on Twitter
3) Tweet - I want the @CHEF_LYNN Pitchin' In cookbook for more than 100 great recipes, Thanks to @Sweettwist_Meg
4) Follow the blog off to the right -->
5) Pin it

Giveaway open to residents of Canada and the U.S.  Contest open until noon on Feb 18th.