| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 50 min |
| Prep: | 20 min |
| Inactive: | 10 min |
| Cook: | 20 min |
| Yield: | 12 cupcakes |
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
- 2 teaspoons red food coloring (recommended: Seelect natural food coloring)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Red and black food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners (preferably silver).
- For the cupcakes: Crack the eggs into your mixer. Add the canola oil, buttermilk and vinegar. Drop in the food coloring and vanilla. Let it stir up until well mixed.
- Put the sugar, flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk together until well mixed. Then sift this right onto a big piece of waxed paper, it makes it easy to transport to the mixer. Make sure there are no clumps.
- Turn your mixture on low and slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients as it’s mixing. Turn the mixer up just a bit and combine well. Stop and scrape down the bowl.
- Use an ice cream scoop to evenly dish the batter out into the cupcake liners, about 3/4 full.
- Pop the cupcakes in the oven until a cake tester comes out nice and clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and set aside to cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting: Add the softened butter and confectioners’ sugar and cream together in a mixer. Add the milk. Stop and scrape down the bowl, getting all the confectioners’ sugar incorporated. Add a couple drops of black food coloring and then some red food coloring. Mix in the vanilla and a pinch of salt. Mix well.
- Fill a pastry bag or snip the corner of a zip top bag. Fill with the frosting. (To fill the bag easily, wrap the bag around a cup and wrap the edges of the bag around the top to keep the bag open while filling with frosting.)
- Frost the cupcakes, making a little squiggly line down the middle, and then filling in little swirls to look like the brain. Repeat on the other side and for the rest of the cupcakes.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 12 servings |
| Calories | 687 |
| Total Fat | 37 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Carbohydrates | 86 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 66 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Cholesterol | 48 mg |
| Sodium | 384 mg |
Reviews
These are adorable! I love Anne’s show, and have found that Anne’s recipes are as beautiful and decorative as they are yummy.
i loveddd the cupcake, great flavor, super moist. But the icing was too wet with all the milk, i had to redo it with just about a tablespoon. then they were perfect. a big hit!
Made this recipe and they were excellant. I did have to add additional red food coloring to the recipe to get the desired red color, but I think food color is subjective to each indidvidual. Thanks for the great recipe! I love Anne’s show!
The cupcakes came out looking just like they did on the show a nice dome on top as well and a great red color. Downfall on this is the oil, way too much oil and it gave the cupcakes an awfull taste. This would be a great recipe if it didn’t have so much oil. I don’t think I will try this recipe again.
I love the show! I love trying different desserts so this show was right up my alley. The red velvet cupcakes looked so delicious when Anne made them but when I made them, they were terrible. They were so dense and hardly any flavor. Also they turned out pink….they just looked unappealing. I tasted one and threw the whole batch in the trash. To be honest, I don’t think homemade cakes can hold a candle to box cake mixes. Now when it comes to frosting, it’s homemade all the way. Hopefully, her other recipes will turn out when I make them at home.
I was extremely happy with the recipe. It was very easy to make and also taste very good.My 11 years old son love it.
I was extremely disappointed with the recipe. There was way too much oil in the cake recipe! Also, the cupcakes had no taste to them what so ever. Mine turned out pink, not red (which is probably my fault because of the food coloring I bought. All in all, I wouldn’t recommend and I wouldn’t make them again.
Delicious cupcakes and frosting! Love them! Definitely satisfied my sweet tooth! I love Anne’s show! She has a great personality and easy approach to baking! Thank you Anne and thank you Food Network for bringing Anne into my kitchen!
Love the brain idea with the frosting but I was very dissapointed in the texture and color of the cake. I was expecting a chocalate velvety light cake with some sweetness to it. Not enough flavor for me. I was also surprised how much oil was in the recipe. I like my velvet cake mix out of the box.
FINALLY AN ALL DESSERT SHOW!!!!! I’M NOT SURE WHERE ANNE CAME FROM OR WHY SHE WAS CHOSEN, BUT GLAD TO SEE IT. I DO LIKE HERE, IT’S CONSTANT, SORT OF NERVOUS LAUGH SHE DOES THE WHOLE TIME SHE’S TALKING THAT’S DRIVING ME CRAZY. IT IS SOOOOO ANNOYING! I HOPE IN TIME SHE WILL STOP DOING IT OR IM NOT SURE I CAN WATCH. FN, MORE SHOWS LIKE THESE PLEASE…HOW ABOUT NIGELA, LOVE HER!!!