There are days when I feel like baking something fancy and complicated. The kinds of recipes that feature ingredients you normally wouldn’t think to put together, yet they work fantastically perfect in the end. Those intense recipes, are what makes cooking fun, and exciting. They turn the doldrum days into something enjoyable and fascinating. Usually, those are the days, when I feel ideas are spilling out of my mind and I have to cook to keep up. But then of course there are days when simple, and classic is everything. The days when I’m feeling lazy and just want to make something sweet, fast and simple. After all, less is more. I thought I would feature a classic cupcake that everyone loves. A red velvet.
The fact that these cupcakes have become so popular in the last couple years, has made it an instant classic. All the more reason why I decided to feature it in a post. All those of you who love these particular cupcakes, and have been searching far and wide, long and hard, for a moist red velvet cake recipe, look no further because this one is for you. Whether we are foodies, cooks, chefs, beginners, experienced or not, it is always important for us to take a day, step back, and go revert to the basics in the kitchen, to touch up on our skills and appreciate the simple joys in life. These cupcakes were definitely enjoyed.
Lets get started:
**Before we get started, I have to give a side note. In the photographs below, I cut the recipe in half to stop myself from eating a truck-load of cupcakes. So it’ll appear to be minimal ingredients, but keep in mind that the recipe in the end will be full in its entirety**
Throw the butter and sugar into a bowl of a mixer.
Cream together on high-medium speed until light and creamy…no, fluffy.
While the butter and sugar are creaming, mix the dry ingredients.
Cake Flour Baking Powder
Salt Mix
Set aside and shift your focus back to the creaming butter and sugar.
Throw in the eggs. One at a time.
Add in some vanilla extract.
Mix again.
Grab the cocoa powder.
Somewhere out there my chocoholic sister is happy right now….and I bet she doesn’t know why.
Mix the cocoa powder with the red food coloring.
Do not, buy the watered down “food coloring” from the grocery store. Those don’t really work and make the batter look like pink velvet. These aren’t pink velvet cupcakes, they are RED VELVET!
I buy the gel food coloring from Michaels, you’ll add less to recipes when you use it and the color is much better.
Mix until well combined and smooth.
If your mixture is too thick, add a little drizzle of water and mix.
Throw the coloring and cocoa combo into the creamed butter and sugar.
He hadn’t made an appearance in a while. What can I say? He’s an attention hog.
Mix together, until combined.
Now we are going to add the dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating between the two.
Make sure to start and end with the flour mixture.
Dry and wet. Dry and wet. Dry and wet. You get the point.
Mix after each, just until combined. Do not over mix, as this might create a tough cupcake.
And I know I don’t like tough dry cupcakes, do you? Nope, probably not.
Once the batter has come together, we just have one more step to go.
We’re almost there. We’re almost there.
No red velvet cake is complete without a little vinegar. I always like using apple cider vinegar. The taste is better.
Mix your baking soda and apple cider vinegar together.
This step is really cool; after it foams and sizzles, the baking soda will dissolve. Add it to the batter.
Mix or fold into the cake batter, making sure everything is well combined.
We’re now ready to scoop out the batter into the cupcake pans.
I like to use a small 1/4 capacity ice cream scoop to portion out my batter into my cupcake pans. This allows all my cupcakes to be the same size and bake evenly.
Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Until the center is cooked through and a toothpick, inserted, comes out clean.
As the cupcakes bake, work on the cream cheese frosting.
Red Velvet and Cream Cheese frosting just go hand in hand. You simply must have a cream cheese frosting with a red velvet cupcake. There is no other way around it. And since we’re making a classic, that is what we are doing.
We’re starting off with room temperature butter and cream cheese.
Cream together until light and fluffy.
Once you’ve reached that point, add in the powdered sugar.
And vanilla extract.
Beat on high speed until creamy and smooth.
That’s three already. He’s making sure to appear as much as he possibly can.
Once the cupcakes have cooked through, come out of the oven, and cooled completely on a cooling rack, they are ready to be frosted.
Grab a piping bag with a simple round tip.
You can also just use a small metal spatula or butter knife to swirl on the frosting.
