Red Velvet Cupcakes & My New Favorite Way to Frost Cupcakes
I wanted to make something festive to take into work for Valentine’s Day. I decided on red velvet cake for a couple reasons. My friend Amy had asked me about red velvet about a month ago. She made cupcakes for her sister’s birthday party. Having never tasted, let alone baked, red velvet cake, I sent her a couple recipes that I thought looked good. After looking into it, I noticed how much food coloring is in red velvet cake. The thought of it kinda skeeved me out. But I’ve been trying to step out of my comfort zone lately, so I decided to try the red velvet cake for Valentine’s Day.
I wanted a recipe that didn’t use a ton of food coloring. I decided on a recipe from Kelsey at Apple A Day because it only (ha! only) takes 1 oz of food coloring. That’s a whole bottle of food coloring! And believe it or not, I saw recipes that called for up to 3 oz. I also liked this recipe, because the coloring is added to the liquid ingredients and then you add the dry ingredients to that. I would be worried about staining something if it was the other way around…
I loved how these came out. Very moist and very red. I really enjoyed the taste of the red velvet cupcake and I’m glad I made them. AND, I got to use my new favorite way to frost a cupcake (see details at end of post). I can’t explain why I like it so much, I just do. It does give you more frosting without piling it on really high.
As an added bonus, I sat down while my cupcakes were in the oven only to find this Red Velvet cake comparison on The Way the Cookie Crumbles in my Google Reader. Bridget compared 4 red velvet cupcake recipes, including Kelsey’s from Apple A Day, Deb’s from Smitten Kitchen, and two others. I was very interested in her results since I had chosen the Apple a Day recipe and Amy had made the Smitten Kitchen recipe. If you’re looking for a Red Velvet cupcake recipe, definitely check out the comparison post. I am proud to say that Bridget recommends the Apple A Day recipe that I chose for my cupcakes! I agree that they come together easily, are very moist due to the oil in the recipe, have a bright red color, and have a sweet but tangy flavor.
For the frosting, I know most people put cream cheese frosting on red velvet cake/cupcakes. When I was searching for cupcake recipes, I came across one on Joy the Baker’s blog. It looked a little different than the other recipes I had been looking at and she opted for a brown sugar cream cheese frosting. I was intrigued by the frosting so I decided to go with it. And I’m so glad I did. I read her post about how to prevent curdling cream cheese frosting. I did make a silly mistake in making my frosting before my butter was at room temperature, resulting in a slightly lumpy frosting. But it tasted delicious which is all that matters, right!?!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes
2 1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp (1 oz.) red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
For the Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 cups butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsp milk, depending on desired consistency
Directions:
For the Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa, and salt into a medium bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Divide batter evenly between 3 greased and floured 8" round cake pans (or a lined cupcake pan).
Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 25–30 minutes. Let cakes cool 5 minutes, then invert each onto a plate, then invert again onto a cooling rack. Let cakes cool completely.
For the Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream the cream cheese in an electric mixer for 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl and add the butter, beating for 1-2 minutes, or until incorporated.
Add the brown sugar, pinch of salt and vanilla extract, and beat until incorporated.
Turn off mixer and add 1 cup of powdered sugar. Turn the mixer on a low speed so the sugar doesn’t fly out of the bowl. Slowly add more sugar alternately with the milk until you reach your desired consistency.
To Frost the Cupcakes
Using the cone method, remove a cone from the top of the cupcake. Discard cones.
Using a piping bag with a large round tip, pipe frosting into hole of cupcake. Continue frosting in a fat swirl.
Cupcake recipe from Apple A Day, Frosting recipe from Joy the Baker
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
What a delicious entry and thank you for submitting it to this month’s Tasty Tools!
yum – these look so good!
i often write posts well after the recipe has been made and photographed, especially if there’s no recognizable feature (like a holiday).
woah! these look fantastic!!! Jen, are you EVER moving to Indy? We need to move in next door to each other. We’ll help you ‘take care of’ all of your experiments. 🙂
Ha Amy – I doubt we’d ever end up in Indy… Cincy is about as close as we’ll get… Or you guys can move to Boston 😉
They look amazing! Great job!
What a great idea – two tastey desserts in one! I like Amy’s idea too. At least if you live in Cincy we could get a carrier pigeon or something…
Or we just need a carrier pigeon who can handle the distance from Boston.
This looks great! My husband’s favorite dessert is also creme brulee 🙂
Oh my heavens! That looks so good!
I really like the way you frosted these – gives me ideas. Here’s a creme brulee recipe for anyone interested in trying – it’s really easy – but you’re right – doesn’t travel. Happy baking.
Thanks for sharing mouth watering I love Creme Brulee. So good.
Yum those sound & look DELISH! Thanks for sharing the recipe & tip on another way to frost my cupcakes. 🙂
~ingrid
These look amazing!
Super cute way to ice the cupcakes! Creme Brulee is my favourite dessert, I think these need to be added to my list of must makes!
I like your blogging strategy – I tend to be the exact same way! Sometimes I get so backlogged and other times, I’ll have 10 posts sitting as drafts.
These cupcakes look so good – a nice twist on a traditional frosted cupcakes. I would have never thought to do this.
Wow – what a fabulous recipe! They must be delicious!
I made these last year and they were SO GOOD! I love creme brulee.
I’d like to try making these for a coworker’s birthday, but I have 2 questions. First, is there anyway to toast the top if I don’t have a torch? Second, how far in advance could I make all or any of the components? Thanks!
Xiaolu – Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I was on vacation. I don’t know if you could torch them without a torch… I know for creme brulee you can use a broiler, but it doesn’t work so well. I wouldn’t make these too far in advance. We noticed the cupcakes going stale within a day or two.
Hi again, Jen! I didn’t end up making these until tonight. They taste good, but this was my first time making SMBC and I think I did something wrong. It’s funny, my buttercream never broke/curdled when I added the butter and I heard slapping noises almost immediately. But it was too soft to pipe, so I chilled it then rewhipped. Unfortunately, the SMBC softened again pretty quickly and also started looking a little curdled. Do you have any idea what I might’ve done wrong? Could the meringue have been too warm still when I added the butter? Thanks again!
Xiaolu
Xiaolu – Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I’m no expert on SMBC, but your butter may have been too soft. It should be just at room temp. I would definitely check out this tutorial on SMBC. I found it very helpful when I was first starting to make SMBC.
I’ve made these cupcakes, and they are amazing, but when I use my creme brulee torch to carmelize the sugar, the frosting melted and slid off the cupcake. To get around this, I carmelized the brown sugar on a piece of tinfoil and then placed the pieces on top of the frosting. I tried using a smaller flame, holding the torch further away from the cupcake, and even froze the cupcake with the frosting for a little bit, but nothing would stop the frosting from melting off. Am I doing something wrong?
Tonya, It’s been a while since I made these, but I do remember that the first one I did, the frosting melted off. After that I had Hubby do the torching and he just kept the flame further away from the frosting. We also let the set before moving them once they had been torched. Sorry that you’re having so much trouble with the recipe. But it sounds like you may have found a solution.
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