I’m in the mood to reminisce. This past weekend my Aunt Judy celebrated her 60th birthday. I helped her celebrate her nostalgia-themed party with these Bright Red Velvet Cupcakes. Before we get to the cake, let’s jump back some 20something years and visit Joy and Judy, circa 1985.
My Aunt Judy is gorgeous. Know how I know? Because in this picture she makes the mid 80′s look damn good. And if you can rock the 80′s and still look classic and chic, you’re doing something right.
I’m feigning coy. At 4, I knew darn well how cute I was.
Even from the tender age pictured above I marveled at how my Aunt could have a closet solely dedicated to shoes.
That deck that Judy and I are standing on would eventually collapse as my Dad walked across it one day.
Before that collapse, I would crawl under that deck exactly one time. I thought I heard kittens. Turns out there were kittens under the deck, but there were also spiders. I don’t function rationally around spiders. I do ridiculous things to get away from them. Yea… I only did that once.
The palm tree behind us. I would grow up to think it a good idea to grab onto a large palm frawn and swing several feet off the ground like Tarzan. Turns out that’s not a good idea, because those palm frawns break. And as I lay on the ground after what felt like a tremendous fall, I thought, “Oh! Tarzan swung from vines!”. Good thing I didn’t grow up around any vines. I surely would have broken my body.
Happy Birthday Judy, and many more!
Now let’s talk cupcakes…
From time time I change up my Red Velvet Cupcake recipe. Sometimes I like the red to have a little more pop, other times I like the Red Velvet to have a sexy chocolate character.
The frosting, as is with most of my Red Velvet creations, is Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.
Bright Red Velvet Cupcakes
adapted from Gourmet Cookbook and makes 2 dozen cupcakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
scant 1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon red food coloring
Put a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with the milk and red dye in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until just incorporated.
Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, or until the cakes a pick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes then remove cupcakes from muffin tin and let cool on a wire rack.
Frost with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Oh my! How I’m enjoying finding your blog. Looks delicious and so pretty…
LOL- if you can rock the 80′s…and yet it is so true.
Great looking cupcakes.
Hey, i made red velvet cupcakes as well yesterday – although my pictures are not that professional!! love ur website joy!
I do love red velvet cupcakes…but I love the picture even more. Thanks for sharing!
I love red velvet and yours look so moist and delicous!
Gorgeous! I’ve never seen cupcakes so red! :-)
Hello,
I’ve been enjoying reading your blog. Your stories and recipes have been delightful. I haven’t yet had an opportunity to make any of them but I have bananas ripening on my counter, so, guess what? It’s banana cupcakes A LA Joy the Baker! I’m topping them with your brown sugar cream cheese frosting! Is it thick enough to pipe? I’m learning how to pipe frosting(Wilton). Any helpful hints?
I also wanted to make sure it was okay that I added you to my blog list.?
Thanks!
I love the old photo and the storys that go with it!
Somesay I’ll have to try red velvet cake. Beleve it or not, I have never made one.
My first boyfriend loved red velvet cake and I made him one for his birthday. Great cupcakes.
These cupcakes are so cute! I’ve never had red velvet cake, but I’m very curious about it.
Has there been a winner picked for the May Cupcake Hero yet?
Good point about the 80s! I love the vibrant color of these cupcakes.
Your memories are sweet. Great thing you were scared off by spiders and didn’t spend too much time under that deck!
These are some great looking cupcakes! The pictures are fabulous and they look delicious!
Thanks Joy for the photo and the memories. You are truly a gem! Eveyone loved the cupcakes, especially the birthday girl–me!
Love ya, Aunt Judy
happy birthday to your aunt and the cupcakes look yummy.
Joy, hi from Indiana. The 1980s photo of you and my dear friend Judy (we had much fun together then and still do)is great, and you write beautifully. I am going to have to try the cupcakes (anything with chocolate is okay with Jerry)and maybe some of your other recipes as well. While I love to cook, baking is not my forte, so it will take your beautiful pictures and great verbage to motivate me.
You ARE a joy,
Susie Z
Whoops, I was wrong – no chocolate. So much for my memories of red velvet cakes from the 1960s!
You read my mind – I’ve been craving red velvet cake and yummy icing for days now. Thanks for the perfect excuse to make these treats! And I love you kitty hunting story, so cute!
Wow – those are so bright! They’re stunning.
As is the idea of brown sugar cream cheese icing. Yummmmm.
Gorgeous Dahling. Seriously. Beautiful cupcakes. (Im jealous of that red color, mine always come out this funky muted weird red.)
Bright Red they are! These look yummo!
Your cupcakes look amazing!
Great cupcakes. And I agree… not many people managed to make the 80′s look good but your aunt definitely pulled it off :)
What a lovely post full of great memories. I can just picture you swinging from a palm tree…. hahaha.
