Get ready for a special family recipe for Homemade Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. They are made from scratch, but don’t let the ingredient list intimidate you.
This Red Velvet Cupcakes recipe is easy and well worth the time! So if you are looking for a great recipe to take and share with family, friends, church get-togethers, at holidays or just as a dessert or snack at home these little beauties are perfect!
Most people tend to associate red velvet with holidays and gatherings in December but these make wonderful treats for anytime or any holiday.
How To Make Red Velvet Cupcakes Step By Step
Some Tips for makin’ Red Velvet cupcakes.
Buttermilk is a Must in Red Velvet Cupcakes
As an experiment I tried making it with regular milk and the oil just seemed to weigh the cupcake down. So that was a partial fail. I saw partial fail because my son and I did eat them so it wasn’t a total waste 🙂 So the buttermilk in this recipe seems to contribute to the cupcake being light and fluffy. Don’t leave it out. Some people say you can use white vinegar and milk to take place of the vinegar. If you have had success with this please let me know in the comments.
Why The Apple Cider Vinegar?
Apple cider vinegar helps to aerate baked goods. It also works to help give the cupcakes some fluff by working with the baking soda to help the cakes rise.
If you are interested ini step by step pictures of the steps head on over to the recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes here that I did with some little helping hands. The photos are dated but the cuteness still remains 🙂
The printable recipe is below so bake up some sweetness for your sweetie today!
Ingredients
- 2 +1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 +1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 +1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ounce bottle red food coloring
Cream Cheese Icing
- 8 ounce package cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
- 1 pound confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together sugar, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vinegar. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and beat on medium speed until well blended.
- Add vanilla and entire bottle of red food coloring to batter and mix again on low speed until well blended and uniform in color.
- Line 2 - 12 cup muffin tins with papers. Fill each paper about 3/4 full with batter. Will end up with 18-20 cupcakes.
- Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until center springs back when pressed lightly with finger. Allow to cool completely before icing.
For Icing
- Cream together cream cheese and butter. Add sugar and vanilla and beat with electric mixer until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides as needed. Ice cooled cupcakes.
- Can be left at room temp but I love it refrigerated!
Makes about 18-20 cupcakes.
Nutrition
You might also enjoy these cupcake recipes:
Rolo Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting
Phenomenal Red Velvet Cupcakes
Hello. thank you for the awesome recipe. made these last night came out pretty delicious. my only question is would adding more cocoa powder effect the batter. I would say adding as much as 1 more tsp or even a tablespoon???
thank you 🙂
Indeed Red Velvet Cup Cakes are perfect cakes for a Valentine’s day. The Recipe is also simple and easy to prepare.
Rev velvet cake is my favorite! Can butter be substituted for the oil?
I haven’t tried it in this recipe but it should work. I’m just not sure how it will affect the cake, it will likely be not as moist.
I’m making these to celebrate two neighbors birthdays, so I “test fired” them by making a half recipe, using store bought icing. I really liked them and I’m sure they will be even better with “real” cream cheese icing. Not overly sweet and they look very pretty when decorated as shown in the photos.
Christy, you’re becoming my go-to source for good old fashion’ recipes that are killer good!
Thank you very much for this wonderful recipe!
I hope you enjoy it Chelsea!