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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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What Are The Red Candy Melts For?
You melt them and then use them to make the red hearts on top of the cupcakes.
I see that you have two red velvet cupcake recipes posted, one with chocolate cream cheese and one with the regular cream cheese topping.
However, there are also slight differences in cake recipe. Which one would you recommend? These ones look much more bright and red than the ones from previous recipe.
Both are good. The reason for the others being darker is they have a little bit more cocoa in them. You can adjust that to your preference. If you like a little more chocolate flavor, you can use the extra cocoa but they will be darker. Neither is wrong, it’s really preference. As for other differences, the other cupcakes (with regular cream cheese frosting) have a good bit more liquid/oil in them, which not everyone seems to care for. However, this recipe seems to sometimes give people issues, where the other one seems more reliable. The flavor and moisture between them is similar, aside from the difference in cocoa.
The best cupcakes I have ever had in my life. They are easy to make and convenient. Everyone loves these and I use different colors to make them festive.
This is a great frosting recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Hi from London, do I have to add all that water as the last few times I’ve tried it’s left my cakes doughy & a strong taste of soda & baking powder
I add the water and don’t have any problems. Reducing the water will of course change the result you get. But if you’ve made these cupcakes and had trouble before, then you could try reducing it and see what happens.
Hi,
Is it 2 teaspoons or 2 tablespoons of cacao powder?
Teaspoons
If I double the frosting recipe, will it work for a 4 layer 6 inch cake?
Yes, it should.
Hey!
I was wondering, could i use apple cider vineger instead of white vineger?
That should be fine.
Love all your Recipes! I would really love to try these out is it possible for you to convert the cups into grams for those of us who like to use food scales please!
I actually have a handy little conversion chart you could use.
I’d love it you could share it with me that would be fantastic
You can find it here – https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/conversion-chart/
Hi. Can I make this into an 8’ cake? Tried the cupcakes and they were amazinggg. I want to stick to the recipe.
Hi, Could I use Cake Flour instead? If so, what would be the measurement?
I haven’t tried it, but I think it should be fine.
I rarely write on posts and gosh are these the best ever and 👏🏼 I 👏🏼 Just 👏🏼 Have 👏🏼 To 👏🏼 Comment 👏🏼 😭🥰💕 15mins after they’ve cooled and i’ve already eaten 5 😭 thank you so much for the recipe!
Awesome! So glad you’re enjoying them!
hi, I do not get buttermilk where I live. How do I make it?
Here you go!
Mam i don’t use butter milk i just put vinegar into milk thats my buttermilk. So according_to your recipes do i need to use vinegar separate also. Ex. in your recipe you mention buttermilk and vinegar.
I’ve never used the substitute in a red velvet cake before, but I’d think you’d want to add the vinegar to the milk before adding it to the cake, in addition to using the vinegar called for.
Can i use cake flour and if so how much
I haven’t tried cake flour with this cake, but you could try it. I would use the same amount.
I made them today, just added Hershey’s kisses in each cupcake. Loved loved loved the cream cheese frosting
That sounds yummy! I’m so glad you enjoyed!