Red Velvet Pushpops

I've always been very fascinated by these pushpops I've seen in many websites online and I've been dying to try them out for myself. Since I was baking some Red Velvet Cupcakes and had some of these containers, I decided to give it a try. These pushpop containers remind me of these push up ice creams I used to have as a kid! 

Indeed, these ice creams were awesome even though they were messy. I doubt they're being sold anymore now though. Maybe I should do a ice-cream pushpop tutorial too! In any case, this tutorial will show you how to assemble the awesomest Red Velvet Pushpops.

This recipe will take about 1.5 to 2 hours in all to bake and assemble and I rate it a 3/5 for difficulty level. (: 

Red Velvet Pushpops Recipe

This recipe yields around 10 - 12 pushpops

CUPCAKE

165g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 tbsp cocoa powder

55g unsalted butter

145g castor sugar

2 eggs (55 - 60g eggs)

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 tsp white vinegar

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp Wilton gel RED food coloring

1/2 tbsp Wilton gel PINK food colouring

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

250g cream cheese

110g unsalted butter

165g icing sugar

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

12 pushpop containers

12 cupcake liners (base: 4.8cm)

CUPCAKE

Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius. Have the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine.

Allow butter to 'warm' up to almost room temperature (I usually cube my chilled butter and let it thaw for 10 minutes in room temperature) and add the castor sugar. Using a sturdy spatula, hand whisk the mixture. It should be relatively easy to whisk it, just that you need a little determination and strength. 

You will get a well-mixed mixture like this. 

Add in one egg and mix well.

Add in another egg and mix well.

This is the buttermilk I used.

Add in the buttermilk, white vinegar and vanilla bean paste. Try using vanilla bean paste rather than vanilla essence/extract as it tastes so much better. The other two are just so artificial. 

Add in the red and pink food colouring and mix well.

You should get a vibrant mixture like this! 

Add in 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix well.

Add in the other half and mix well. You may wish to switch to a hand whisk to have better control of the mixture. Else, a spatula works too!

You should get a thick batter like this. I don't like the messiness of scooping batter into cupcake cups so I scooped my batter into a piping bag and piped my batter into the cups.

Fill the cupcake cups about 2/3 full. You should get around 10 - 12 cups. 

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes till it's fully cooked or till a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. I usually test one cupcake from each row to be sure. Place on wire rack to allow it to cool completely. 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Have the cream cheese come close to room temperature in a mixing bowl for about 10 minutes. You may cube it to allow it to 'thaw' faster. Using a spatula/hand whisk (I prefer a spatula), whisk it vigorously by hand to cream it. 

Add cubed butter of room temperature (cube and thaw in room temperature for 10 mins) into cream cheese and whisk vigorously.

Add in icing sugar and vanilla bean paste. The specks you see in the cream cheese frosting is the vanilla bean paste. It may look 'unclean' but it sure will taste better! Mix well!

You should get something like this. Scoop into piping bag fitted with Wilton piping tip 32.

This is how an unwrapped cupcake of mine looks like! 

Cut the cupcake into 4 even pieces. Trim off the top most portion to level it out if you like.

You may use a cookie cutter that fits the pushpop container but why waste the money if you don't have one? Use the pushpop container as a cutter and trim off 'excess' cake. You should have 4 slices of cake.

Pipe a little cream cheese frosting into the bottom of the pushpop container. This acts as a 'glue' for the first layer of cake. 

Slide in 1 layer of cake as press it down as close as you can to the 'glue'. 

Pipe a dot of cream cheese frosting in the middle of the layer. Then pipe a ring of cream cheese frosting along the remaining space left. You should get a nice and even layer of cream cheese frosting. Here's an illustration to show you how: 

NOTE: try your best to slide down the layers 'flat' rather than 'slanted' as the 'slanted' way will get the sides of the cake layer 'stained' with cream cheese frosting from the bottom layer. 

Add the second layer of cake and pipe some cream cheese frosting.

Repeat for 3rd layer. Notice the blurred white sides of the 3rd layer of cake? That's what happens when you  slide down the cake slanted instead of 'straight' down.

Add 4th layer of cake. For the final layer, pipe a taller dot in the middle for 'supporting' the 'swirl'. Using the taller dot as a support, pipe around the sides of the cake and then gradually moving upwards to form a 'swirled peak'. 

You should get enough cream cheese frosting and cupcake batter to make 10 - 12 pushpops. 

NOTE

1) You may use Styrofoam boards to hold the pushpops up. I used cups to hold them up just as fine. As the cream cheese frosting is pretty 'solid', it is perfectly fine even if you don't prop the pushpops upright. 

2) You may prepare the cupcakes the night before and leave in covered with a food cover in a cool dry place. I prepared the cream cheese frosting the following morning.

3) As the pushpops consist of cream cheese, I would HIGHLY recommend that you keep them chilled until you are ready to serve them. 

So, these pushpops are just so lovely and the contrast between the cake and the white cream cheese frosting is phenomenal. So what are you waiting for? (:

Here are a few other alternative recipes that you may fancy: 

Rainbow Pushpops

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Rainbow Cupcakes II

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: