I love red velvet cupcakes. They are so delicious, capped off by the cream cheese icing. I started using this recipe back for my 21^st, when Clare, my cousin gave me the recipe. I’m not sure where it originated but I’ve made a few tweaks after having made this recipe quite a few times now. Most recently, I made them for my 23^rd Birthday drinks for all of my friends. As I keep being asked for this recipe, I thought I’d put together my amended version for here. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 12 large or 24 small cupcakes

 

Ingredients

Cupcakes:
60 g Unsalted Butter, room temp
150 g Caster Sugar
1 large Egg, lightly beaten
10 g Cocoa Powder
20 ml Red Food colouring, gel/paste or 10-15 ml Water
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
120 ml Buttermilk
150 g Plain flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Bicarb Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon White wine Vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting:
300 g Icing sugar, sifted
50 g Unsalted butter, room temp
125 g Cream Cheese, slightly softened

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170c. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with patty cases.
2. Cream the butter with an electric mixer in a medium bowl until light yellow and soft.
3. Mix sugar with butter until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well mixed.
5. In a small bowl, mix the food colouring, cocoa powder and vanilla extract until it makes a thick paste. At this point, I often don’t use red food dye and just use 10-15ml water until it makes a thick paste.
6. Add the paste to the butter mixture and beat thoroughly until the colour is mixed evenly through the batter. Be sure to scrape down any stray batter from the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The mix should be a deep rose pink/red (if you add red food dye).
7. On slow speed, slowly add half the buttermilk until well mixed then add half the flour until well mixed. Repeat for the remaining milk and flour, beating until the mixture is smooth.
8. Mix the salt, bicarb and vinegar in a separate small bowl and stir to make sure it is mixed completely.
9. Add to main mixture, turning up the speed and beating for a couple more minutes.
10. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of mixture into each paper cases until no more than two-thirds full.
11. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top of a cupcake bounces back when lightly touched. If making small cupcakes, cook for 10-13 minutes.
12. Once the cupcakes have cooled slightly in the tray, remove them and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Icing

1. Cream the butter with an electric mixer until light yellow and fluffy.
2. Mix with icing sugar until combined.
3. Dice the cream cheese into smaller cubes then add to the mix, beating until completely combined.
4. On medium-high speed, continue beating the frosting until it becomes light and fluffy. This takes around five minutes.
5. When the cupcakes are cold, pipe the cream cheese frosting on top, or use an ice-cream scoop to dollop the frosting on the stunning red-domed cupcakes.