Red Velvet Muffins

Valentine’s day is coming up, time to share my recipe for the perfect muffin for a sweet Valentine’s morning brealfast!

While I haven’t gotten around to shooting and posting my red velvet cake recipe - a lightly chocolate cake with the tang of buttermilk, and a cream cheese filling, I’ve got a bunch of other recipes featuring the classic red velvet flavor.

Most of my posted red velvet recipes are for red velvet desserts - Red Vellvet Brownies, Red Velvet Biscotti and Gluten Free Red Velvet Cookies - but I recently posted my Red Velvet Bagels recipe, and my red velvet pancakes are coming soon!

Today I’ve got another recipe for red velvet lovers - my red velvet muffins!

These fluffy muffins are the perfect treat for Valentine's Day breakfast - a hint of chocolate, beautiful red color, and cream cheese filling to finish it off.

While these aren’t just unfrosted cupcakes - they’ve got less sugar than my red velvet cupcake recipe - you COULD use them as a base for less-sweet red velvet cupcakes by adding a bit of tangy cream cheese frosting on top.

However you serve them, these muffins are sure to be a favorite addition to your holiday recipe box!

Ingredients

This recipe uses simple ingredients that you should be able to find in any grocery store, if you don’t already have them on hand.

You will need:

All Purpose Flour
Granulated sugar
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Buttermilk
Cream cheese
Butter
Large Eggs
Pure Vanilla Extract
Baking Powder
Salt
Red Gel Food Coloring
Coarse Sugar - AKA Pearl Sugar

A few notes on substitutions and such:

1. You can use cake flour if you prefer, but I find it’ll make them more like cupcakes than muffins - it makes for a softer cake batter.

2. If you don’t have buttermilk - or your want to make these with a plant based milk - you can add 2 teaspoon of either white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. We used unsweetened almond milk this time.

3. You can use vegetable oil in place of the butter, if desired.

4. You can use a liquid red food coloring if you have to, but I definitely recommend using a gel color. They’re far more concentrated, and are the easiest way to get your desired color intensity, without adding a ton of liquid to the batter.

Beyond the ingredients, I like to use paper liners in my muffin pan, for easier cleanup.

If you want to get festive, consider using decorative cupcake papers. You can get them in solid colours, or in Valentine’s day or Christmas designs, as needed!

Variations

We love these muffins as-is, but there are a few ways you can customize them:

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Muffins

Add 1 cup of Chocolate Chipsto the batter before scooping it into the pan.

I like to use Milk Chocolate Chips or White Chocolate Chips, Mini Chocolate Chips are another good option.

Unfilled Muffins

Feel free to skip the cream cheese filling, especially if you’re looking to make dairy free red velvet muffins.

I find it a good idea to use chocolate chips when skipping the filling, to make up for the volume lost from the missing filling, though!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

If you’d like these to be more like a cupcake, use your favorite vanilla cream cheese frosting recipe, or even just a vanilla buttercream.

Vanilla American Buttercream is an easy, common recipe that uses icing sugar.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a little bit more work, but makes a FANTASTIC, super smooth and luxurious frosting - my favourite!

How to Make Red Velvet Cupcakes

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through.

Cream Cheese Filling

Whisk the softened cream cheese until smooth and creamy.

Add sugar and vanilla extract, stir to combine.

You can beat the cream cheese mixture in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment OR the whisk attachment (medium speed), or use a medium-sized bowl and a handheld electric mixer if you prefer. Personally, I use a medium mixing bowl and beat it by hand.

Chill in the fridge or freezer, while you make the muffin batter.

Note: For best results, chill for several hours or even overnight. The colder your cream cheese mixture, the better.

As photographed, ours was more liquid than it needed to be, as we had to use a tub of cream cheese rather than a brick that morning, and didn’t let it chill very long.

The colder / more solid the cream cheese, the more uniform the filling area - less risk of spreading, weird shapes, etc.

Red Velvet Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a regular muffin pan with cupcake liners, or spray with baking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl - I used a medium bowl - combine eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla extract, and a good amount of red food colouring.

Add egg/milk/ butter mixture all at once to large mixing bowl with the flour mixture.

Divide batter into muffin cups, filling each about ⅓ full.

Note: If your filling is relatively soft/liquid, spread the muffin batter up the sides of the muffin cups / muffin liners, as pictured. If your filling is solid, you don’t need to worry about spread/blowout as much!.

Divide the filling between the prepared muffin tin cavities, aiming for a general tablespoon of filling in the center of each - leaving room around it.

Spoon the remaining batter over the muffin cups, allowing the batter to fully encase the filling.

Sprinkle the tops of the muffins generously with coarse sugar.

Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 22 to 25 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.

(Note: Only insert it about ⅓ of the way down. If you hit cream cheese, it’ll be wet no matter how done it is!)

Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes, before serving.

Leftovers

Once cooled to room temperature, muffins can be stored in an airtight container - or large freezer bags - in the fridge for 5 days or so.

Best served at room temperature or warmer.

More Valentine's Day Ideas

Looking to do something a bit different for Valentine's Day? Here are a few ideas!

6 Inch Cheesecake
Baklava Cheesecake
Balsamic Mushroom Baked Brie
Booze Bouquet Tutorial
Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova
Chocolate Ravioli
Dark Chocolate Truffles
Deviled Strawberries
Fondant Chocolate Leaves Cake Tutorial
Heart Shaped Bagels
Heart Shaped Beer Pretzels with Jalapeno Jack Dip
Mini Eclairs
Mushroom Goat Cheese Braid
Pepper Crusted Tuna with Wasabi Cream Sauce
Phyllo Crab Triangles
Red Velvet Bagels
Red Velvet Brownies
Savory Tomato Shortcake
Traditional Raspberry Mousse
Valentine's Day Charcuterie Board
Valentine's Day Deviled Eggs
Valentine’s Day Pavlova

Special Diet Treats

Need it gluten free* or low carb? Check out these Valentine's Day recipes on my other blogs:

Gluten-Free Crab Cakes
Gluten Free Crepes
Gluten-Free Fried Brie
Gluten Free Red Velvet Cookies
Heart Fruit Skewers with Raspberry Cheesecake Dip
Keto Creme Brulee
Low Carb Chocolate Mousse
Keto Crab Cakes
Low Carb Tiramisu
Keto Cheesecake
Seafood Cobb Salad

* Some of the recipes in the first link section are inherently gluten free, too!

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