Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red Velvet
I love Red Velvet. It's so hard to explain the flavor of this ever-so-popular cake flavor but it sure is delicious. Even better, the cake is a gorgeous red color. And the cream cheese frosting is white. Red and white? Happy Canada Day! Am I ever proud to call myself Canadian! Since July 1st is Canada's birthday I figured some Red Velvet Cuppies would be the perfect celebratory dessert.
Ingredients
The recipe calls for buttermilk and cake/pastry flour. Make sure you have these before hand!
Jimmies
Ingredients
Sprinkles

I love jimmies. They are so much fun! Especially when they are all one color. How cute.

Tins
Red Color
You will also need red food coloring. The liquid kind. And lots of it. You may feel like using less but your cupcakes/cake won't have that traditional red color that makes Red Velvet so unique. And try to avoid wearing white when making these cupcakes! I use cake and pastry flour from Fortinos.
Molds
When the cupcakes are baking, you can prepare your chocolate maple leaves (or whatever other chocolate molds you are creating). Put a handful of wavers in a microwave-safe bowl and on intervals of 10-15 seconds, melt the wavers until smooth and creamy. Be careful not to leave the wavers in the microwave for too long as they will burn and then you will have to throw them out (I've done THAT before).
Chocolate Leaves
Gently tap your spoon over the mold wells so only a small amount of chocolate spoons in. Then use the tip of the spoon or a knife, spread the chocolate to the edges of the shape. I've tried this technique with squeeze bottles but I find the chocolate gets too hard to melt and stir, and ultimately the chocolate always ends up burning. Unless you are making free form designs to transfer from wax paper to your desserts, a spoon will work quite perfectly.


Now take a look at that color!

Cupcake
Favorite
For the frosting you'll need two packages of cream cheese and half a cup of unsalted butter. This batch makes a ton of frosting which is nice; you'll be able to make big swirls on your cupcakes without running out!

Sugar

And you are going to need icing sugar; and lots of it!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Once the frosting is ready you can frost to your liking and sprinkle away! Festive huh?
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Delicious!!
Happy Canada Day
Here they are with swirls made by a simple round tip and topped with the chocolate maple leaves. How Canadian is that! I think these turned out adorable and I am quite happy with them.
Happy Canada Day
Happy Canada Day
Happy 142nd Birthday Canada!


I couldn't be more happy to call such a place home!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

(adapted from Pinch My Salt)
2 and a half cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 bottles red food coloring
half a cup unsalted room temp butter
1 and a half cups sugar
2 eggs large size
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, room temp
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 packages cream cheese at room temp
half a cup unsalted butter at room temp
2 - 3 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin pan with liners of your choice. In a large bowl sift together your flour, salt and baking powder. In a smaller-sized bowl combine your red food coloring and cocoa powder until a thick paste is achieved. Be very careful with this mixture as even a tiny drop will stain anything. In yet another bowl, beat your butter and sugar until fluffy and then one at a time, add your eggs. Scrape down the sides to get everything equally mixed.

Add in the color paste to the butter, sugar and egg mixture and beat well until the batter is a deep maroon color. Add a third of the flour mixture to the red batter and mix well. Then add half of the buttermilk and mix well with your hand mixer. Follow this sequence again with a third of the flour mixture, the last half of the buttermilk, and then finally the remainder of the flour. Mix well until all of the flour is blended in.

In a small cup create a paste with the vinegar and baking soda. Mix into the batter and then spoon the mixture into your cupcake wells. Fill liners about two thirds full. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are baking, you can prepare your cream cheese frosting. In a large bowl, cream your cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and half a cup of sugar at a time, until your desired sweetness is reached. Throw in a pinch of salt if the frosting is too sweet. Spread, pipe or decorate on your cupcakes and enjoy!

Happy Baking, and until next time, Rhiannon

P.S. My cupcakes were featured on Cupcakes Take The Cake! I am so excited!

19 Lovely Comments:

Justin said...

I don't make these nearly as pretty as you do. It's a great series of photos.

My Trendy Tykes said...

Ok, that's it....I am packing up and moving to Canada!

When I do, Can I have some of these yummy cupcakes???

Happy Canada Day!

theUngourmet said...

Another Gorgeous Post! I love Red Velvet Cupcakes. I do love those little sprinkles all in one color!

