Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting – perfect for a right royal knees up!
Ingredients:
Selection of royal cupcake cases
Cake
165g butter,softened
300g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, large
200g plain flour
70g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
20g cocoapowder
225ml milk
25ml vinegar
Red gel colour paste
Perfectly Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting
70g butter, softened
200g Philadelphia
400g icing sugar, sifted
Red white and blue sprinkles
Union jack mini flags
Makes 24 cupcakes – enough for a knees up!
Don’t let my photos confuse you I’m making a bigger batch for my Royal Wedding Street Party! I think its a combination made in heaven – red velvet cakes and cream cheese frosting – red velvet cupcakes are basically a devils food cake recipe with the amount of cocoa powder significantly reduced – just a hint of chocolatey taste with a strikingly vibrant colour.
Start off by measuring out the milk in a jug, add the 25ml of malt vinegar, give it a quick stir and leave it to stand until later.
Preheat the oven to 160c Fan/180c/Gas Mark 4.
Line cupcake pans with the cases.
Cream together the butter and the sugar.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.
Weigh out all the dry ingredients into a bowl together.
Now add the milk/vinegar and give the whole lot a good mix up.
Add some red food colouring to get the mixture nice and red, you will need a fair bit. I’m using gel colour which is much more economical. If you’re using bottled liquid colour you may need up to three bottles!
Fill the cupcake cases 2/3rds full and bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes until lightly browned on the tops (if you can tell because its red!)
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
Now for the cream cheese frosting, this is the perfect recipe for frosting that is pipeable and certainly not running all over the place but there are a few things to remember. I only ever work with Philadelphia Cream Cheese and full fat too. Other cheeses are available and may be cheaper however they don’t perform quite the same when you work with them.
The Philadelphia needs to be super cold, chilled in the fridge or placed in the freezer for ten minutes.
Drain off the liquid from the pack and discard it.
Beat the butter so it is super soft and ready to go. Add the Philadelphia and beat them together until combined. Don’t over beat – Cream cheese loosens and becomes more liquidy the more you beat it so less is best.
Sift in half the icing sugar and beat together, add the remaining half and mix again.
Now you should have perfectly pipeable delicious cream cheese frosting.
Pipe swirls using a piping bag and a large closed star tip onto the tops of the cooled red velvet cupcakes.
Add a swoosh of red white and blue sprinkles and top with a mini union jack.
Royal Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Frosting
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
Finalist on BBC2 The Great British Bake Off
I use red liquid food colouring for my red velvet cupcakes and I put about three tablespoons into my batter (for 12 cupcakes). I'm not that keen on red velvet cupcakes, I don't find they taste of anything but butter and sugar. My friends love them so it's probably just me
Ooh love these! I posted my Royal Wedding cupcakes yesterday, but sadly I'll be away in Brussels over the wedding day so can't bring them along to any street parties. I love your fancy cases!
very royal indeed
I've just bought some mini Union Jacks for Friday!
These look gorgeous. I want to make one big cake for the wedding-could I cook this recipe in a single cake tin, and if so what size?
I always have problems with my red velvet cakes, they seem to taste too 'vinegary' which vinegar do you use?
I love the mini flags – really cute. My husband only let me by some Union Jack baking cases if I'd promise to use them. I think that with the Royal Wedding, Jubilee and The Olympics they'll be lots of opportunities for patriotic celebrations! x
Ruth these look fantastic. Can they be made the day before?
where did you get the flags & cases i would love to make these!! :0)
My flags and cases came from The Works bookshop but Morrisons are selling them at the moment too.
These are fine to be made the day before too and keep very well x
The vinegar I use is normal malt vinegar x
Recipe will work fine in an 8" tin too – baking time I would say would be around 35 mins x
Red Velvet are one of my fave cupcakes to make, along with carrot cupcakes. Can't get enough of them!
Great Job on the Great British Wedding Cake by the way x
i wish id seen those cases and flags earlier, im working friday as im a student nurse and its my last day on placement in the childrens ward, but weve decorated our ward for the wedding and were gonna try and have a bit of a tea party for the wedding so i decided to make some cupcakes tomorrow for it. i looked all over town but i couldnt find anything like the cases or the flags though where i live so iv just decided to make some with blue, red and white buttercream (a different colour divided up between the cakes), and then dicorate them with little silver balls and chocolate hearts to make them a bit weddingey as well.
Hello,
thank you so much for giving a recipe for cream cheese icing that isn't sloppy! I've had so many problems with making this type of icing as it always seems to turn into a runny mess when I add icing sugar! I also stick to using philadelphia and I tend to just sweeten it with a bit of caster sugar. However, I will now try your version and see how it works out!
Claire
These Royal Wedding cupcakes are fantastic! I adore baking & love cupcakes and have seen so many companies/individuals baking Royal Wedding cupcakes – so many different designs & ideas!
I have never made cream cheese frosting before, does it keep well as i am always worried about not putting the cheese in the fridge?
