Red Velvet Cupcake

I promise you, there is nothing tricky about these cupcake. All you have to do is ensure you measure the ingredients properly, rather than just eye-balling it. As long as you do that, it’s actually easy to make, no more difficult than making vanilla cupcakes.

Putting aside fiddly fancy decorations, Red Velvet Cake is surely one of the most striking and stunning cakes around. If you’ve never tried it before, you’re in for a real treat!  Red Velvet Cake is not just a chocolate cake with red food colouring added. This cake is softer than most, “velvet-like”, and the chocolate taste is actually quite mild. It’s more like a cross between a vanilla and chocolate cake with a very subtle tang from buttermilk. Then it is generously smothered in a fluffy cream cheese frosting.

The legend goes that a chef at the Waldorf Astoria created the recipe for Red Velvet Cake and it became a popular dessert at the hotel. The recipe leaked. When a customer wrote to the chef, asking for the recipe, the chef sent it back to her with a $350 bill for it. Allegedly, the patron was so outraged by the bill that she forwarded the recipe, in the form of a chain letter, to her nearest and dearest socialite friends... And we thank her today!

For this recipe I have adapted my Red Velvet Cake recipe to make these beautiful cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

56g vegetable oil 

57g cup melted butter 

1 egg

114g buttermilk, room temperature 

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

200g granulated sugar 

1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda 

163g all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 tsp red gel food colouring

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:

169g unsalted butter, room temperature 

56g full-fat cream cheese, room temperature 

375g icing sugar 

1/2 tsp salt 

1 tbsp double cream 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Additional Tools:

Piping bag

Piping tip of choice

Instructions:

Red Velvet Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).

Line a standard sized muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and vegetable oil.

Mix in the egg, buttermilk, white vinegar and vanilla extract.

Add granulated sugar, and whisk for 30 seconds to help the dissolve the sugar.

Mix in the cocoa powder, salt and baking soda, and whisk until no lumps remain.

Add red gel food colouring, and mix until the batter is evenly coloured a deep shade of red.

Mix the flour into the batter.

Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake tins, and bake for about 18-20 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs).

Remove the cupcake pan from the oven, and allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan, and place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:

Beat the butter and cream cheese on a medium speed for 30 seconds with a paddle attachment, until smooth.

Add in the vanilla extract and salt, and beat on low until the ingredients are fully incorporated.

Slowly mix in the icing sugar on a very low speed, 1 cup at a time. Alternate with small splashes of cream.

If the frosting is too thick, add in additional cream (1 tablespoon at a time).

If the frosting is too thin, add in more icing sugar (1/4 cup at a time).

Place frosting in a piping bag fitted with an open star frosting tip.

Red Velvet Cupcake Decoration:

Once the cupcakes are fully cooled, remove one cupcake from its liner and use a fork to crumble it into tiny pieces in a small bowl. Set aside.

Pipe large swirls of buttercream frosting on top of each cupcake.

Sprinkle the red velvet cupcake crumbs on top of the frosting, and enjoy!