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These Red Velvet Cupcakes are super moist and topped with a delicious chocolate cream cheese frosting! They’d be great for any time, but with some super cute heart decorations, these babies are all decked out for Valentine’s Day!
The Best Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
I wouldn’t necessarily say that Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays that I get all pumped up about. It’s kind of a lot of effort to get all jazzed up over candy I don’t need to eat, stuffed animals I don’t need in my house and loooonnnggg wait times at restaurants. I can kind of get on board with flowers, but honestly they’re great any time of year, right?
Occasionally we’ll do cards just to take a moment to be all lovely and gushy and puke our love all over each other. 😉 But since we’re expecting two little bundles of love just before Valentine’s Day, we are basically ignoring it this year. If anything, I will get a couple cute onesies for their first Valentine’s Day and be done with it. Milestones, my friends. I’m on it.
Plus, I’m thinking holidays will be cuter with kids. What do you think? Am I wrong? It’s totally possible. But take these cupcakes for example. Totally adult appropriate, but also super fun for kids. I mean, sprinkles and edible toppers? Too fun. I’m hoping the kid thing is all sprinkles and chocolate. 😉
Well, at least if I’m wrong I can still make these cupcakes and pretend.
And as far as making these cupcakes goes, they may look fancy but they are easy to make! The cupcakes themselves are made by combining the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients (minus the water) and then combining them together. Then you add the water and you’re done! You really wouldn’t even need a mixer, if you didn’t want to bother. A big whisk would do the job just fine. A thin batter makes mixing easy.
The frosting is a chocolate cream cheese. You could totally leave out the cocoa and add in a bit more powdered sugar for a regular cream cheese frosting if you like. I just decided to change things up and add some chocolate. It pairs well with the red velvet and chocolate is yummy, so I went for it. But either would be delicious.
Once the frosting is added, the sides of the frosting are dipped into sprinkles and the cupcakes are topped with cute little hearts. I made the hearts with red candy melts, which are super easy to work with and dry nice and firm. You could even make other shapes, or little words like I did with the “love” on these strawberry cupcakes. So many options! No matter what though, these cupcakes are super moist, fluffy and totally delicious! A great treat to share – or keep to yourself!
Watch How To Make Them
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Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 47 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Cupcakes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Red Velvet Cupcakes are super moist and topped with a delicious chocolate cream cheese frosting!
Ingredients
RED VELVET CUPCAKES
- 1 1/4 cup (163g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (207g) sugar
- 1 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp (14g) natural unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 2 tsp red food coloring
- 1/2 cup (120ml) hot water
CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 8 oz (226g) cream cheese, room temperature
- 6 tbsp (86g) salted butter, room temperature
- 4 cups (460g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup (57g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Sprinkles
- 3 oz red candy melts
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare a cupcake pan with liners.
2. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking powder, cocoa and salt to a large mixer bowl and combine. Set aside.
3. Add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, eggs, vinegar and red food coloring to a medium sized bowl and combine.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
5. Slowly add the hot water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined.
6. Fill the cupcake liners about half way and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
7. Remove the cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
8. To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter with a mixer until smooth.
9. Add about half of the powdered sugar, cocoa and vanilla extract and mix until smooth and well combined.
10. Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
11. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I used Ateco tip 808 to create the swirl.
12. Press some sprinkles onto the sides of the frosting. I used a small bowl for the sprinkles and lightly pressed the cupcake into the sprinkles.
13. To create the cupcake toppers, add the red candy melts to a small sized bowl and melt according to package instructions.
14. Using a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 4 tip, pipe the melted candy into hearts of varying sizes. I mostly went with two sizes – one a little bigger than the other. Allow them to dry and harden, then add a couple hearts to the top of each cupcake.
15. Refrigerate cupcakes until ready to serve. Cupcakes are best when kept in an air tight container for 3-4 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cupcake
- Calories: 370
- Sugar: 47.5 g
- Sodium: 299 mg
- Fat: 14.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 59 g
- Protein: 4.2 g
- Cholesterol: 37.4 mg
Categories
Enjoy!
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This recipe just replaced the one i’ve been using for almost 4 years. It’s that good! I didn’t have buttermilk so i just made my own (1cup milk + 1tbsp vinegar) and then followed everything. It didn’t dome, it wasn’t flat and didn’t crack! The sweetness is just right, i can eat this without frosting too. I really love it! Even my mom who doesn’t like rv gave me a thumbs up! Thank you!♡
Can’t wait to try your moist vanilla cupcakes next!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks Marion!
Hi guys! Emailing from the UK here! I tried this recipe and it worked amazingly well. I put the cupcakes in the fridge and took them out, had a bite and they were still soft and springy with a good crumb. I really want to make this into a 8 inch triple layer, quite high. Can I ask, can I triple this recipe?
I love this blog! Cannot wait to try other things!
I’m so glad enjoyed the cupcakes! I have never tripled the recipe, so I don’t know exactly. As long as the cake layers aren’t super thick, I’d think they’d bake fine though.
i made 2 batches but i added 1 block of butter on the final mixture but it made it so airy. im going to try it again with just your recipe.
How did you get the sponge red?? I put in the food colouring as you said but because you also said to put cocoa powder in, the sponge just went a sludge colour! x
There’s just a small amount of cocoa. It does darken the red, but it should still be red. I used McCormick red food coloring.
Hello! Do you use gas oven or electric? Is gas oven good for baking pastries like cupcakes or cakes?
Yes, I use a gas oven.
What red food coloring did you used? The gel one or the liquid red food coloring? I have the gel one, can I use it instead?
In these cupcakes, I used McCormick liquid red food coloring.
I made the triple lemon cakes. My granddaughter and her half sister were bonding and wanted to bake together. They were amazing! This is the first cookbook where the recipes are true! Usually have to make one time and fix it the second time. Bought your book and I am so glad I did! Best wishes for you and yours!????????
I made the triple lemon cupcakes it should read. Anyway, they were fabulous!
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the cupcakes and are loving the book! Thanks Jeannette!
I made these last night. I used dark cocoa. They are amazing!!!
How do I make the red hearts? Or I should say what ingredients to get them to freeze and stay like that?
The ingredients and instructions are included in the recipe above. You can also see a quick bit of it in the video above the recipe.
If I don’t have vegetable oil can I replace it with butter? If so how much?
I haven’t tried it with this particular recipe, but I don’t think it’d turn out quite right.
Thank You Lindsay for inspire me, to find the Bible passage of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. It’s also scripture I love. How nice it is to know that someone else also enjoy in Bible. I assume You are Christian too. God bless You. Milka.
These look awesome! How fast did that time go….can’t believe your sweet babes are almost here! Can’t wait to see them! Praying all goes well for you when the time comes! God Bless!
Thank you so much Dena!
Yum, these looks amazing. I am putting on the pounds just thinking about biting into them. Yummy!
is this recipe only fotlr cupcake? or i can make it to a small round cake? like 5 or 6 inches round
It should work just fine as a cake. You may or may not want to double it, depending on how big of a cake you want.
Adorable cupcakes and look delicious. IMO, holidays are way more fun w kiddos.
I don’t think you can beat red velvet with cream cheese frosting! And your decorations are super cute!