The best red velvet cupcakes w cream cheese frosting

Today I’ve got a very popular recipe for you: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream.

If you’ve never heard of red velvet before: It’s a very popular chocolate cake flavor from the US, traditionally decorated with a creamy frosting. People liked to eat it 100 years ago! Back then, the red color was due to the cocoa powder, back then it was not alkalized and turned red from a reaction with the buttermilk. This cake used to be called “devil’s food” cake!

Today the name is more elegant – “red velvet”. Nowadays, cocoa powder is made alkaline during the production (“dutch process”) and doesn’t turn red anymore. So bakers typically add red food coloring or beet juice to help develop the traditional color. Baking soda also helps the color turn red – but only if used in large quantities, which isn’t really advisable for taste.

Red Velvet cake has a very mild flavor. It contains a pinch of cocoa, some buttermilk and vanilla extract. The red color makes it fun to eat – and the oil and buttermilk give it a fluffy and velvety consistency. The tartness of the cream cheese goes perfectly with this cake.

Thanks to the TV series “Sex and the city” and the Magnolia Bakery, red velvet cupcakes have gained worldwide fame.

And now you can make your own at home!

How to make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream

This is what you’ll need: (scroll down for a full printable recipe): Sugar , flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, one egg, oil, vanilla and some apple vinegar.

Whisk the egg and sugar together until foamy.

In a separate container, mix buttermilk, oil, vanilla and vinegar well. (Read more here about baking with oil in German for now).

Now add red food coloring until you have reached maximum saturation. (No matter how much more color you add, the color doesn’t get darker).

Add the liquid to the egg-sugar-mixture.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda, and sprinkle those over the batter. Mix gently until just combined.

The batter is ready! One ice cream scoop per cupcake liner is perfect. Bake for about 18 minutes at 180C.

Cool completely and decorate with cream cheese buttercream.

Here’s the full recipe to print for you:

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese by Minh Cakes

Servings: 12 Cupcakes
Time: 2 hours
Print

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

1 large egg, room temp
150 g sugar
120 ml buttermilk
120 ml oil (I use rapeseed oil with butter flavor such as the brands Sabo bei Coop, or Alba-Öl online)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp apple vinegar
approx. 1/2 tsp concentrated gel color (Rainbow Dust Progel or Sugarflair Red Extra)
125 g flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
10 g cocoa powder

For the Cream Cheese Buttercream:

400 g Swiss Meringue Buttercream
100 g Philadelphia cheese
100 g Mascarpone
3 EL Instant Vanille-Pudding-Powder (with modified starch as thickener)

Preparation

Bake the cupcakes Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) with normal heat (no fan). Prep your muffin pan with paper liners.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the sugar and egg until foamy.

In a separate container, stir together buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and vinegar. Then add red color until full saturation is reached. Pour the liquid to the egg-sugar foam and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Sprinkle over the liquid batter and stir gently until just combined.

Fill the cupcake liners immediately and bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove immediately from the pan and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Make the cream cheese frosting Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) following my recipe (English version coming soon), then measure out 400g.

Stir together shortly Philadelphia und Mascarpone. The cheeses MUST be a room temperature for this! Stir in the instant vanilla powder and wait 1-2 minutes to thicken. Stir the cheese gently by hand into the SMBC. Don’t stir too long, or the SMBC could break.

Assembly: As soon as the cupcakes have cooled down, place the buttercream into a piping bag and swirl it onto the cupcakes. (I used the #1A round tip by Wilton on the photos). Decorate with red velvet crumbs, sprinkles, grated coconut – whatever you please!