Homemade Red Velvet Cupcakes

Where Did Red Velvet Cake Come From?

Some people think that red velvet cake originated from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, while others believe it originated with the Adams Extract Company, by being one of the first companies to sell red food coloring.

During World War II, certain foods were being rationed, like butter and sugar, so bakers would use beet juice or boiled beets to enhance the color of the cake. The beet juice acted as a way to keep the cakes moist.

These days you don’t see too many red velvet recipes listing beets as an ingredient. Instead, they call for red food coloring to give it that nice vibrant red color.

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What’s In Red Velvet Cupcakes?

You’ve probably seen the more traditional red velvet cupcakes with buttermilk and white vinegar—my recipe is a slightly different version of this classic that uses sour cream. Here’s the breakdown of what ingredients are needed.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Dry Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• Baking soda

Wet Ingredients

• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Sour cream
• Milk
• Red food coloring

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Unsalted Butter
• Cream Cheese
• Clear Imitation Vanilla Extract
• Sifted Powdered Sugar

If you’re looking for a red velvet cake recipe with buttermilk, check out my Single Layer Red Velvet Cake recipe! Or, for those of you wanting to use up more sour cream, I highly recommend my Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake, Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, or my Devil’s Food Cupcakes!

Substitutions

Milk. For the milk in this red velvet cupcakes recipe, you can use any dairy milk. I’ve made these using 1%, fat-free, and lactose-free 1% milk. I did not test this recipe using any non-dairy milk.

Sour Cream. You can sub in the same amount of plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream.

Vanilla Extract. For the cream cheese frosting, you can choose to use pure vanilla extract instead of the clear imitation extract. The reason I used this in the frosting recipe was to help keep the frosting whiter.

I did not test this homemade red velvet cupcakes recipe using any alternative flour, cocoa powders, sugars, or egg substitutes.

Let’s Make the Recipe!

Here is a quick overview of how to make these easy red velvet cupcakes.

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together. This includes all-purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, and baking soda.
2. Mix the wet ingredients together. Start with the unsalted butter and granulated sugar, then add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream.
3. Bring it all together. Alternate between adding the whisked dry ingredients with the milk until it’s all used. Mix it together until just combined.
4. Bust out the red food coloring. The more red food coloring you use, your red velvet cupcakes will be more vibrant. I highly recommend wearing rubber gloves when you add the food coloring too. Nothing sucks more than having your fingers dyed red for days.

If you mix the red food coloring with your mixer, do so on low speed. Alternatively, you can stir the food coloring in with a spatula. Either way, be cautious not to over-mix the batter.

How to Make Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting

This cream cheese frosting has a nice whipped consistency and does well when piped into cupcakes!

To make this cream cheese frosting, you’ll start by beating the unsalted butter and the cream cheese together. Then you’ll add in the vanilla extract.

Stop your mixer to add in the powdered sugar, then mix on low speed until it all comes together. Then up your mixer speed to medium-high and mix it for about 3-4 minutes to give it a nice whipped consistency.

Decorating Your Homemade Red Velvet Cupcakes

When it comes time to decorate your homemade red velvet cupcakes, you can apply the frosting in 2 ways:

Offset spatula. This is the easiest way to decorate the cupcakes. You may find that when using this method, you have some leftover frosting.

Decorating tip. While this can be slightly intimidating to some, this is a relatively easy method for applying cream cheese frosting.

I suggest using a large decorating tip, like the Wilton 1A decorating tip, with a large piping bag, as I did with this recipe. The Wilton 1A tip is also known as the open tip or open circle tip. A smaller alternative you can try is the 2A decorating tip.

How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting Look Whiter

Cream cheese frosting can sometimes give off a yellowish tint which isn’t always the look we’re going for. To get your cream cheese frosting whiter, here are a few suggestions that have worked well for me.

Start with the Butter. This really applies more to when you have a larger amount of butter in your recipe, but I still felt it was important to mention. The longer you beat the butter before adding anything else, the less it will have that yellowish tint to it. Because we’re working with such a small amount (2 tablespoons) in this red velvet cupcakes recipe, you won’t need to worry about this.

Swap Out the Vanilla Extract. When you use pure vanilla extract, the brownish color can tint the cream cheese frosting, which doesn’t really help make it whiter. You can instead use a clear imitation vanilla extract.

Use a White Icing Color. For those really want a bright white frosting, I recommend trying Wilton’s White White Icing Color. It works well, and I know some professional cake artists that like to use it.

Purple Food Coloring. Another suggestion that you can try to get your cream cheese frosting whiter is to add a teeny tiny amount of purple food dye to the butter at the beginning of making the frosting.

And by teeny tiny, I mean taking a toothpick and adding just a dab of the color. Any more, and you could wind up with light lavender color icing, which is probably not what you’re going for.

I haven’t tried this with cream cheese frosting, but I have with buttercream frosting.