Special occasions call for incredible cupcakes like these red velvet cupcakes. What I love about this recipe is that they are fancy enough to serve at an event or party and no more difficult than any other cupcake recipe.
In just a couple of weeks, I’ll be celebrating my 13th Wedding Anniversary by hosting a party for family and friends at the historic Columns Hotel in New Orleans, the same place we got married.
You’d think that figuring out what to serve for dessert would be easy, quite the opposite! This time around, I wanted something different and fun, and that’s when my daughter suggested we serve cupcakes to our guests.
After a few weeks of testing different recipes, we all agreed that red velvet cupcakes were the winners. We decided to make these ourselves, in batches, with our favorite flour from Bob’s Red Mill, our partners for today’s recipe.
In the past, I’ve shared our favorite birthday cupcakes that can be made with regular flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-Free Baking Flour. We’ll be making a few batches of the recipe that are gluten-free to accommodate some of our guests with gluten allergies at the party. Whether you make this recipe with their regular four or the 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour, the measurements will be the same.
So back to these incredible cupcakes. The red velvet flavor has a special meaning in our celebration. When we got married, we chose the top layer of our cake to be red velvet. On our first anniversary, my husband and I took it out of the freezer and sat cross-legged on our living room floor where we proceeded to share that top layer and reminisced over our first year together.
As you can imagine this recipe has really come full circle. The cupcake and frosting recipes come from my auntie Colleen, who shared it with me years ago. I’ve made it a few times before for special occasions as a cake, and it’s always devoured by our guests.
If you plan on making these cupcakes for a special occasion and want to make them ahead of time, you can bake and freeze the finished cupcake for up to 2 weeks and frost them the day before the event (as I plan on doing. Bob’s Red Mill’s flour yields perfectly moist cupcakes in this recipe, whether you bake them fresh or ahead of time. Now, the only thing left to do is figure out how to create a beautiful serving table big enough to accommodate 180 cupcakes!
Given that I’ll be making 15 or more dozen cupcakes, I had to figure out a way to simplify the process. Sifting is key to give these cupcakes that light and fluffy texture we all love. Skipping the sifting and making it all in a single bowl yielded denser cupcakes, which are still really good but some rose more as they were baking than others.
Whether you are celebrating an anniversary like me, or a birthday, or you just want to bake delicious cupcakes for your family and friends, I hope you enjoy this incredible recipe that has been in my family for a few years and that we absolutely love.
What’s your favorite cupcake flavor?
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cake flour, (not self- rising) sifted
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups vegetable oilCrisco Vegetable Oil Pure
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon red gel-paste food color
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
- Cream Cheese Frosting
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
- With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
- Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
- Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
- While the cupcakes are baking make the cream cheese frosting. Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla; mix until smooth.
- Transfer cupcake tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
- To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.
Notes
If you are looking for a natural food coloring option, this is the brand I use.
For a gluten-free version, we used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Floursuccessfully, minus 3 tablespoons flour (about 2 ¼ cups + 1 tablespoon)
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From time to time, I work with awesome companies to develop recipes for this website. Today’s post was brought to you by Bob’s Red Mill. All opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that encourage my creativity.
Amy J.
Favorite cupcake might be my Mom’s black-bottom cupcakes – I don’t know exactly what flavor you’d call it, but it involves chocolate, chocolate chips, and cream cheese :D.
Patti
I’m kind of partial to my mom’s carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Mom and Dad got the recipe while on their honeymoon in Florida in 1964 (52 years ago!). She still makes it every year for Daddy’s birthday in January…..oh yeah except that one year when mommy broke her elbow and Daddy had to make his own……lol…..Daddy never let’s that ONE year go…..but the cake gets better every year!!
Happy 13th Anniversary to you both!!
Jen L
Lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting are my favorites but I haven’t found a gluten free recipe for them yet though 🙁 maybe I’ll try the Bob’s one for one flour!
Laura Fuentes
Bob’s Red Mill is an easy switch for your recipes. If the texture it too watery, just add an extra tablespoon of flour.
Susan
My favorite is a chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese chocolate chip filling that gets baked right in. Moist, dense and rich…so they don’t need to be frosted. (A huge time saver!) AND I can make them more festive by coloring the cream cheese filling according to the event…orange, green, red, pink.
Laura Fuentes
Sounds heavenly. 🙂
Denise
I can never pass up a carrot cake cupcake 😉
Cathy
I love a basic chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting (NOT devil’s food or German chocolate, just regular chocolate, LOL). And I use whole wheat pastry flour almost exclusively in my kitchen so thank you for the giveaway!
Marie
I really like chocolate cake pan cake (sorry Bob, I use the one on King Arthur’s site 🙂 ). I discovered it because we need an egg free dairy free recipe for my son due to his allergies. Now that I am eating GF, I really want to try Bob’s 1 for 1 GF flour.
Alex
I’m a sucker for a dark chocolate cupcake topped with salted caramel frosting. Cream cheese frosting is my second favorite though!
Nicole Norris
I work at a homeless youth shelter @360kidshomebase and just today one of the youth said she wanted to make red velvet cupcakes with me – but sadly don’t have the ingredients …yet… 🙂 my favourite cupcake flavour is vanilla with butter cream frosting and sprinkles!
Jordan Troublefield
I’ve actually never used Bobs Red Mill before but looking at the products I’m super impressed! I’m helping bake for Thanksgiving and I know this year we will have some people who have Dietary Restrictions- Gonna have to try the Gluten Free Flour!! Favorite cupcake flavor is a Tres Leches cupcake- AMAZING!!
★★★★★
Laura Fuentes
Tres Leches! OMG yes. That one *almost* made the cut but I got voted out LOL
Heidi
I love vanilla or strawberry flavored cupcakes and frosting!
Tina
My favorite is easily dark chocolate cupcakes with coconut frosting! A family recipe passed down from my grandmother!
Veronica Hall
My favorite cupcake flavor would be carrot. With a cream cheese frosting!! 🙂
★★★★★
Faika
Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. Yum!!
★★★★★
Kimberly Reiter
My kids love poppy seed cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, but I’m certain they would eat anything with frosting on it.
★★★★★
Laura Fuentes
While some people rave about how good a cake recipe might be… I too swear that it’s all about the frosting.
Katie Glowicki
Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting are my favorite!
Olga @ mangotomato
Omg those look amazing. And I don’t have to give you my first born to win?
I’m between a chocolate cupcake or carrot cake but I’d happily eat one of these!
Caterina Bacarella
Red velvet with cream cheese frosted is one of my favorites BUT my absolute favorite is dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. Tastes like a peanut butter cup!!
Jennifer C
I love chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing. Simple but yummy!