Happy Birthday Aunt Judy. Here is to many more beautiful years to come!
And – those cupcakes are gorgeous!
Oh, I love the red!! I’m all for a more vivid red velvet cupcakes!! I’ve got to try making them one of these days; i’m just drooling over your beautiful photos!!
That IS bright cupcakes! I love it!
Thanks for your comment over at my blog! I’ve been slowly trying to check out all the writers leaving comments at the Smitten Kitchen.
Your blog is gonna live in my bookmarks- love the pictures- I want to eat everything.
Also, thanks for the red velvet- was out at my local dessert bar where they do serve a very pretty and tall slice of cake. I had never seen one before, only heard about it. It’s amazingly red. Of course, it started a 30-minute-long discussion about how to ditch the food coloring for something natural. Never really reached a conclusion, but that was okay because our mouths were full of dessert.
We’d like to invite you to participate in our July berry recipe contest. All competitors will be placed on our blogroll, and the winner will receive a fun prize! Please email me, sophiekiblogger@gmail.com, if you’re interested. Feel free to check out our blog for more details. (Click on my name in the message header link to visit our blog. :)
How absolutely yummy these look. I adore red velvet.
You’ve out done your previous red velvets! These look great
But why red? I know its tradition, but to add all that food coloring to a great recipe that will taste the same without it… I don’t get it.
Oh they look so pretty. Oh how I love your blog! I’ve tried out the Rosemary bread (my brothers beg me for it now XD) and that one Caramel Butterscotch Apple Pie cake of ultimate power (excellent!) Now I’m waiting for my Red Velvet cupcakes to finish baking, I’m so excited! Thanks for the great recipes!!
great post–even now, i’d still probably crawl under a spidery deck if i thought i heard kittens! the cupcakes look wonderful…it’s been too long since i’ve had RV cake!
Those cupcakes look good! What an amazing shade of red!
So there’s no cocoa powder used in these cupcakes? I thought that was a requirement of red velvet cupcakes, no?
The cupcakes are gorgeous – I so prefer red velvet in cupcake form than cake form.
You’re right – Judy is gorgeous.
thanks for a great recipe. I made these over the weekend then delivered most to the neighbors, everyone loved them. Hubby will be both sad & glad that he missed them.
I can’t wait to try this recipe. My red velvet cupcakes always look so angry (dark red/almost burgundy). This recipe is just in time for 4th of July! Quick question: what type/size tip are you using to frost your cupcakes?
I just found your blog via Baked Perfection and was so excited about this recipe. I’ve been looking for a delicious Red Velvet for awhile now and these look spectacular with the brown sugar frosting. I’ll be trying tomorrow! I love your blog and will be back for more goodies!
Any suggestions on how to get that good red color WITHOUT using ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS or colorings? Maybe a hint of beet juice, raspberry juice, etc?
Same for the chocolate frosting that sounds great, but unfortunately uses Ovaltine. I’d like to stay away from manufactured, highly-processed, or artificial ingredients. Any tips for a more healthy frosting?
Thanks – I love reading this blog and the great tips.
What do u mean by “scant 1 cup milk”? as in just 1 cup milk? sorry just wanna make sure! everything in your site just looks so amazing, im so excited to try them out!
Question:
If I take the cupcakes out of the pan too quickly after baking…. will they separate from the paper cups? Because I’m having that problem right now. Ugh. Any advice?? Thanks!!
Betsy
NO COCOA?
ho joy im ghalia and im 13 years old now !!
i know it may be shoking to hear from me but i love baking and as soon as i heard about this i was so eagre to do them :) and guess what i did but thy were not velvet red it was more like brown red i am now anxious to know why?? could it be because i added 3 ts of coacoa ??
(PS:i was foced to put coacoa by my mother :P )
hey*
I just finished making this recipe…. one thing should be posted in bold… BE CAREFUL WITH RED FOOD COLORING! Haha… because my pre-measured-neatly-prepped red food coloring ended up on my white kitchen cupboards, my hands and the floor. Whoops! It looked like a tragic event, really.
….and now i just ate a piece, and its wonderful, and the near disaster with the food coloring seems very worth it. Notice its 1:36am and not only am i baking a cake, but eating some too.
Hi! I know I’m incredibly late, but I just wanted to say that I made these this morning and they are so incredibly yum! Mine are actually blue, though, because I couldn’t find the red food coloring. But I love them. A lot.
Thanks!
just wanted to know which brand of food colour you used to make the bright red velvet cake as it always turn maroon with me
thanks
Hi Joy!
I really love making red velvet cupcakes and usually use the recipe from Annie’s Eats. Have you ever tried that one? Do these taste different?
Thanks!
{ 9 trackbacks }