These red velvet Halloween cupcakes boast a flavourful, tender sponge, a smooth and delicious cream cheese frosting and a gorily good blood red syrup.
They're sure to amaze your friends and family this Halloween, but they're actually really easy to make. In fact, making the cupcake batter is a two step process! One: measure margarine, milk, sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs and food colouring into a bowl. Two: whisk! And that's it - your batter will be ready to spoon into cupcake cases and bake to produce gorgeously velvety cupcakes.
Making the cream cheese frosting is really easy too. If you're ever used cream cheese in frosting, you'll know that it can easily go slack and turn your buttercream to liquid. The great news is, using the method detailed below (learned while training with Leiths School of Food and Wine), that won't be an issue and you'll beautiful, pipeable buttercream.
And for the blood red syrup? Well, that's just golden syrup dyed blood red with a little natural colouring and, as you can see, it's very effective!
Here's how to make my gruesome red velvet Halloween cupcakes. I've also popped a link below for the little edible knife toppers if you want to pick them up to complete the look.
Ingredients
For the sponges
- 4 medium free-range eggs
- 200 g (7.1 oz) self-raising flour
- 200 g (7.1 oz) caster sugar
- 200 g (7.1 oz) margarine
- 4 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp red gel food colouring vegetarian if required
For the cream cheese frosting
- 400 g (14.1 oz) icing sugar
- 200 g (7.1 oz) slightly salted butter softened
- 220 g (7.8 oz) cream cheese chilled
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
For the “blood” syrup
- 50 g (1.8 oz) golden syrup
- ½-1 tsp (0.5 tsp) red food colouring
Equipment
- 12-hole muffin tray
- Cupcake cases
- Star piping nozzle
Instructions
Make the sponges
Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).
Line a muffin tray with cupcake cases.
Put the margarine, milk, sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs and food colouring in a large mixing bowl.
Beat together until smooth and pale.
Spoon the batter into the cases, sharing evenly between them, and level off.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes until risen and springy on top.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the cream cheese frosting
Put the softened butter in a bowl.
Whisk until creamy.
Sift in the icing sugar. Add the vanilla extract.
Whisk. At first it will seem clumpy.
Keep whisking for a few minutes until very pale, creamy and increased in volume.
Add the chilled cream cheese.
Fold together gently. Don't overwork it as it will loosen. If it looks like it’s starting to loosen, pop in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe swirls on top of the completely cooled cakes.
Make the blood syrup
Put the golden syrup and a drop of food colouring into a small bowl.
Mix, adding more colour if necessary until a translucent blood red is achieved.
Drizzle the syrup over the cupcakes.
I added little store bought knife toppers to complete the spooky Halloween look.
Happy Halloween!
Print these red velvet Halloween cupcakes
Red velvet Halloween cupcakes
Ingredients
For the sponges
- 4 medium free-range eggs
- 200 g (7.1 oz) self-raising flour
- 200 g (7.1 oz) caster sugar
- 200 g (7.1 oz) margarine
- 4 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp red gel food colouring vegetarian if required
For the cream cheese frosting
- 400 g (14.1 oz) icing sugar
- 200 g (7.1 oz) slightly salted butter softened
- 220 g (7.8 oz) cream cheese chilled
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
For the “blood” syrup
- 50 g (1.8 oz) golden syrup
- ½-1 tsp (0.5 tsp) red food colouring
Equipment
- 12-hole muffin tray
- Cupcake cases
- Star piping nozzle
Instructions
Make the sponges
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).
- Line a muffin tray with cupcake cases.
- Put the margarine, milk, sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs and food colouring in a large mixing bowl. Beat together until smooth and pale.
- Spoon the batter into the cases, sharing evenly between them, and level off.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes until risen and springy on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the cream cheese frosting
- Put the softened butter in a bowl and whisk until creamy.
- Sift in the icing sugar. Add the vanilla extract.
- Whisk until very pale, creamy and increased in volume.
- Add the chilled cream cheese.
- Fold together gently. Don't overwork it as it will loosen. If it looks like it’s starting to loosen, pop in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe swirls on top of the completely cooled cakes.
Make the blood syrup
- Put the golden syrup and a drop of food colouring into a small bowl.
- Mix, adding more colour if necessary until a translucent blood red is achieved.
- Drizzle the syrup over the cupcakes. I added little store bought knife toppers to complete the spooky Halloween look.
Video
Nutrition
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