I BLEED PINK said...

Your blog is turning out to be so great...your going to be giving Bakerella a run for her money soon...just remember us little people when you get BIG!!!

Suzi said...

Beautiful photos. They look better than mine did. I made some for my 6 yr. old for his end of the year party at school. They were a hit! Very yummy!

Happy Birthday to Cananda!

Rhiannon Bosse said...

Justin - Thanks! I am sure you do great!

Linda - Come on over :) My mom would love to get them out of the house! haha

Kim - Thanks girlfriend!

IBP - haha I would never forget you :) Donèt you worry. Thanks for your sweet comments!

Suzi - Thank you so much! I bet yours looked just fabulous!

Anonymous said...

These look yummy!

Anonymous said...

Simply beautiful!

Donna-FFW said...

Good Lord Holy Cow and Pop Goes the Weasel.. do these ever look so gorgeous. I am highly impressed. Absolute loveliness and I bet they taste so very delicious!! Perfectly executed.

Unknown said...

rhi, these are so cute and look so yummy! you're making me hungry!!

Cher said...

oh these are soo cute! Definately the cutest of ALL those featured on cupcakes take the cake site.

And, I have a story to tell you. It's gonna be a book. Ready?
So, hubby and I drove to Alaska to work for a summer a few years back. We had to go through Canada to do so. It was very early Spring (which tends to be on the late winter side in northern canada). So, we were advised to call ahead to make sure there were open gas stations, etc. Well, me being from northern Montana (and traveling to Canada often) thought aww..I know what I'm dealing with. BUT...as we got more north, I decided that calling ahead wouldn't be such a bad idea as we had planned on driving through the night. WELL...we had my brother back down in the states call for gas stations somewhere in the Yukon. He called us back to say that he could not understand their language. I said..."WHAT...canadians speak english, you dip!" Well....we get to the place he was talking about several hours later and sure enough...I could hardly understand a lick of what they were saying! BUT, I did hear "ya know.." so I know they were speaking English. Then we drive into "Moose Row" in the Yukon in the middle of the night...looked like something out of the Blair Witch Project. I have never looked at Canada the same since. :)
*and, and we almost hit about 20,000 caribou, got a speeding ticket from one cop, sped away from another cop, and got lost trying to find the frickin' edmonton mall!(There's no signs!!) Honestly, I'm afraid to go back...

BUT, your cupcakes are making me feel a little better about Canada. Congratulations. (again, sorry for the book...and I meant no insult to Canada, just wanted to share my story)

Lucy said...

All the photos are so beautiful! The colour in your cupcakes is amazing - great baking skills :D
Happy Birthday Canada!

Julia said...

Suzi makes these every year too but not for Canada Day!! I mean we are residents of the U.S. :P

But happy birthday to your country instead.

Rhiannon Bosse said...

RW - Thanks so much my friend!

Donna - Thanks girlfriend!

Ash - You're the best :)

Cher - Your story is HILARIOUS haha I love it. The great north is a tad different than where most of us Canadians live haha Here in Toronto it's like Chicago :) That's too funny! Come visit and I'll show you around!

Lucy - Thanks girl. You're too kind!

Julia - Thank you :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated Canada Day! I'm glad that you had a great day! Your cupcakes look great! :)

Claire said...

Man Alive, those look beautiful!!! I'm not a huge fan of too much frosting, but I must admit it adds prettiness!!! Can I request a couple more gf recipes please? I'm wheat intolerant and much as I love testing out recipes to switch them to wheat-free, I can't do it every time!!

Hanaâ said...

Love the swirl on your cupcakes and the maple leaf choc decoration! Happy belated Canada Day!

Bobbi & Noe said...

I love your blog! My husband wants these for his birthday! What exactly is icing sugar? Is it the same as powdered sugar? Might be a dumb question, but I've never heard of it.

Thas said...

Yayyy, today, I baked these red cuppy cakes, it came out pretty gud nd was delicious, my husband loved it. Only thing that I altered was, instead of 2 bottles of red color, I just added 1/2 bottle color to 1tbsp cocoa powder, even ths gave a vibrant red color to the batter. Is 2 bottles of color really required? Don't get me wrong here, I know am just a novice baker:)..Also, do you mind if I blog about this recipe on my website, obviously will include ur blog link, lemme know.