Red Velvet is a pretty cake! Basically it’s vanilla cake with a hint of chocolate and a tender moist velvety crumb. And of course the rich deep red hue, which gives it the name and makes it look all fancy and exciting.
I recently bought Neeta Mehta’s ‘Cupcakes and Brownies’ and was keen to do a batch of cupcakes in the new oven. The first recipe was red velvets. I have done red velvet cake sometime back where I used home- made cream cheese for the frosting.
This Bombay visit I picked two tubs of cream cheese and tried the frosting from ‘Joy of Baking’. The cupcakes came out moist and delicious. So much so that I had to actually bake a second batch to serve them frosted!
This gorgeous cream cheese frosting, is good enough to die for!
Here is the recipe for the cake (adapted from Neeta’s cook book)
1 1/3 cup (150 grams) APF/Plain flour/Maida
1 tbsp cocoa powder
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp Raspberry Red liquid food colour (add a little more to get the desired shade of red)
1 cup buttermilk (or a mixture of ¾ cup milk and ¼ cup yogurt/curd/dahi)
¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp vinegar
Preheat the oven to 180C/350 F and line a 12 muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour and whisk with the salt, baking powder and cocoa.
In a large bowl, beat the butter for a minute. Add sugar and beat for another couple of minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix till incorporated.
In a bowl add the food colour to the buttermilk.
Now add one thirds of the flour mixture and mix in.
Then half the buttermilk-colour mixture and mix and continue till all the flour is used up, starting and ending with the flour.
Take the vinegar in a small bowl and add in the baking soda. It will bubble. Quickly stir and add to the batter and mix well.
Using a spoon or an ice cream scoop, spoon in the cake batter into the lined muffin pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cup cake comes out clean.
Transfer to the wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
This, by far, is the best frosting I have ever had. Mildly sweet with a hint of tang, this totally trumps all others in the flavour arena. Or maybe I feel that being a die-hard citrusy dessert lover 😛
The recipe is from Joy of Baking ( with minor changes)
180 grams cream cheese, at room temperature (I used 1 tub of Britannia Processed Cream Cheese)
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
50 grams icing or powdered sugar , sifted
125 millilitres of heavy cream /whipping cream ( I used Rich cream), chilled
Put a steel bowl in the freezer to chill.
Beat the cream cheese till smooth (about 30 seconds).
Add the sugar and vanilla and beat till soft and creamy (2 minutes).
Now get the chilled steel bowl and the chilled heavy cream out of the fridge and beat the cream to stiff peaks. I put it the bowl over a bed of ice because of the afternoon heat and the temperature in high 30s. It helped.
Add the cream cheese mix to the heavy cream and whisk together for half a minute.
It becomes nice, thick and creamy and doesn’t drop easily even if the bowl is inverted.
Fill the piping bag and push all the frosting down till the frosting peaks from the tip of the piping bag.
With a firm and steady hand, make swirls over the cupcakes. Well I am a beginner and a very reluctant ‘froster’ as you can see here 😛 But it did get better by the fourth cupcake 😀
Too lazy to do that? Simply slather all over the cuppies and enjoy country style!
Heaven either ways ❤
And if you have the heart to do it, crumble a cuppie and sprinkle all over the frosted others 😀
Best used the same day, but can be refrigerated for up to two days.
And now 😀
CafeGarima 
Garima…ur a rockstar!!!! Love the gusto with which you learn n share the drool worthy treats!!! The pictures further add to the happiness. I’m always checking my mail to see if there is anything from cafe garima and what’s in store today!!! I have never made these before but I’m so tempted post your mail n simplified instructions.
Thank you for being such an awesome soul!!! Cheers. Rinku xoxo
Hey Rinku
That is so sweet of you. Made my day really ❤
Hi Garima
The cake looks very good and I am tempted to make it.
Though I have tried to make it earlier also , the only problem I face is getting the right colour. I live in delhi and really do not know which colour to use. Please can you tell me which brand colour do you use ? It will be of great help.
Thanks
Kiran
Thanks Kiran 😀
I used raspberry red liquid colour.
Those look divine! I just love red velvet 🙂
Thanks a bunch June 😀
Loved the crumbled effect.. Yummy..
Thanks darling 😀
Hi,
With what and how much qty of it, can I replace ur egg with, for an eggless version of this?
TIA
I’m sorry Saakshi but I haven’t tried replacing egg in this. My eggless red velvet experiments didn’t turn out too well.
lovely red velvet cupcakes and timing is so perfect with the Bombay velvet going on in theatres..:)
Tempting me to try them asap..:)
Ha ha ha Nivedita 😀 brilliant observation! Thanks dear 😊
So pretty
Thankees ❤️
Omg.. Divine.. Such beautiful tiny sugary treat… I remember you started your blog around same time last year… And now look at the extensive index page ..you are fab, I love the way you explain your recipes 😊☺️
Thanks Priyanka 😀
You remember! How sweet is that ❤
Thanks a big bunch 😀 I complete a year next month!
Yes I remember you did the shubh aarambh of your blog with rasgulla- the famous no fail recipe 😊..afterall, I also became popular in my family because of that 😜😋
Ha ha ha ha
Thanks 😀😀
Hi Garima,
Made these cuppies today and they taste great, with a velvety texture. The frosting is great too. (I used amul cream)
U rock!!
Thanks
Sargam
Wow Sargam! So happy to hear that! Thanks for dropping by 😀
Hey Garima..your recipes are simply awesome.
Can u please tell me what is the replacement of egg in this recipe. or can post the eggless version.
Hi Neha
I’m afraid I haven’t tried replacing egg in this not do I have tried an eggless version .
Thanks for the kind words 🙂
which brand raspberry red liquid color u used?
Hi Neha
I have tried these with powdered red colour and Viola liquid colour
Hi Garima
Today I tried ur red velvet cupcake rcp..I used d same raspberry red liquid colour in fact 1 tblsp..but that red colour like usrs did not come..vot may b d reason??..thnx…
Maybe the different brands give different shades Nayana. Try using dry powder colour.
Hi Garima
all your reciepes are fool proof!!! u r just amazing.
im gonna try d velvet cuppies too.if you could help me…can i substitute the rasberry colour with beetroot??(as i want to make for my little one)if yes what should be the procedure???thanx in advance
keep rocking!!! 🙂
Hi Manisha
Thanks for the lovely words ❤
I tried with beetroot but the texture was very bad 😦
You could skip the colour and just make a velvet cake 🙂
Hi Garima
Where did you buy your colour from ?
Mine did not get the same colour too.
Hi
From Hypercity I think. Not too sure
Very tempting recipe. Kudos to you! 🙂
Thanks Kriti 🙂
Hey Garima. Beautiful cuppies. I noticed the recipe of red velvet cake and cupcake is slightly different. Can I use this exact recipe to make cake instead? Any changes?
Thanks
Hi Frency
Thank you so much 🙂
Yeah I used two different recipes. I don’t think there should be any problems using the cuppies recipe for a cake. I guess you’ll need to up the baking time 🙂
I followed your recipe and baked a cake. It was denser than the regular sponge cakes, but when teamed with your cream cheese frosting it was simply heavenly….. Can’t get over it. Thank you so much. 🙂
Hi Frency
Red velvet is slightly denser than your red ulta sponge.
So glad you liked it 🙂
My gosh this is classy and will sure try and give you the feedback Sweety G ❤😘
Thanks Mel ❤️