Rich red velvet cake with that slight chocolate flavor and the tang of cream cheese frosting dolloped on top. 
It’s Birch Tree Baking’s 5th birthday today! I say this every year, but still I can’t believe it has been that long. This blog has sort of become like a pet. It’s been here through huge transitions in my life… starting college, internships, living on my own, graduating, master’s program… and hopefully in a few months passing the CPA exam (crossing all my fingers and toes) and starting work. Even though I don’t have time to give blogging consistent attention, I still think I’ve intermittently had spurts of growing my blog and learning what content is best. And while I am still no expert at food photography … it is much improved since the blurry point and shoot pictures of the first year.
I have this tradition of making some sort of cake or birthday themed dessert for my blog’s birthday. Past years have been: Classic Chocolate Cake, Lemon Curd Cupcakes, Funfetti Fudge, and German Chocolate Cake. I was brainstorming when my sister was around, so it’s no surprise that it’s Red Velvet this year! The answer is always red velvet when my sister is voting on desserts! She has pretty good ideas… I don’t have Red Velvet Cake on my blog, and it’s something I’ve been meaning to master… so she got her request! Unfortunately, I forgot the box of cupcakes I was going to give her at home … so she didn’t get to taste test them …. whoops!
So what is red velvet really? Got to be honest … I’m still a little fuzzy on what it really is. What I do know is that it’s delicious. Now, that’s a good enough answer for me, but I did some research in case you’re not so easily appeased. All red velvet cakes have a smidge of cocoa powder in them but only enough to tease your tastebuds with chocolate. The use of cocoa powder is more because it reacts with the vinegar and/or buttermilk to richen the red color into a darker red. Otherwise with just the red food coloring, your cake would be more of an orangey red.
This cake is so good that I ate 3 batches without frosting during the testing phase. I didn’t want them to be confused with muffins though for purposes of this post, so I gave them a dollop of frosting. I paired it with the traditional cream cheese frosting, but you could certainly get creative and use different frosting flavors… I’m thinking chocolate or cookies and creme or Nutella. I used a Wilton 6B to blob the frosting on top. It gives it sort of a fun shape without having to worry about your swirling skills. 
Happy birthday Birch Tree Baking!
- 1 cup (130g) all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons (10g) cocoa powder, dutch or natural
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1- 2 Tablespoons red food coloring (depends on brand of food dye and personal preference)
- ½ teaspoon vinegar
- ½ cup buttermilk*
- 8 oz block cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup salted butter, softened
- 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Line muffin tin with 12 liners.
- In a small bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter with the granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add in the egg and mix until combined.
- Add in the vanilla, red food coloring, and vinegar and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Mix in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Using a large cookie scoop, fill the muffin liners evenly with batter, about ⅔ - ¾ full for each liner.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove the cupcakes from the tin to finish cooling on a cooling rack.
- With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until there are no lumps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again.
- Add in the powdered sugar.
- Add in the vanilla.
- Beat frosting until smooth.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes using a piping bag and tip. I used a Wilton 6B piping tip to get the shape shown in the pictures.
Adapted from Pretty Simple Sweet.
Happy Blog Birthday!
HappyBirthday! Great pictures that are mouth watering!
Any tips for high altitude?
Hi Mrs. Bortells! I’ve never baked at high altitude, so unfortunately I don’t have any super helpful suggestions. I know that usually you’ll want to increase the oven temperature 15-25 degrees and decrease baking time a bit for cakes…that should keep the cake from falling flat. I’ve heard of some bakers also playing around with the amount of baking powder, sugar, flour, and liquid but it seems very dependent on what elevation your at for how much variation you’ll need.
Sorry I can’t be of more help! I hope the Bortells family is well!
Thanks Kaitlyn! Baking up here is challenging and like being in a chemistry class.
I made the Red Velvet batter but doubled it and made into a cake as it had less likelihood of caving in. I brought it to a neighborhood party and everyone loved it… it was gone!
I enjoy your recipes and your commentary. Thank you for sharing with all of us.
My best to you and your family.
Debra
Oh I’m so glad it turned out well!