The Villages Gourmet Club Recipe

Makes 3 dozen cupcakes. Total preparation time: 1 ½ hours.

Vanilla Icing Ingredients:

6 T. All Purpose Flour
2 C. Whole Milk
1 lb. Unsalted Butter
2 C. Sugar
2 t. Vanilla Extract

In a sauce pan, add the flour and slowly whisk in the milk. Mix until smooth. Heat the mixture on medium heat while whisking until it forms a thick paste. Remove from heat. Cube the butter, put it in a mixing bowl and run the mixer on medium for 3 minutes. Occasionally stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time. Stop and scrape the mixing bowl occasionally. Add the vanilla. Gradually add the warm flour and milk paste and continue to mix on medium. Scrape the bowl occasionally. Total mixing time will be about 5 minutes. Refrigerate the icing for 10-15 minutes until it's cool but not cold. Continue with the Decorating Video.

"Red Velvet Cake" was the signature dessert at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel during the 1920s. Before food coloring, the red color came from boiled beets. James Beard describes a red velvet cake in his 1972 American Cookery where the vinegar and buttermilk reaction better revealed the red anthocyanin in the cocoa, turning the cake a bright red. It's been associated with Valentine's Day ever since. The Magnolia Bakery, 401 Bleecker St. in Greenwich Village, opened in 1996 specializing in cupcakes. It's not unusual for the line to wind around the block with a one hour wait lasting almost until midnight. Patrons are limited to 12 cupcakes per person!