Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
These easy red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are a deliciously moist, light, chocolatey cupcake. A vibrant red colour, they’re a fun bake kids will love.
Red velvet cupcakes are a deliciously light and moist, slightly chocolatey cupcake. Topped with cream cheese frosting, I can’t imagine a tastier treat.
We make a lot of cupcakes, but these, because of their pretty red colour, seem like the perfect cupcake for Valentine’s day. You can make them even more love themed by adding some Valentine’s or heart shaped sprinkles. You’ll usually find a selection of them at that time of year, and it’s the sort of thing my kids love to include in their bakes.
How can kids help make red velvet cupcakes?
Cupcakes are always a fun bake for kids and these red velvet cupcakes are no exception. Your kids can help measure and mix the ingredients together. My kids also love adding the red food colouring and seeing it change the colour of the cupcake batter. It’s a slightly unusual colour for a bake, but that is part of the appeal!
Decorating cupcakes is a good job for even really little kids. We just used a knife to spread the icing on as it can be easier than using a piping bag, but if you have older children they might want to try piping the icing on.
What do red velvet cupcakes taste like?
If you’re not familiar with red velvet cupcakes, you’ll find they’re like a light chocolate cupcake with a hint of vanilla and a slight tang from the buttermilk. Once topped with the sweet cream cheese there’s nothing more delicious. Some recipes leave out the cocoa powder so that they turn out a brighter red, but then they’re not really a true red velvet cupcake.
Can I use anything instead of white wine vinegar?
You can swap the white wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar or even some lemon juice, but don’t leave it out entirely. The vinegar reacts with the other ingredients to help make them lovely and light and fluffy. Without it the cupcakes won’t work as well.
Why is my red velvet not red?
You need to make sure you use really good food colouring. The liquid ones you find in the supermarket, will fade in the oven leaving you with disappointing brown or pink cupcakes instead of brilliant red ones.
The best colours to use are gels or pastes. I use either Wilton colours or Sugarflair pastes – you can find them on Amazon or your local craft store. While the inital outlay might seem a lot – these colours last a long time so are actually quite good value for money. The red colour I used was called ‘Christmas red.’
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What can I use instead of buttermilk?
If you don’t have buttermilk and can’t find it in the supermarket, you can make your own. To do this, use 120ml full fat milk and add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Make it and set it aside for at least five minutes before you need to use it. Once it’s turned lumpy it’s ready to use.
How long do they keep?
Without the frosting you can keep the cupcakes in an air tight container for about 3-5 days. If you want to keep them for longer, you can freeze the cupcakes for a few months. The cream cheese in the frosting means you need to keep iced cupcakes in the fridge and consume them within a day or so.
Other fun cupcakes for kids
If you and your kids love making cupcakes, check out some of our other easy cupcake recipes below:
Funfetti cupcakes
Chocolate chip cupcakes
Nutella cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes
Vanilla cupcakes
Butterfly cupcakes
Orange cupcakes
Chocolate fudge cupcakes
Raspberry cupcakes
Chocolate caramel cupcakes
Blackberry cupcakes
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these red velvet cupcakes
Digital scales
Freestanding mixer
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Food colour
Muffin tin
Cupcake cases
Piping bag
Wire rack
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Difficulty: A wee bit harder
Time: 30 minutes plus 20 minutes baking
Serves: 12
Ingredients
60g unsalted butter, softened
150g caster sugar
1 egg
20g cocoa powder
½ tea spoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tea spoon baking powder
150g plain flour
red food colouring
1 tea spoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
1 tea spoon white vinegar
For the topping
300g icing sugar, sifted
20g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, full fat, cold
how to make red velvet cupcakes
Preheat your oven to 180C /160°C Fan / 325°F/ gas mark 3 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper or silicon cupcake cases.
Beat the butter and sugar together
Get your kids to measure the butter and sugar out and put them in a mixing bowl or freestanding mixer. Beat them together with the k-paddle attachment of your mixer, a hand held mixer or wooden spoons until they are light and fluffy.
Add the egg
Get your kids to crack the egg into a small bowl before adding it to your mixing bowl. We generally don’t add eggs straight in just in case any shell goes in. If they do, simply fish the shell out with a larger piece of shell – it’ll stick to that better than it will your finger.
Beat everything together on a high speed until it is all well mixed.
Make a paste with the cocoa, colouring and vanilla
In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and red food colouring. It depends on your colouring as to how much you’ll need to use. We’ve got Wilton gel colours and put in around ¼ tsp.
Mix everything together until you have a thick paste and then add to your mixer.
Mix thoroughly. Add some more red colouring if you need it at this point to make it a nice vibrant red.
