Recently my co-workers asked if I would like to bake a cake for our supervisor, who was transferring to another location within the Navy.  I was told her favorite cake was Red Velvet which is also one of my favorites also!  Instead of the usual going away cake, I decided to make her a large Red Velvet cupcake, with lots of little cupcakes, this way the smaller cupcakes could easily be passed around by everyone while sitting in a restaurant. 

The cupcakes were a success!

 

How to Make a Giant Cupcake

 

First you want to invest in buying a giant cupcake pan.

 

Next you want to grease and flour your baking dish.  You can do this by greasing and flouring the old-fashioned way, or you can buy the grease and flour already mixed, Wilton has a product with both.  I usually grease my baking pans with Crisco and then lightly flour, but because this cupcake pan has so many groves, I wanted to make sure every grove was covered.  You just squirt about a teaspoon or two in the bottom, then take a pastry brush and dip it in the grease and flour mixture and paint the inside of the pan…so easy and fast this way.  I have no problem with the cupcake coming out!

The photo below is a bit blurry, but you can see what I mean.

Once the cupcake pan is coated, pour in your cake batter.  I tried baking the cupcake about 2/3 full on each side, but I didn’t feel the top part of the cupcake was as tall as I liked, so now I fill the cupcake pan almost to the top.  The cupcake will bake up high, but you will cut off the top part anyway, and this way you can make Red Velvet Pops with the portion you cut off!

I baked my cupcake about 40-45 minutes.  Half way through the baking time I wet a dish towel or small bathroom towel with cold water, and I wrap the base of the cupcake (Top Only) with the paper towel, this helps prevent the top from getting too brown, as the bottom portion needs more time to bake than the top.  Once out of the oven, let the cupcake rest in the pan about 10 minutes.  After wait time simply turn over and the cake should fall right out of the pan.

 

Remember, the top part of the cupcake pan will not be straight, it will be more rounded, you want to cut this portion off so it will be level.  Reserve the part you cut off for Red Velvet Cake Pops. 

 

Ice the top portion by holding the top upside down in your hand.  Put a lot of cupcake icing on the bottom and smooth out, taking your icing down over the edge to coat the sides with icing. This way when you put the top on the bottom, you will have all the groves covered. 

 

It’s not necessary to ice the bottom, it also looks cute without icing.  In this case, I iced the bottom and then pressed chopped pecans all around the  base, pressing as I go.  I then tip the base and  cover as much as I can with the nuts.  It’s much easier to do this before you put the top on, but you can press the nuts on even after the top is on…being careful the top does not slide off! lol

 

Using a pastry bag or a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off, ice the top of the cupcake.  I use a large cake tip, then draw a circle around the base of the top portion, then continue making a round swirl until you get to the top.

Once iced, decorate with your favorite sprinkles.  The sprinkles I have on this cupcake are tiny chocolate drops, kind of like M&M’s without the logo,a nd very small! I then sprinkled the top with white sanding sugar. 

 

I also rolled out fondant and cut a long strip, the wrapped it around the base of the cupcake.  I then cut out little hearts with a very small heart cutter and pressed the hearts all around on the ribbon.  I then cut another strip of the green fondant and made a bow.  I don’t use fondant too much, but it is great for adding touches to an already frosted cake.   The photo below does not have the fondant ribbon on it yet, and the only photo I have with the ribbon around the base of the cupcake is the first photo at the top.

I usually double my cake recipe for the giant cupcake, so I can make cupcakes with the other portion…your making a large cupcake, you will have some of that batter already, then you have the other portion for your cupcakes!

 

Red Velvet Cupcake

 

Remember, you can get three desserts when you make a giant cupcake, you will have the giant cupcake, the cupcakes and also the cake pops!

If you don’t have time to make the cake pops, just freeze them until ready to you, they dip in the coating easier frozen anyway!