Kim’s Red Velvet Cupcake Heaven

 

It’s a cupcake and sugarplum kind of day, here at Scrapbook Journeys! 😀 Today, I share the first Lifestyle post featuring the beautiful soul that is JoyKim, and her Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe. 🙂

When I met JoyKim a few months ago, it felt like a long time coming! I had heard a lot about her, but meeting her in person confirmed that she simply had to feature on Scrapbook Journeys. 😀 Her story is too inspiring not to share!

Kim Wambui, known to her friends as JoyKim, is a young entrepreneur with a big heart for baking cakes! She is currently pursuing her BA in Economics at the University of Nairobi.

 

She was enthusiastic to work together on this post, featuring one of her cupcake recipes. As I am not a big cake-fan, it was going to be a tough nut to crack. However, she gave me the ‘honor’ of choosing a flavor… And, for all my years of disliking cake, the only flavor I can fathom happens to be Red Velvet!

When she then suggested that we do Red Velvet Cupcakes, my heart stirred with excitement! A girl after my own heart! Surely, little cupcakes would be easier to handle than one huge block of cake…no? It was a cupcake date 😀

 

At only 21, Kim has taught herself to bake through YouTube tutorials. She started off with an interest in pastries, and a desire to learn the art behind creating yummy cakes. She kept working at it, particularly over the long school holidays, and has been growing ever since.

On February 2015, her business ‘Kim Cakes’ was born, where she bakes cakes for sale.

Her entrepreneurial spirit, and the passion to keep growing her art, is very impressive. She bakes everything from her mum’s kitchen, while she is working towards buying her own oven. This is tough though, because she does not live at home, while her parents live in the outskirts of Nairobi. But the obstacles have only made her more determined to succeed. 😀

She says that her best cake ingredient is love; it is with love and joy that she approaches all her baking projects!

So, put on your love hats people and let’s dive into it 😉

Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 150 grams of salted butter
• 200 grams of castor sugar
• 3 eggs
• Half a glass of milk
• A tea spoon of vanilla essence
• 10 grams of cocoa
• 2 spoons of Red coloring matter
• 200 grams of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• A handful of strawberries

 

It was nice to watch her calm demeanor, as she mixed up the ingredients, moving around us with ease…the girl knows her stuff!

Procedure:

1. Cream the sugar with salted butter for about 8 minutes, to attain a white fluffy texture
2. Add the eggs one at a time, as you whisk the mixture
3. Add in the vanilla essence and milk
4. Whisk the mixture until it attains a uniform texture
5. Add the dry ingredients: red coloring matter, cocoa, flour and finally the baking powder
6. Mix these into the cupcake mixture slowly, until it attains a soft texture
7. Transfer the cake mix to the muffin baking tins, and place them in the pre-heated oven
8. Leave them to bake at 180°c
9. The cupcakes should be ready after 30 minutes.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: WANJIKU THUO

 

I was amazed at how easy she made it look- perhaps baking is not as hard as I always imagined?

 

She then set about preparing the decorative butter cream for the cupcakes:-

1. Whisk 200 grams of butter.
2. Add in 200 grams of icing sugar and vanilla essence.
3. And a tea spoon of lemon zest.
4. Put the beautiful result into a piping bag, and have a ball decorating the cupcakes in your preferred design 🙂

I must admit- the final cupcake result could easily turn someone like me into a cake fan ! The rich, red velvet color, crowned with a creamy, delicious butter topping, had all of us salivating! The true cake lovers -namely my sister and Wanjiku Thuo, were the happiest I have ever seen them at work! 😀

 

I could hardly believe that this intricate pieces of art had been produced by a student of YouTube University! She is most certainly talented! 🙂

 

JoyKim is an inspiration to anyone who might feel like they don’t have what it takes to achieve their dreams. We’ve each got to start somewhere- and sometimes that means starting in your “mum’s kitchen” or on “YouTube”, like she did. The circumstances may not be perfect at first, but it certainly beats giving up- any day!

What is your passion? Are you willing to start small and grow? I would love to hear your story in the comments’ section below 🙂

Stay inspired. 🙂

 

TIP:

• Let the cupcakes cool for 30 minutes, before decorating them with the butter cream
• Look out for Part Two of Kim Cakes’ Series- Coming Soon 😉
• You can learn more about Kim Cakes by visiting her Instagram Page
• Or Call to Order on: +254 718750525