Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan assisted / gas 4 and line 2 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners (depending on the size of the paper liners, you’ll get between 18-22 cupcakes).
2. Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl, set aside.
3. Combine buttermilk and vanilla in a small jug, set aside.
4. Mix red food colour with cocoa powder in a small bowl until a smooth paste, set aside.
5. In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth (if using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment). Add the sugar and salt and beat until pale and creamy.
6. Add the eggs 1 at a time and beat for about 3 minutes after adding each one, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
7. Add the cocoa powder paste and mix until colour is uniform.
8. (If using a stand mixer, switch to the whisk attachment) Add 1/3 of the flour mix and beat just until combined.
9. Pour in half of the buttermilk mix and beat just until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
10. Add 1/2 of the remaining flour mix and beat just until combined, followed by the remaining buttermilk mix.
11. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the last of the flour, again, only mixing just until combined.
12. In a small bowl, mix together the baking soda and vinegar (it will fizz!). Add this to the batter and mix in.
13. Divide batter evenly between the cupcake papers, each should be, at the most, 2/3 full (add more paper liners to the muffin tin if needed.)
14. Bake in pre-heated oven until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the middle cupcake comes out clean, between 18-22 minutes.
15. Remove from oven and leave cupcakes to cool in muffin tins on wire racks for about 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from tins and leave to completely.
16. For the frosting: I have a slightly different method from the usual for making cream cheese frosting, but this gives me the best results. No lumps of butter and always nice and thick, perfect for piping onto cupcakes.
17. Beat butter in a medium sized bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract then mix together. (At first, it will create a mixture that looks like crumbs, but as the butter warms, the lumps will get bigger and then it will come together and cream until smooth like a buttercream frosting.)
18. Add the chilled cream cheese and beat together until smooth and thick. (If using a stand mixer, it’s important to use the whisk attachment for this step as it helps whip up the cream cheese like you would whip up cream.)
19. Finally, add the cooled melted white chocolate and beat until combined. (This is optional, and if you’re making regular red velvet cupcakes, you can leave this out completely.)
20. To assemble, if filling cupcakes with sweets, use an apple corer to remove the center of the cupcakes. Fill each cupcake with sweets.
21. Fill a large piping bag fitted with a large piping nozzle of choice then pipe a swirl of frosting onto each cupcake. (If you want large swirls of frosting as shown in the photo, I would recommend increasing the frosting recipe by half, otherwise you should have enough to do a simple swirl.)
22. Keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, though it’s recommended to eat at room temperature. Depending on the sweets you use to fill the cupcakes, you may find some of the colour comes off the candy coating, if you prefer bright colours, fill with jelly beans instead.