Watch me make these easy red velvet cupcakes from start to finish!
My red velvet cake recipe is one of the most popular recipes on this blog. Recently I used my red velvet cake recipe to make red velvet cupcakes and wasn’t too thrilled with the texture anymore. (I get bored quick with a lot of things) They were too light and fluffy, yes that’s totally possible.
Great for a cake, not so good for cupcakes baked in paper liners. It could have been a user error since I know so many of you guys have raved about how good of a cupcake that batter makes. If you are content with it then, by all means, continue using that recipe.
Hoooowever, I like my cupcakes to be light, fluffy yet have some density to them so that they don’t tear apart at all when you pull off the paper. I remedied this situation easily with the one-bowl mixing method, reducing the amount of oil and changing the ingredients ever so slightly. I also made sure I didn’t overfill the cupcake liners.
The results: Perfectly soft yet sturdy, super moist and delicious red velvet cupcakes with the perfect “is this is a box cake?” texture and classic, southern red velvet taste.
These red velvet cupcakes are finished off with a super easy 3-ingredient cream cheese frosting and a sprinkling of pecan pieces. Easy, peasy, delicious!
Easy Red Velvet Cupckes
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 oz red food coloring
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- FROSTING
- 1 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 tablespoons butter softened at room temperature (do not melt)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F
- In a large bowl mix together sugar and oil until well combined.
- Beat in eggs until mixture is uniform in color.
- Add in buttermilk, vanilla extract and food coloring.
- Mix until well combined.
- Mix in hot water and distilled vinegar.
- Add flour.
- Mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and add to bowl.
- Add in cocoa powder.
- Mix to combine all ingredients.
- Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Pour 1/4 cup of batter into each liner.
- Bake to 18-20 minutes or until tops are spongey to the touch. (do not over cook. SEET NOTE*)
- Remove from oven and let cupcakes sit in pan for 5 minutes.
- Place cupcakes on a cooling wrack to finish cooling.
- Make the frosting by creaming together cream cheese and butter. Slowly add in powdered sugar and beat until creamy.
Video
Notes
I’ve love your RV cake and cupcakes for years! Curious, why did you leave the coffee out of the cupcakes & only use hot water?
This is the best Red Velvet Recipe ever. Every time that I use this recipe the cupcakes come out extremely moist.
Thank You Monique
If I wanted to make mini cupcakes, does the baking times and temp change?
The best red velvet cupcake recipe I’ve ever !!
My batter was so liquidy I almost threw it out! They turned out fine and rose nicely. Fluffy, airy, and light. However, the reaction of the sour ingredients and the baking powder/soda caused the cupcake to rise so much that it pushed all the food coloring to the top. I’ve never had that happen before in baking other goods!
I also felt like they needed more cocoa powder. And given the liquid nature of the batter, my cocoa powder did not blend well. It turned chunky and made the cupcake spotty. If I was to remake this recipe, I’d increase the cocoa powder and sift it into the mixture.
Wow, yeah I’ve never had food coloring in a recipe get pushed to the top while baking.
These cupcakes come out delicious every time, I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback after serving these. About half of the time though, I have problems with the middle sinking and the wrappers pulling away. They still taste great but are less presentable and a little more dense in the middle. I follow the directions the same way ever time, do you know what could be causing this and how to avoid it?
I dont have buttermilk. What can I do?