I decided to be a little fawncy (you have to say fancy like that) fawncy and use a piping bag.
Just a beauty shot, I couldn’t pass up.
Scoop the frosting into the pastry bag.
For red velvet cupcakes I like doing a simple flat swirl. In a circular motion starting from the edge, go around with the bag until the top of the cupcake is completely covered.
You would think that our cupcakes are ready now, and that you could easily just eat one at this point. However, knowing me, I like to make it a little more presentable by adding a little something more to the top.
It needs a little pop of color. Luckily I reserved one red velvet cupcake, unfrosted.
Unwrap the lonely cupcake and crumble, using your hands, into small crumbs. Sprinkle the red velvet crumbs onto the tops of each frosted cupcake.
There is actually wax paper on the counter, makes for easier clean-up for jobs like this.
Okay, now they are completed.
These cupcakes are really easy to make, and are very moist. The buttermilk and cake flour, definitely help this factor out. Try swapping out these ingredients in all your favorite cake recipes that call for all-purpose flour and plain ol’ milk.
Enjoy this simple, yet classic, recipe!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
An easy and moist red velvet batter. Makes two nine-inch cakes or 24-cupcakes, with two extra from the crumb topping.
Adapted from a recipe from The Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 ounces red food coloring
- 2 tablespoons cocoa (heaping)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
Frosting:
- 1 stick of butter, room temperature
- 1 package of cream cheese (8oz, at room temperature)
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350° and prepare two 12-cupcake pans with paper liners. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar. Mix on hight for about 5 to 8 minutes, until light and fluffy.
3. In a small bowl combine and make a paste out of the food coloring and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa and food coloring is well incorporated. Add to the creamed butter and sugar mixture and mix on low until everything is well combined. The red coloring should be mixed completely.
4. Throw in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract.
5. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the buttermilk alternating with dry ingredients, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.
6. In a small bowl combine the baking soda and vinegar. The mixture will bubble and fiz, keep stiring until the foaming stops and the baking soda is dissolved completely. Add it to the batter and mix once more.
7. Scoop out onto prepared cupcake pans, using a small ice cream scoop. This will make sure the cupcakes all are the same size and cook evenly. Bake in for about 10 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans, halfway through baking. You’ll know the cupcakes are done when a toothpick, inserted in the middle, comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cook on wire rack. After 2 minutes, remove the cupcakes, carefully, from the pans. Cool completely on wire racks.
8. Make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer combine and blend the butter and cream cheese. Whip on high for 5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix again. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing on low until all the sugar is incorporated. Switch to high and whip for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
9. Decorate the cupcakes: Once the cupcakes have cooled frost each except two. With the reserved, unfrosted, cupcakes, peel off the wrappers and crumble into a bowl using your hands. Sprinkle the red velvet crumbs onto each of the frosted cupcakes. Serve right away or store any leftovers in the fridge. Allow to come to room temperature before eating. Enjoy!
Love the color! So pretty. I think what’s best about your posts is the detailed step by step photos. And you’re right – we should always go back to basics. Thanks for sharing, J.
Thank you so much for reading. Yea, I thought it would be nice to have a step-by-step blog so that people could follow it easily. Glad you’re enjoying.
My sister (who lives in Alhambra) is the one famous (at least in our immediate family) for her Red Velvet cake…I can say, it truly is delicious! But with this recipe, get ready for competition, Gracie! 😉 LOL!
Thanks for this recipe…
Woo, so glad I could help. Make some, and let me know how the competition goes. I can easily say, that you have a good chance of winning! Good luck, can’t wait to hear.
what a perfect color red. and your spatula makes me happy!
@urbanbaker Thanks. He makes multiple appearances throughout the post. Look out for him 😉
This looks so amazing, I must try these… Plus, I always wondered how one makes frosting, so another plus 🙂
Now, I only know food coloring in tiny little packages, that wouldn’t even color half a cupcake… Is that food coloring you use completely liquid? I must go to a store and describe it to some salesperson, though I fear that is simply something we don’t have here (yet)…
@Katie Thanks you. Good luck with the frosting! The food coloring I used is a gel form, not liquid at all. I found it at Michaels. The brand is Wilton’s. You might also find it at Amazon 🙂 I hope you guys get some soon!
