Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe

Your search for perfect red velvet cupcakes ends here! These red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing are soft, sweet -and vividly red of course! Perfect for parties, picnics or just for an extra special afternoon tea.

See the full step-by-step guide below the ingredients. I have mentioned every single step so even kids (or inexperienced bakers) can make these yummy treats.

Do I need any special equipment to make red velvet cupcakes?

The short answer is no. But having the right equipment always helps to make a baking job easier and neater. Some things are always more important than others. I recommend getting these two things before starting to bake:

Weighing scale. I use a digital weighing scale because it’s small and easily fits into a drawer -which is helpful when my kitchen storage is filled with all my cake decorating equipment! It can also measure tiny amounts more accurately which is helpful for some recipes. They are surprisingly inexpensive to buy and are available on Amazon.in from Rs 349/- onwards.

Muffin tray or silicon moulds. I have always used the silicon moulds because they are easy to store and does the job perfectly. It can, however, be a problem to get the cupcake liners to fit (as seen on my pictures below as well). I recommend getting it all in an actual baking shop, so you know what you get. Otherwise I have recently found that these cupcake liners fit perfectly with this amazon muffin tray. Yay!

You can also easily make cupcakes without any mould and just use the liners. But be aware that they WILL spread out a bit more and be a little less compact and pretty.

Use the best ingredients for red velvet cupcakes.

Butter. I always use the regular Amul butter. It works for all recipes and adds that little salt to it so you never have to add extra yourself. If you want to use unsalted butter, then I recommend adding a pinch of salt to the batter.

Baking soda and baking powder. In my experience, some brands are better than others. I use weikfield as it never leaves any bitter aftertaste and never fails to work as it should.

Cream cheese for the icing. Philadelphia cream cheese is a great option, but it can be expensive in India so if you want a cheaper option, then go for one that is least cheesy and more mild in the flavour. The cheesy flavour should not really be there at all.

The food colour. I always use magic food gel colours. They colour exactly as they should and leave no unwanted flavour. They also don’t dry out if not used for a while. You can also make them other colours if, say, blue velvet cupcakes fit into your theme more than red ones.

For our Harry Potter Party I made this recipe in the 4 house colours; red, blue, green and yellow. My double chocolate muffins are also perfect for parties (but they cannot be coloured)

I decorated the cupcakes with coloured cream cheese icing in the same house colours. You can see the colours of the red/blue/yellow/green velvet muffins underneath peaking through.

Yield: You get approximately 20-24 cupcakes depending on the size of your mould.