The Ultimate Sweetheart Red Velvet Cupcakes

These ultimate sweetheart red velvet cupcakes are an extra special dessert perfect for Valentine’s Day or another special occasion. With rich red velvet cupcakes as the base and sweet, fluffy cream cheese frosting, these cupcakes are sure to delight. Homemade candy decorations make them even more special.

Sometimes, things are worth making totally from scratch. These ultimate sweetheart red velvet cupcakes are one of those things. Everything in and on them- minus the Oreo topper- are completely homemade.

Don’t let it intimidate you. The results are truly worth the little bit of extra work. The resulting cupcakes are just so pretty with their festive candy toppers and gorgeous swirled frosting. They really deserve the title ultimate.

If you’ve never made cupcakes from scratch, don’t let that intimidate you. All of the ingredients are pretty basic: flour, cocoa powder, eggs, baking soda, butter and shortening for extra moisture, milk, vanilla, and red velvet extract. Just a note on the red velvet extract. Don’t skip it. It adds so much flavor to these cupcakes. You can find it in the baking aisle of some grocery stores and in the baking section at craft stores. It’s also available online.

Making cupcakes from scratch is not nearly as difficult as it sounds. Just whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Then in a stand mixer, beat the butter, shortening, and sugar until it gets light and fluffy. When that happens, add the egg, vanilla, red velvet extract and food coloring. Beat until just combined. To finish off the batter, alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk into the bowl of the stand mixer. Keep mixing until combined, scraping down the sides. Scoop the batter into a lined cupcake tin, filling each tin 3/4 of the way before baking.

After the cupcakes come out of the oven and cool off, it’s time to put together the cream cheese frosting by whipping all the ingredients for the frosting together in a stand mixer. To get this fancy two toned effect, I split the frosting into two bowls. In the first bowl, I left the frosting as was. In the second bowl, I stirred in some red food coloring. Then I scooped the red frosting into a piping bag in 4 lines. Then I added the white frosting. To frost, I fit the piping bag with a large star tip and added a healthy dollop of frosting to each cupcake.

Now for less ultimate cupcakes you could stop there, or you could top each with an Oreo and a drizzle of chocolate sauce the way I did. That could be enough, but it’s still not quite as ultimate as I would like them to be.

So to really take these red velvet cupcakes and make them worthy of the name ultimate sweetheart red velvet cupcakes, I wanted to add an extra finishing touch in the form of homemade candy decorations. To do that, I used these Wilton chocolate candy molds and these Wilton candy transfer sheets.

To make the candies, I popped the square pieces out from the candy sheet and then placed them in the square molds using the directions provided on the sheets. Then I scooped the melted candy melts into each square and let the candy harden. When it was finished, I popped them out and used them as the perfect topper.

And the end result? Well let’s just say that your special someone’s socks will be knocked off by these ultimate sweetheart red velvet cupcakes. If ever there was a cupcake that was the perfect way to say I love you, these are it.

If you’ve tried these ULTIMATE SWEETHEART RED VELVET CUPCAKES, or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!

The Ultimate Sweetheart Red Velvet Cupcakes

No ratings yet

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 12

Author: Meaghan @ 4 Sons R Us

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

For The Cupcakes

• 2½ cups flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup butter softened, plus 4 tbsp
• ¼ cup softened shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp Red Velvet extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp Red gel food color

For The Cream cheese frosting

• 1 cup unsalted sweet cream butter softened
• 4 oz cream cheese softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4-6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
• red gel food coloring
• 1 large piping bag fitted with large star tip

For Decorating

• 1 package of chocolate cookie sticks cut into thirds
• chocolate sauce to drizzle for topping
• 1 package Red Velvet oreos
• 1 package of Wilton white and milk chocolate melting wafers

Instructions

To Make The Cupcakes

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together
• Using a standing mixer, beat together the butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, vanilla, red velvet extract and red gel food coloring until combined
• Alternating between the dry ingredients and milk, Gradually mix in the both ingredients into the mixture until combined. Scoop batter into a lined cupcake tin- filling each cup 3/4 of the way.
• Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 21 minutes. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

To Make The Frosting

• Using a standing mixer, beat together the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and heavy whipping cream until smooth and stiff peaks form
• Split the frosting into two bowls
• Add a few drops of red food coloring into one bowl and mix until combined

To Make The Candy Decorations

• Carefully pop out the square pieces from your candy sheet
• Follow the directions on the candy sheet on how to place them in the square mold
• Scoop melted milk chocolate or white chocolate onto the candy piece in the mold
• Allow the chocolate to harden completely before removing

To Frost & Decorate The Cupcakes

• Place the piping bag into a large cup and fold the sides over the edge
• Scoop some red frosting in the piping bag in 4 lines
• Scoop white frosting into the piping
• Pipe the cooled cupcakes with the frosting
• Drizzle chocolate sauce onto the cupcakes
• Place a red velvet oreo into the center of the cupcake
• Place a chocolate piece in front of the oreo
• Place a cookie stick behind the oreo
• Enjoy!

Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @4sonsrus or tag #4sonsrus!

This recipe was shared at the Meal Plan Monday link party.