These Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes are bucking the traditional Red Velvet flavours. Instead of a rich cream cheese frosting, these cupcakes are topped with a delicious Oreo Cookie frosting and even have a surprise Oreo hiding in the base.
These aren’t your traditional Red Velvet cupcakes, oh no. I figured you guys will have seen enough recipes for them in the run up to Valentines Day so I thought I’d give you a fun little twist on the regular recipe. These cupcakes ignore the cream cheese frosting you normally see topping a red velvet cupcakes in favour of an Oreo cookie flavoured buttercream, there’s even a surprise Oreo cookie hidden in the bottom of every cupcake.
What is the craic with Red Velvet Cupcakes?
Red Velvet cupcakes are made a little differently than regular cupcakes. Instead of just a traditional chocolate cake, red velvet is made with only a tiny amount of cocoa powder to give just a hint of chocolate. The addition of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda was originally used to accentuate the natural pinky red hue of the cocoa within the cake, sadly cocoa now undergoes a process in its creation to prevent the natural colour change, hence the use of food colouring.
The key to a good cake:
As always, when making cakes you want to make sure you start with room temperature ingredients. Fridge cold ingredients have a hard time coming together, they’ll curdle or take a longer time to get to where you need them to be. My ultimate cake making tip is to make sure you remove all your ingredients from the fridge a good hour or so before you start baking.
Another key tip is always use full fat everything unless instructed. Fat = moisture in a cake, using low fat butters/spreads/creams in your cake adds extra moisture to the batter and can actually end up drying out your sponge in the oven.
Tips for making Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes:
- Colouring – A good quality food colouring is a must for these cupcakes. Sugarflair Extra Red is always my go to. Don’t bother with the kind you find in the supermarkets, they’re just not strong enough for a good red velvet.
- Buttermilk – If you can’t find buttermilk in the shops (you can usually find it by the cream and creme fraiche) you can make your own by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to 250ml whole milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes.
- Vinegar – Apple Cider or even Red Wine Vinegar can be used in place of White Wine Vinegar. Just don’t use Malt!
- Nozzles – When piping Oreo frosting always use a round, open nozzle. The little crumbies get stuck in star nozzles and you’ll make a giant mess.
Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 cupcakes 1x
Description
These Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes are bucking the traditional Red Velvet flavours. Instead of a rich cream cheese frosting, these cupcakes are topped with a delicious Oreo Cookie frosting and even have a surprise Oreo hading in the base.
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 130g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 300g caster sugar
- 300g plain flour
- 250ml buttermilk
- 2 large, free range eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 2tbsp cocoa powder
- 1tsp baking powder
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1tsp white wine vinegar
- 2tsp bright red food colouring
- pinch of salt
- 12 Oreo cookies
For the Frosting:
- 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 300g icing sugar
- 1/2tsp vanilla extract
- 2tbsp whole milk
- 12 Oreos plus extra for decorating
Instructions
For the Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 175C and line a cupcake tray with 12 liners. Drop an Oreo in the bottom of each case and set aside.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt then, in a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, vanilla extract and red food colouring together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer whip the butter and sugar together until the mixture turns pale and creamy. With the speed up high, add the eggs one at a time and mix for a few minutes until fully incorporated. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix to combine followed by the buttermilk and food colouring before adding the remainder of the flour. Mix until just combined.
- Working quickly, in a small bowl or jug mix the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar together allowing it to fizz up slightly before adding it to the cake batter. Quickly fold it into the cake batter.
- Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
For the Frosting:
- First of all place the Oreo cookies into a food processor and pulse into crumbs. Set aside.
- To make the frosting mix the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and soft. Add the icing sugar, vanilla extract and 1tbsp of the milk. Turn the mixer on low and gradually increase the speed. Whip for 5 minutes. If it’s still a little still add the extra tablespoon of milk.
- Add the Oreo cookie crumbs and mix until just combined. Don’t over mix or you’ll loose the crumbs and it’ll just turn into a brown paste. It will still taste delicious but won’t look as pretty.
- Once the cupcakes have cooled fill a piping bag, fitted with an open nozzle with the Oreo frosting and pipe a cute swirl on top of each cake. Top each cupcakes with some sprinkles and an Oreo cookie.
Notes
These cupcakes can be frozen, un-iced, for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Cupcakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Cupcakes, Red Velvet, Oreo, Valentines Day
Perfect for valentines day 🙂
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Red velvet is my favorite!
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Fantastic recipe! So clever to bake an oreo into the cupcake!
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Looks amazing! These Red Velvet Oreo Cupcakes are perfect this coming Valentines Day. Thanks!:)
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Those cupcakes are so beautiful! Have to make them right now! Thanks for the idea!
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Love love this cupcake recipe! and its perfect for Valentine’s Day!
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These cupcakes are really fun. My family loved red velvet and Oreo. Thanks for sharing.
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great combo of oreos and red velvet!
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