Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Like red velvet, but way amped up. That chocolate in the center is just magnificent.
Texture: The cupcakes are moist and tender while the chocolate is rich and oozing.
Ease: Easy yet impressive.
Appearance: The chocolate is such a wonderful surprise. Plus you can’t beat that brilliant red color (thanks, food coloring).
Pros: In my humble chocoholic’s opinion, these are so much better than regular red velvet cupcakes.
Cons: None!!
Would I make this again? Absolutely yes.
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The very moment I saw this recipe in February’s Better Homes & Gardens, I ripped the page out of the magazine. Yum. It appealed to everything I like. Red velvet, chocolate, and cupcakes (only because they are easy, quick, and cute). Not to mention this recipe is perfect for Valentine’s Day (these cupcakes aren’t a hassle to transport). I kind of want to stuff anything and everything with a ball of chocolate ganache now.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Red Velvet Cupcakes – if you’re looking for Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and no filling!
- The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting – the perfect frosting for these cupcakes
- Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
- Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Red Velvet Cake
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Ingredients
For the chocolate stuffing:
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
For the cupcakes:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons red food coloring
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
Instructions
For the chocolate stuffing:
- In a small saucepan combine chocolate, cream, and butter. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool for 15 minutes. Cover and freeze about 1 hour, or until fudge-like consistency. Divide chocolate filling into 12 equal portions and roll into balls. Place in freezer.
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a small bowl sift flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter and sugar on medium for 2-3 minutes, until light in color and well combined. Beat in egg, food coloring, and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. In a small bowl combine baking soda and vinegar. Stir into batter.
- Divide half the batter among prepared cups. Place a ball of chocolate into center of each cup. Top evenly with remaining batter.
- Bake 15-17 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Serve warm or let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe!
I would like to know if cream cheese frosting would taste good with these cupcakes because I’m not sure whether the chocolate stuffing and cream cheese frosting combo would taste too good.
Thanks again. Look forward to your reply.
The cream cheese frosting and the chocolate stuffing would probably compete for flavor attention and I think it would be a little much. You’re probably better off going with one or the other but not both.
These r jus too amazing…….
My only question to you is though, what brand of the red food coloring do you use? Cause I can never get my cupcakes to turn out this gorgeous deep red.
Thanks
Regards from India…
Hi! I use the Wilton Icing colors – they’re a gel consistency and are really concentrated. http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3e30b2d9-475a-bac0-5d5c3db846dfd354
These cupcakes look amazing! I can’t wait to try making these, however do you think its possible to substitute evaporated milk for heavy cream?
I’m not sure… it might come out a little too thin if you made that substitution.
Hi Tessa! I just made your recipe today! I loved it!
Greetings from Mexico!
When You Mean Cream, Do You Mean Regular Sour Cream?
Nope. Not sour cream. The chocolate filling requires liquid heavy cream and the cupcake recipe requires buttermilk. You may be able to substitute sour cream for the buttermilk but not the heavy cream.
Hey Tessa
I’m in love with you blog. I have baked so many of your cakes from here any everyone LOVES them. I want to make a full 8 inch cake out of this recipe (i want to add a layer of the chocolate and cream cheese icing in the cake), would you recommend any changes?
Thanks
I haven’t done this but I think you would need to double this recipe to get two 8-inch layers. You’ll have to increase the baking time, probably around 30-35 minutes. Good luck!
Why not use Nutella rather than the chocolate balls? 😀
I will definitely be making these for Valentine’s day!! Absolutely gorgeous!
Hi Tessa! What is a good minimum time to freeze the chocolate balls before inserting them into the batter to bake? Because when I made these cupcakes my chocolate sort of “exploded”, and my cupcake was somewhat hollow because of the exploded chocolate.
Hi Tessa. I’m having some difficulty with the chocolate filling..must have done something wrong but it’s been in the freezer all day and it melts pretty much as soon as i try to make them into balls to freeze again for later. If i put a little dollop in each cupcake I’m worried it won’t melt slow enough and sink to the bottom. Now obviously, doing what i’m going to suggest wouldn’t get the same chocolate filled effect you wrote about… but what if I just mixed the chocolate filling into the mix and baked it all together. Do you think the cupcakes would still turn out okay?
Ale,
That’s really weird – are you using a scoop to form the chocolate filling into balls? They shouldn’t be “melting” that quickly – I’m not completely sure why you’re having that problem unfortunately. You could try to mix the filling into the cupcakes, I’m not quite sure how that would turn out. Good luck!
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Hi , I tried your recipe out today, had a few problems I hope you can help with, the cupcakes were not as red as they should be (used exact qty from the recipe) how do I get them so red?, the stuffing I followed as per the recipe but they melted + harded to the bottom of the cup cake instead of melting in the centre, must I freeze the stuffing for longer? or must I make the balls really small? I am using a standard size cup for the cupcakes, I did half the batter but found I did not have enough for the top, (I only had enough for 10 cupcakes) is the recipe more for mini cup cakes?, what am I doing wrong please help, I got to get this right. Thank you (South Africa)
Roxanne – for the food coloring I find that gel coloring is the most vibrant. You may need to use more food coloring if the kind that you have isn’t as powerful.
As far as the chocolate stuffing goes, it sounds like your balls of chocolate weren’t cold enough when they went in the oven. They probably need more time in the freezer. If they are colder than your batter then they should melt more slowly instead of melting into the bottom of the cupcake.
This recipe uses a standard sized muffin tin. I’m a little confused with your batter/quantity questions. If you halved the batter then you would only have enough for 6 cupcakes because the original yield is 12 cupcakes. Maybe that’s why you didn’t have enough batter for the top?