Hello everyone! I did a poll recently on Instagram and Red velvet cupcakes were requested a lot. They are one of my favourite cupcakes because I adore a cream cheese frosting.
I’ve tried a lot of red velvet cupcakes that lacked in flavour so I wanted to try bring out a bit more of the cocoa flavour. I wanted a luxurious deep ruby red colour with loads of flavour. I made a delicious cream cheese frosting that is so tasty and I did a core of white chocolate ganache to make them even more luxurious. The white chocolate core is an optional step.

Important: When it comes to the red colouring you need to use a good quality paste or gel. Don’t use a liquid colouring. You don’t want to use a liquid colouring as it is very weak. This will mean you need to use A LOT!! This will add a nasty flavour to your cake and will also change the consistency of your batter. So you may end up waisting a load of ingredients. I used https://www.rainbowdust.co.uk/progelr-ruby.html . This is available in Super Value or online at https://sugarsisters.ie who are delivering at the moment.

Happy Baking!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 16 -18 minutes
Servings: 12
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 150g Plain flour
- 15g Cocoa powder
- 150g Caster sugar
- 1 Egg
- 100g Soft Unsalted butter
- 120ml Buttermilk
- 1 Teaspoon Vinegar (I used white vinegar)
- 1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- Red food colouring (I used 1 teaspoon of gel colouring- link above)
White chocolate ganache
- 150g White chocolate
- 50g Cream
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 150g Soft unsalted butter
- 180g Cream cheese
- 300g Icing sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
Directions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 180C/ 160C Fan. Line a cupcake tray with your desired cupcake cases.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together till pale and fluffy.
- Mix in your egg, vanilla, and red food colouring.
- Add in your vinegar and buttermilk and combine. This will look very wet but that’s normal.
- Sieve in your flour, Cocoa, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Fold through till just combined. Do not over-mix.
- Spoon evenly into your cupcake cases and bake for 16-18 minutes. Or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Leave to cool completely.
Ganache
- Add white chocolate and cream to a bowl and microwave on 30 second blasts till melted.
- Leave to cool.
Cream cheese frosting
- In a mixing bowl, whisk soft butter till pale and fluffy.
- Add in half of your icing sugar and whisk well.
- Add in your cream cheese and vanilla and whisk till fully combined.
- Place the remainder of your icing sugar in and whisk till combined.
- Leave in the fridge to you are ready to pipe onto your cakes.
Decorating
- Now that the cakes are cool with want to core them. I use a cupcake corer but an apple corer or knife will do the trick. Keep your cake crumbs for decoration.
- Fill up each cupcake with white chocolate ganache.
- (If using a piping back to decorate) Fill up your piping bag. I used a Wilton 1m Tip. Swirl cream cheese frosting on top of your cupcake.
- Sprinkle with cake crumbs and decorate with anything you like. I used white chocolate curls and some gold dust.
- Take a snap of your creation and send them onto me @gills_bakesandcakes.
- Enjoy! Keep your cupcakes refrigerated!!
If you make this recipe I would love for you to tag me on Instagram!#Gills_bakesandcakes @Gills_bakesandcakes