Hi may I know exactly which Wilton red food colouring you used?
@yyc, For this one I used Christmas Red 🙂 But I’ve used no taste red before and works just the same.
I love bright red Red Velvets and yours are simply beautiful. Btw, I noticed you used a lot of that particular colour and Wilton states large quantities may change the taste of the cake. Could you taste the difference?
@yyc Thanks. I don’t notice any difference in taste. But if you are skeptical about that, wilton has a “no-taste red” you can definitely use that!
LOVE the recipe! Thank You! Could you tell me how long these would keep? Would love to fly them down with me when I visit my daughter in college. Do they need refrigeration?
@RoseDeVita Thank you for reading! Glad you liked! These will keep for up to a week refrigerated. Just bring them down to room temp when you eat them. BUT they don’t need to be refrigerated, they will definitely last a couple days in an airtight container, when you visit your daughter! Let me know how they turn out!
A good friend’s birthday is coming up and he loves red velvet cake. This looks like the recipe to use! Thanks for sharing
@TwinTastes Thanks for reading! Let me know how they come out and if your friend enjoyed them!!
Wait. You sprinkled cupcake on top of a cupcake?! Genius! And now I’m hungry in a home that is currently sans baked goods.
What?!?! A home with no baked goods! That’s madness….madness I tell you!! That needs to be fixed, pronto!
The pink pig is a star haha!
@Jessica He’s making sure to come out in all of the posts, at least once 😉
Looks great!
In the instructions after the ingredients list, it says to ‘cream shortening’. I’m assuming that should be butter?
Thank you! And thanks for the heads up, It was supposed to say butter. I changed it 🙂
Just made these…. they don’t even have frosting on them yet and I couldn’t resist eating one.. AMAZING! These came out so much better than the last recipe I used for red velvet (though I think all the ingredients are the same). Just wanted to say I used one container of liquid red food coloring from the supermarket… and they aren’t as deep a red as yours but not too bad. Also used red wine vinegar (because I forgot to by vinegar and it’s all my friends had) and I’m not sure if that changed much but they seriously taste unreal.
FINALLY I have that same piggy spatula….he’s perfect.
Love your blog went through all of it this morning…definitely will be making more of your recipes.
Thanks!
Wow! Thank you so much for making them, and for sharing! I love to hear people trying out the recipes. So glad you enjoyed them! Hope the rest made it to the frosting stage 😉
And yes, I have to agree with you, Mr. Piggy Spat is the best!
Thanks again for reading! Hope you come back soon!
i just found this blog…and i love it …would love to try this receipe…i never get the red too look as bright as urs. Please let me know how many containers of WILTON food colouring did u use.
Thank you for checking it out! Glad you like it! Come back anytime. I used one and a half containers 🙂 Of the “no-taste” red!
I’m confused. You say in the directions to cream the butter, sugar and eggs. And then later in the directions it says to add the eggs one at a time…
All fixed, it was a typo in my part. Thanks for bringing it up! Cream the butter and sugar first and then add the eggs one at a time.
Made this cake twice the first time I forgot to put two cups of flour and only added 1 1/4…This cake is delicious..and really velvety!!…one thing though the particular brand of food colouring is extremely bitter in taste and over powered everything.. so my second attempt I changed the brand of food colouring…and it was just fine…love this recipe.
I ended up making these at my daughter’s apartment for her recital so no transportation issues. They were SUCH a smash hit that I didn’t even get to taste one. Instead of crumbling up some baked ones I made the icing and added chocolate G clefs that I molded out of dark chocolate and they looked adorable. I can’t thank you enough for sharing this wonderful recipe. I keep getting requested to make them again and next time I will be sure to try one.
WOW!!! AMAZING step by step recipe! Thanks sooo much for sharing 🙂 i just wanted to make sure so for the christmas red and no taste red, you didn’t see a colour difference in the red, did it turn out to be the same?