Add the remaining ingredients
Measure the buttermilk using digital scales set to ml, if you have them. Weigh the flour out in a separate small bowl and get your kids to add the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Make sure when they measure it your kids use their finger to level the teaspoons so they add just the right amount.
Add half of the flour mixture to your bowl, and mix it in. Then add half of your buttermilk and mix it in. Repeat with the remaining flour and buttermilk.
Finally, add the white wine vinegar and give your batter one final mix so that it is all well combined.
Bake the red velvet cupcakes
Divide the cupcake batter evenly among your cupcake cases until they are all 1/2-3/4 full. We find using an icecream scoop can make this job easier, as it holds a nice amount of batter and is a lot less messy than using a smaller spoon.
Pop the cupcakes in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. They’re ready when they have risen, a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean and if you press them gently on top the sponge bounces back.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes before taking them out of the tin and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the cream cheese frosting
Measure the butter and cream cheese out and add them to a freestanding mixer or mixing bowl. Beat them slowly together with the k-paddle of your mixer, a hand held mixer or wooden spoons until they are nice and smooth.
Now get your kids to measure out the icing sugar, and add it to you mixing bowl. Start on a slow speed and mix it all together until the frosting is nice and smooth.
Decorate the red velvet cupcakes
Add the frosting to a piping bag with a large star nozzle. If you have bag clips, add one at the top so you can pipe without worrying about frosting coming out the top of your piping bag.
Pipe the frosting in swirls around the top of the cupcakes. The easiest way of doing this is can be to get your kids to hold the piping bag at the top with their right hand to squeeze the icing out and use their other hand to guide the bag round. You might need to help them squeeze or guide the bag.
If you don’t have a piping bag you can spread the frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes. We used a spatula, but you could use a butter knife. You could get your kids to do this, or like us, you can do it while they get on with decorating the tops with sprinkles.
Serve and enjoy!
Red velvet cupcakes
Ingredients
- 60 g unsalted butter softened
- 150 g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 20 g cocoa powder
- red food colouring
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 120 ml buttermilk
- 1½ tsp white vinegar
For the topping
- 300 g icing sugar sifted
- 20 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 125 g full fat cream cheese cold
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 180C/170°C Fan/325°F/gas mark 3 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper/silicon cupcake cases.
Beat the butter and sugar together
- Measure the butter and sugar and put them in a mixing bowl or freestanding mixer with the paddle (k) attachment. Beat them together until they are light and fluffy.
Add the egg.
- Break the egg in a small bowl before adding it to your mixing bowl and beat everything together on a high speed until it is well mixed.
Make a paste with the cocoa, colouring and vanilla
- In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food colouring. It depends on your colouring as to how much you’ll need to use. We’ve got Wilton gel colours and put in around ¼ tsp.Mix everything together until you have a thick paste and then add to your mixer.
- Mix thoroughly. Add some more red colouring if you need it at this point to make it a nice vibrant red.
Add the remaining ingredients
- Measure the buttermilk using digital scales set to ml, if you have them. Weigh the flour, bicarb and baking powder into a small bowl.
- Add half the flour to your mixing bowl and stir it in. Then add half the buttermilk and mix it in. Repeat with the remaining flour and buttermilk.
- Add the vinegar.
- Give everything one final mix. Use a spatula to scrape any unmixed ingredients down from the side of the bowl.
Bake the red velvet cupcakes
- Divide the cupcake mixture evenly into the cases until they are about two-thirds full to allow them space to rise.
- Pop them in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. They’re ready when they have risen, a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean and if you press them gently on top the sponge bounces back.
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes before taking them out of the tin and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the cream cheese frosting
- Measure the butter and cream cheese and add to a mixing bowl/freestanding mixer. Start on a really slow speed and mix them together until they are smooth.
- Add the icing sugar and mix together again, starting on a slow speed until it is fully incorporated and light and fluffy. Don't overmix it..
Decorate the red velvet cupcakes
- Spread or pipe the frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes then add sprinkles.
If you liked these red velvet cupcakes, check out our simple vanilla cupcakes as well as our other cake and cupcake recipes.
Your little boy looks like he can’t wait to pick one up and eat it! They look great and I’m sure they’re really tasty. I’ll have to have a look at the Twitter Bakealong too!
Thank you. They don’t often eat our baking. I think like me, they prefer the making to the eating, but he did really like these cupcakes!
I just love how great your kids are at baking Helen! I’ve seen the trick of adding a few baking beans to make a heart shape cupcakes too, I have to say I can see a heart shape to some of the cupcakes which looks really fab. Thankyou so much for linking up with #BakingCrumbs,
Angela x
Thanks – they really love it (especially my wee one now). I’m going to try the baking bean trick again. The cupcake cases we had were smaller than normal so I think it would work better with bigger ones.