Red Velvet Cupcake
Perfect red velvet cupcakes can be hard to find and even more difficult to replicate at home. With a few key ingredients and careful steps, you can easily make these classic red velvet cupcakes in your own kitchen and impress all of your taste testers.
Servings: 14 cupcakes
Ingredients
RED VELVET CAKE
- 1 and ¼ cups (150g) all-purpose flour be sure to measure properly
- ¼ cup (40g) cornstarch
- 1 and ½ Tablespoons (9g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (80mL) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature and separated
- ½ Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 and ½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar1
- 1 teaspoon red food coloring2
- ½ cup (120mL) milk1 room temperature; you can also use buttermilk (see notes)
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 4 ounces (113g) full fat block cream cheese softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 and ¾ cups (210g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
RED VELVET CUPCAKES
- Move a rack in the oven to the middle position and preheat it to 350ºF (177ºC). Line the wells of a cupcake pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Sift the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda together into a medium size bowl. Set aside.1 and ¼ cups (150g) all-purpose flour, ¼ cup (40g) cornstarch, 1 and ½ Tablespoons (9g) unsweetened cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon baking soda
- If you are using regular milk: add 1 and ½ teaspoons of the distilled white vinegar to the milk and stir it around. Reserve the remaining 1 teaspoon of vinegar for the next step. If you are using buttermilk: skip this step and add the additional 1 teaspoon of vinegar in the next step.
- In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy (approximately 2-3 minutes). Add the vegetable oil and beat again until completely incorporated. Add the egg yolks, vanilla extract, remaining vinegar, and food coloring and beat again on medium speed until everything is combined.¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar, ⅓ cup (80mL) vegetable oil, 2 large eggs, ½ Tablespoon vanilla extract, 2 and ½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar1, 1 teaspoon red food coloring2
- Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with half of the milk/buttermilk. Do not overmix batter, and stop after the last bit of dry ingredients is mostly incorporated. There may be some dry pockets remaining. This is ok.½ cup (120mL) milk1
- Whip the egg whites in a medium size bowl, either using a handheld mixer or a whisk, whisking vigorously by hand. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form (see the photo in the post above if you're unsure what this looks like). This will take about 2-3 minutes.
- Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the batter with a spatula by cutting your spatula down the middle of the batter, then gently scooping half of the batter over and on top of the other half of the batter. Turn the bowl ¼ of a turn and repeat until batter is silky and smooth. It will be slightly thick.
- Spoon batter evenly into the cupcake liners filling ½ to ⅔ of the way full (I like to use an ice cream scoop with a trigger– one scant scoop full). Bake for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. If the cupcakes need a little longer, indicated by wet batter on the toothpick, bake for a minute longer and retesting, taking care not to overbake the cupcakes as they will dry out. You may need to bake an additional minute, test, and rebake and retest until cupcakes are properly finished. Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool in the pans completely on a wire rack before removing and decorating.
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until smooth.4 ounces (113g) full fat block cream cheese, ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter
- Turn the mixer speed down to low and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and salt and continue mixing until smooth.1 and ¾ cups (210g) powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, pinch of salt
ASSEMBLE THE CUPCAKES
- Frost the cupcakes using a large zip top bag with the corner snipped off or a pastry bag fitted with your decorating tip of choice.
- Store cupcakes covered tightly at room temperature up to 4 days or in the refrigerator up to 6 days.
Notes
- Distilled white vinegar/milk: I rarely have buttermilk on hand, so I always make my own. As written, the recipe assumes you do not have buttermilk. If you do have or prefer to use buttermilk, reduce the total amount of distilled vinegar in the recipe to 1 teaspoon, add it to the cupcake batter alongside the vanilla extract, and use ½ cup of room temperature buttermilk.
- Red food coloring: I prefer gel food coloring, as it is more concentrated than liquid food coloring. If you only have liquid food coloring, increase to 2 teaspoons.
Did you make this recipe?Mention @freshaprilflours on Instagram or tag #freshaprilflours!
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 299kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 193mg | Potassium: 68mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 255IU | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 1mg
