Red Velvet Cupcakes
These melt in your mouth Red Velvet Cupcakes have a gorgeous light cocoa flavor and are perfect when paired with cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cupcakes
- 500 g buttermilk see notes
- 190 g vegetable oil or canola oil
- 3 large eggs 55g each
- 7 g vanilla extract
- 40 g red liquid food dye see notes
- 5 g white vinegar
- 400 g cake flour see notes
- 24 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 g tsp salt
- 320 g caster sugar superfine sugar (see notes)
Instructions
Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Preheat a fan forced oven to 120C / 250F (140C / 285F for no fan). Line two cupcake trays with white cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Whisk wet ingredients together - Add the buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla extract, red liquid food dye and white vinegar to a jug or bowl and whisk until well combined.
- Combine dry ingredients - To a large mixing bowl, add the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and caster sugar. Whisk to combine.
- Add wet ingredients - add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk only until no dry ingredients are showing. Scrape down the bowl at least once to make sure it’s combined well. Take care not to overmix otherwise you’ll end up with tough cupcakes.
- Scoop into cupcake liners - Fill your cupcake liners up 3/4 of the way. Using an ice-cream scoop to transfer the batter to the cupcake liners makes this a quick and easy process, and ensures each liner contains the same amount of batter and that the cupcakes will bake evenly.
- Bake - Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a cupcake comes out clean. The cupcakes will look shiny and moist on top when they’re ready. If they bounce and don’t sink when you touch them, they’re done. Once baked, allow to cool completely.
- Serving suggestion - These cupcakes are perfectly paired with my cream cheese frosting recipe, but are also nice with chocolate buttercream.
Video
Notes
How to store baked Red Velvet cupcakes - Red Velvet Cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days, even with the cream cheese frosting on. If it’s a warm day, store frosted cupcakes in the fridge to prevent them from sweating which can cause the liners to come away from the cupcakes due to the moisture in the cupcakes.
To make your own buttermilk combine 250g (vegan, plant based or cow’s milk) and 5g white vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice. Whisk them together and let it sit for 5 minutes before using. It will look slightly curdled and split.
Red Food Dye
For this recipe, you need to use liquid food dye. Not food gel. To get that bright red color, you would have to use the entire bottle of red food gel. Trust me, I’ve tried it.
Caster sugar - Caster sugar, also known as superfine sugar, is a fine sugar often used for cakes which helps give you a finer and more delicate cake crumb. If you don’t have it, you can use granulated sugar.
Cake Flour - Cake flour is a low protein flour that is used to make desserts light and moist. You can use store bought which has a much finer flour consistency, or simply make your own cake flour with my simple recipe.
Low baking temperature - this cupcake recipe bakes on a super low temperature for a longer time than most other recipes. It helps the cupcakes bake slowly and rise slowly while still coming out nice and moist and fluffy. A higher temperature would result in a cupcake with a pointy top which is not pretty for anyone.
Serving suggestion - Frost these using cream cheese frosting or chocolate buttercream. They’re also nice as they are.
Nutrition - is an approximate and is based on per cupcake without frosting. This recipe makes about 20 cupcakes.
A note on measurements - this recipe is offered in weight measurements. This is in an effort to offer the most accurate way to get the best results. Cup measurements simply aren’t accurate enough for a recipe that needs precision and cup sizes differ depending on where you are in the world. Here is where you can learn more about how to measure ingredients using digital kitchen scales!
Nutrition
Calories:149kcal | Carbohydrates:19g | Protein:4g | Fat:2g | Saturated Fat:1g | Polyunsaturated Fat:0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat:1g | Cholesterol:31mg | Sodium:193mg | Potassium:106mg | Fiber:1g | Sugar:3g | Vitamin A:81IU | Calcium:62mg | Iron:1mg
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