Red Velvet Cupcakes

With all of the same flavors as classic Red Velvet Cake, these Red Velvet Cupcakes are faster to make all topped with cream cheese frosting!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword red velvet cupcakes

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Total Time 45

Servings cupcakes

Calories 274kcal

Author Katie Cooksey

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil or canola oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 egg white
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 teaspoons liquid red food coloring see notes below

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For the Red Velvet Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tin with liners and/or spray well with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together to combine. Set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, stir buttermilk, vanilla, vinegar, and red food coloring. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, mix oil and sugar together until combined. Mix in eggs and egg white, one at a time, until the mixture becomes lighter in color, about 90 seconds.
Alternate adding in flour mixture with milk mixture, being sure to start and end with flour. Scrape the sides and mix again to ensure a smooth batter.
Divide evenly between the cupcake wells. Bake 15-22 minutes in the lower 2/3rds of the oven. The cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Cool 15-20 minutes in the cupcake tin before trying to invert on cooling racks. Once you can handle the warm pans with your bare hands, you can flip them out. Cool completely before frosting and decorating.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together. You want them very soft, at room temperature so they cream nicely together and create a smooth frosting. Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and very slowly start to incorporate. At first, it will seem like too much-powdered sugar, but as long as your butter and cream cheese were soft, it should combine. Once the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase speed to whip for 1-2 minutes or until light and fluffy. If it still seems too stiff to use as frosting, add in 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream.

Notes

If you’d like a brighter red cake, use more red food coloring. Some recipes use a full 1 oz bottle, but I’d suggest using half that amount, 0.5 oz, at most. It can leave an unpleasant aftertaste, so I like to limit it. If this doesn’t bother you, go nuts with the food coloring.

Nutrition