Made them yesterday andt they were great! Love to batter and they came out realy light. Left few without frosting so we are eating them now for breakfast. Thank you!
Congratulations.
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We invite you to visit my blog, I hope you like my work and follow me. A hug from Spain.
O I agree – red velvet and cream cheese frosting are a match made for mouths and tummies, so appreciative if its deliciousness. I love your royal accoutrements!
I found your blog through Maison Cupcake – love it! Very festive cupcakes… And caught a glimpse of your raspberry marshmallows too.. Oh yum!
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i love this recipe and am currently using it in with my school work for in Food Tech. when i was told i had to change the cake part of a already existing recipe i new this would be the cake to choose and it has worked great
everytime i need a good cake recipe it will always be this one as it is so simple. i love it. Thanks
i love this recipe, it has quickly become one of my best and the most popular wiht my friends, i am currently in school and am using it within one of my food technology
I have made 100′s of cup cakes but I want to make red velvet cup cakes, so I thought I would try your recipe. the cake were light, moist but had no taste, which was very disappointing.
I tried the cream cheese frosting, but I don’t think it was my kind of thing, as I just didn’t like the taste. so I decided to make a chocolate orange frosting, which added flavour to the cakes.
Hello
I am looking for a red food colouring paste /gel for red velvet cupcake batter can you recommend any ?
Thanks
Julie
Red Extra by Sugarflair is the best for red velvet cupcakes x
Hi Ruth – just to say I love your website, feel like I have found a real gem coming across it
Also with your fantastic explanations you are now my authority in baking – I had a disastrous attempt at cream cheese icing for a carrot cake so turned to your website! Your recipe went swimmingly apart from at the end there were small blobs of butter that weren’t incorporated in the main body of the icing – any idea what I did wrong?
Best wishes
Carolyn
I’ve done that and it’s down to impatience! It’s when the butter isn’t soft enough to begin with and then when the cream cheese is added they won’t mix together well leaving the small blobs of butter. If it happens again leave it to warm a little more to room temp and then beat well to get the consistency even before adding the icing sugar. x
Hi Ruth, I am so sorry for the late reply but thank you so much for your advice – i’m not surprised impatience was the root of my problem!! Congratulations on the book – is full of great advice and recipes.
Thanks again
Carolyn x
Thank you Carolyn x
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I made the red velvet cupcakes for the first time & the recipe was so easy to follow they came out great & went down a storm at work!! That was also my first attempt at cream cheese frosting & apart from the small blobs of butter (& I now know why thanks to a previous message!) it was delicious! x
Hi Ruth,
I am going to make these for my engagement party, American fiance says they are his favourite! Can I freeze the cakes and frost later? Thanks!
Yes they freeze perfectly well x
Hey! Just tried making these and they turned out brown. My mix looked just like yours before going into the oven, but brown all the way through after 20 minutes. I used dr oetker red gel for the colouring, and put about a bottle & a half in, any ideas?
Hi Luke, the bottle colourings are not heat stable so the red will disappear on baking – you need to use a red gel paste colouring, here’s a link to some on Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sugarflair-Extra-Concentrated-Paste-Colour/dp/B005FL1C3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345749796&sr=8-1
Lovely recipe =]. Nice to find a recipe that uses normal milk instead of buttermilk too! And nice to find a british recipe so that it’s all in grams not cups lol. I used aldi’s cream cheese as money is tight ans prayed it still worked. Found it worked lovely but needed about 50g more icing sugar =]
The only thing I would change if poss is to make the sponge a bit lighter? Seemed a bit dense. Maybe I went wrong or that is how it’s supposed to be and I am just used to my recipe for light vanilla cupcakes?
Thanks xx
It shouldn’t be dense but they are a lot more moist than a vanilla ccake – I would check that your bicarb of soda is well in date as this is what makes them rise – wondering if yours is working at half power! xx
Thanks for the reply. Still a lovely cake which has gotten praise lol just different to what i expected maybe. Bicarb is brand new and date on it is 2014?
It’s not the bicarb then! x
Possibly overcooked them then. I would love to see a ‘how to…’ on a gingerbread house? Going to make one this year =]
Do you think this would work for a celebration cake I have 8inch tins 1.5 inch tall…. How long would you bake for any different quantities???
I have done the cupcakes many times and love them, but this is for daughters birthday…
Yes, it should work fine as an 8″ cake – I’d estimate bake time at 1hr – 1 hr 10 mins at 160c (fan) x
Hi Ruth
have just made my first batch of red velvet cupcakes as a friend would like them for her birthday party. Just concerned about the icing and how long it keeps.
They should be kept in the fridge because of the frosting, then bring to room temp for serving x
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Hi, Just wanted to let you know, I made these for the School comp, Bake off and I won xx can send you picture if you want it xx
Brilliant Claire! That would be lovely x
Hi
Could you please let me know how much butter is in the cream cheese icing? I couldn’t see it on the ingredients list.
Thanks!
Abby
70g butter x