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Red Velvet Cupcakes
The Best Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting. All of the tips and tricks for making perfect red velvet cupcakes every single time!
It’s Christmas Eve and I am trying to sneak in one last post on Modern Honey and it has to be perfect red velvet cupcakes. This is such a classic Southern recipe that is crazy popular!
I have shared my Red Velvet Cake Recipe and it has actually climbed to be one of the most popular recipes on Modern Honey. I tested and re-tested so many red velvet cake recipes to ultimately create this recipe! I went up a pants size just for you! So much cake! But it was well worth it because now we have a killer red velvet cupcake recipe that everyone will love!
The key with red velvet cupcakes is to have a touch of chocolate flavor. It needs to be enough to notice it but not enough to make it taste like a full-blown chocolate cake. I found the sweet spot by using 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder.
I also found that a combination of butter and oil makes the moistest, most tender, and flavorful cake. Butter adds the flavor and the oil makes it extra moist.
Buttermilk is such a game changer in baked goods! I love to have it in my arsenal (aka my refrigerator) at all times. The beauty of it is that it is low in fat but does similar things in baking as heavy cream. It is one of my favorite ingredients to use in my cakes.
How to make the Best Red Velvet Cupcakes:
-  Start by mixing the dry ingredients together. This is an important step to make sure to get all of the clumps out so give it a good stir.
- In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring.
- Beat the butter and sugar together for 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the oil and cream for 2 more minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat for 2 minutes longer.
- Add 1/2 of the dry ingredients and 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture, mixing after each addition until it is all added.
- Drop the batter into cupcake liners and bake until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean. Don’t OVERBAKE. No dry cupcakes here!
- Make a cream cheese frosting by whipping together butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Make sure the cream cheese is softened so it easily combines.
Here are my favorite cupcake baking tools — 12-cup cupcake pan, rainbow cupcake liners, and a stainless steel cake tester.
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Red Velvet Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cupcakes:
- 1 1/2 cups Flour (may use all-purpose or cake flour)
- 3 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2/3 cup Buttermilk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons White Vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1 teaspoon Red Gel Food Coloring (if using liquid red food coloring, you may want to add more)
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 1/4 cup Oil
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup Butter (softened)
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese (softened)
- 3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together.
- In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together for 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the oil and cream for 2 more minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat for 2 minutes longer. Add vanilla.
- Add 1/2 of the dry ingredients and 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture, mixing after each addition until it is all added.
- Drop the batter into cupcake liners and bake until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean, about 16-19 minutes. Don't OVERBAKE. Let cool.
- In a bowl, whip together butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Spread all over the cooled cupcakes.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I hope you love these homemade red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! Happy Baking, my friends!
I absolutely love this recipe! I’m not sure why people are complaining. It made my cupcakes super fluffy and the frosting is very good. You can definitely taste the cream cheese in it so if you prefer a weaker taste for the icing you may want to adjust accordingly.
The only adjustment I made to this recipe was that i added 2tbsp of red liquid food colouring to get my desired redness.
Notes: I only have a hand blender that mixes FAST on the lowest setting so I halved my mixing times every time I used it and when adding the two mixtures at the end I hand whisked it in to ensure i did not over beat it. 16 minutes cooked them perfectly. Would reccomend trying and have already shared the recipe with people!
Not a fan. I questioned the 1 tsp of salt and I should have reduced it. The cupcakes taste too salty to me. Light and fluffy though. The red food colouring gel is a must because even with 2 Tbsp of regular food colouring the cupcakes are not red but rather a weak chocolate cake. I won’t be using this recipe again. Sorry….
The cupcakes were Most Excellent. Super moist, super yum. I would give 6 stars if I could. Thank you for sharing!
I made these for Valentine’s Day, and they were perfect. I didn’t have buttermilk, so I used regular milk with a bit of lemon juice. These were the moistest cupcakes I’ve ever made, and the frosting was soooooo good. Thank you!
Hi Melissa – Made these for Valentine’s Day and my family & friends said they were without a doubt the best cupcakes they’d ever tasted! Was thrilled when I noticed the buttermilk in the recipe, since it’s been one of my all-time favorite ingredients when it comes to baking (my grandmother and baking mentor swore by it!). I was wondering though if you use cupcake tins with larger than 3-inch diameter cavities? The recipe above says it makes 12, but I ended up with enough for almost 24. I also want to also try your vanilla cupcake recipe, which says it makes 24, but I don’t want to end up with double that amount since I only have standard cupcake tins, ha ha!
The flavors were spot on. Easy enough to make. Served them with a bottle of champagne and a dozen arranged red Roses. If it were a baking contest, I’d have to present them as “rustic”. Over filled the cupcake liners and tried piping the frosting. Still delicious.
Question: You say “add the oil and cream for 2 more minutes”, but there is no cream in the list of ingredients. Please clarify
I think she means cream like the verb, whip it so it’s creamy.
I think she meant is the combination of sugar + butter.
It says that twice and I can’t find the cream either. It doesn’t sound like a verb in this case.
Wait, cream the verb is correct, I think. 🙂
Would that be the buttermilk?
When it says cream it means to mix together
omg!
creaming is a type of mixing not the cream itself
Cream means to mix in “baking language, so when she says that she mean add the oil and mix for 2 more minutes ????
Cream as in beat the mixture until it is cream-like consistency. Cream is a verb here.
I made the Gluten Free version of these cupcakes and they were delicious. I substituted regular flour with Bob’s Red Mill, 1 to 1 Baking Flour and follow your recipe accordingly and they came out perfect!!!
I am looking forward to trying these yummy sounding cup cakes for my Bunco Group on the 13th.
They sound like they will be a hit!!
Yummm I’m hoping to make these in to mini cupcakes. How long should I bake it for & same temperature?
Thank you so much!