Thank you! Yea, no difference at all in taste or color. I found it to be the same 🙂
First of all, let me tell you how much I love your blog. It’s amazing, I love how you make your step-by-step recipes, with the beautiful photos and the easy instructions.
Secondly, I am thinking about making a Red Velvet Cake for my friend’s birthday, and I was wondering if the recipe is the same as the red velvet cupcakes, only with bigger portions?
I’m sorry if I’m bugging you with this, but from all of the recipes I’m tried from your blog, none have failed me before, so I wanted to use your recipe to make the cake.
Hugs from a fan in Portugal!
Thank you so much!! The recipe is exactly the same, I just double the recipe when I make a birthday layered cake!
No not bugging me at all. Thank you for trying the recipes. I hope this one works out for you as well!
Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.
I used this recipe! So happy with the results! :>
hi, just wondering, where is your pastry bag from, i was looking to get a new one but i havent been able to find one that is made of cloth
Hello. Hmm, I got that bag from Williams Sonoma. But I’ve also seen them at Michaels, Sur La Table, and World Market. I love using the cloth ones. They are heavy duty and last a long time!
Hi the recipe is fantastic and so the steps I am just a little puzzled about the amount of red you used, in the recipe says 2 ounces which is equivalent to 2 entire bottles. Is it correct or it was a typing mistake?
Thanks, Antonia from UK
Hey there! Thank you! I’m sorry it’s supposed to be 1 entire bottle. So 1 ounce. 🙂
Hiya, I just wondered if i were to make this into a whole cake recipe… how would you adjust the timings? I have made the cupcakes and they were beautiful but need to do a big showstopper cake 🙂
Hello! Well it depends on what size cake pans you are using. For 8-inch pans you’ll bake them for about 25-30 minutes. For 9-inch pans 28-35 minutes. And for 10-inch pans 35-40 minutes. Each time rotating half-way through to ensure even browning 🙂 I hope this helps! And good luck with the showstopper!! I’m sure everyone will love it!!
hello there! just finished preparing.. so excited for the results 🙂 thanks for the great recipe by the way :*
Hope you enjoyed them!! Thanks for trying out the recipe.
just wondering, do we HAVE to use cake flour? i only have all purpose flour and i didn’t quite want to buy a whole new bag of cake flour S: i really want to make these cupcakes though!
Not at all. I’ve been in your shoes before. I’ve actually made this recipe with all-purpose flour on many times (when I’ve been too lazy to go to the market for just cake flour) and it’s come out just as delicious!
Let me just say that I am EXTREMELY picky about my cupcakes and the moistness/fluffiness (it took me a week and trying 5 recipes to find the perfect vanilla recipe). Based on this I thought I would have the same problem finding the perfect Red Velvet recipe! Well, I didnt….this was the first one I tried and it is absolutely perfect!! Thank you!
Thank you for trying it! I’m with you on the moistness/fluffiness of my cupcakes. I’m glad you enjoyed these!
Hi – I just want to check on this, since I’m seeing some contradictory information and I want to make sure this turns out perfectly. In the recipe you call for 2 tbsp of cocoa and 2 oz of food coloring. This makes sense to me – I did a blue velvet recipe today and it called for the same ratio of cocoa to food coloring (1:1). However in one of the comments you say it should be one ounce of food coloring…which makes me think the paste would be too thick. So I’m going to stick with the original recipe…unless you tell me 100% for sure that it should only be 1oz of food coloring 🙂
Sorry about that. I think the comment was referring to a different type of food coloring, the liquid as a oppose to the gel variety. Please do the 2 tbsp of cocoa to the 2 oz food coloring.
I love making red velvet cupcakes but I never get a bright red color. I’m so happy I found you! Going to make these tonight but I have one question. Do I use white distilled vinegar? Thank you!
Hi I’m just wondering whether it is salted butter, and salt that you use (and not instead unsalted butter? Thanks
Nope it’s unsalted butter.
I was just wondering, could you do the exact same method & ingredients, buy instead just leave out the redness & cocoa to make vanilla cupcakes!
Hi! How much food color did you use? In tsp. or tbsp