Mary Berry’s red velvet cupcakes are moist, lightly chocolatey sponges coloured with red food-colouring gel, topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting piped through a star nozzle, baked at 180°C (160°C fan) for 20-25 minutes. The recipe makes 12 cupcakes using her all-in-one method, so everything goes into a single bowl.
Berry’s headnote in Foolproof Cooking (2016) says “these taste as good as they look — moist chocolate sponge with a tangy cream cheese icing.” The sponge uses just 25g of cocoa powder alongside 125g of self-raising flour, which gives a subtle chocolate flavour rather than a full-blown chocolate cake. That lightness is deliberate because the cream cheese frosting is rich and sweet enough on its own.
The warning Berry gives about mixing is the one that saves most batches. She says “do not over-mix or this may result in flat cakes.” Two minutes of beating is enough to bring the batter together. Overworking it develops the gluten in the flour, which makes the sponge tough and stops it rising properly in the tin.
Mary Berry Red Velvet Cupcakes
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy12
servings15
minutes20
minutes390
kcal40
minutesFrom the Cakes & Biscuits chapter of Foolproof Cooking (2016), these all-in-one red velvet cupcakes use cocoa, self-raising flour and food-colouring gel with a cream cheese frosting whizzed in a food processor. Prepare ahead up to 1 day, freezes well unfrosted.
Ingredients
- For the cupcakes:
100g (4 oz) butter, softened
150g (5 oz) caster sugar
125g (4½ oz) self-raising flour
25g (1 oz) cocoa powder, sifted, plus extra for dusting
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
10ml (⅓ fl oz) red natural food-colouring gel
- For the frosting:
50g (2 oz) butter, softened
200g (7 oz) full-fat cream cheese
300g (11 oz) icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Prepare: Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4 (350°F). Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
- Mix the sponge: Measure all the cupcake ingredients into a large bowl and mix together until smooth, either by hand or using an electric hand whisk. Do not over-mix. Spoon the batter into the paper cases, dividing it evenly between them and filling no more than two-thirds full.
- Bake: Bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and springy to the touch. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make the frosting: Measure all the frosting ingredients into a food processor and whizz until smooth, or beat together by hand. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Dust with cocoa powder to serve.
Notes
- Calories: Sponge: 100g butter (717) + 150g sugar (581) + 125g flour (431) + 25g cocoa (62) + 2 eggs (156) + 2 tbsp milk (18) = 1,965. Frosting: 50g butter (359) + 200g cream cheese (496) + 300g icing sugar (1,182) = 2,037. Total: 4,002 ÷ 12 = 334 → with generous piped frosting = 390 kcal per cupcake
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FAQs
Can I make these the day before?
Berry’s prepare ahead note says the cupcakes can be made up to 1 day in advance and frosted to serve. The sponges freeze well unfrosted for up to 2 months. I bake the sponges the evening before and frost them the next morning, so they’re completely cold and the frosting doesn’t slide off.
Keep the frosted cupcakes in the fridge until 30 minutes before serving. Cream cheese frosting softens quickly at room temperature, so on a warm day they’ll need the fridge right up until you bring them out.
Why does Berry use food-colouring gel instead of liquid?
Berry specifies “red natural food-colouring gel” because it gives a stronger, more vivid colour without adding moisture to the batter. Liquid colouring is more diluted, so you’d need three times as much to get the same depth of red. That extra liquid thins the mixture and can affect how the sponges rise.
I tested with liquid once and the colour came out more pink than red, even after adding extra. The gel is concentrated and you only need 10ml for the full batch. Look for it in the baking aisle next to the vanilla extract.
What makes Berry’s cream cheese frosting different?
Berry whizzes hers in a food processor rather than beating by hand. This gives a smoother, lighter result because the processor incorporates air evenly. She uses 200g of full-fat cream cheese, which is more than most recipes call for, making the frosting tangier and less sweet than a standard buttercream.
Full-fat cream cheese is essential. Low-fat versions have a higher water content and the frosting won’t hold its shape when piped. Berry doesn’t mention this, but I learned it the hard way when a batch of frosting slid straight off the cupcakes.
How do Berry’s three cupcake recipes compare?
Berry has three cupcakes across her books. These Red Velvet from Foolproof Cooking (2016) are the quickest to make because the all-in-one sponge and food processor frosting mean minimal effort. Her Toffee Cupcakes in Everyday (2017) use muscovado sugar and black treacle with a homemade toffee sauce folded through buttercream, which takes longer but tastes like sticky toffee pudding.
Her Lemon Meringue and Strawberry Cupcakes in the same book are the most ambitious. She bakes a lemon sponge with freeze-dried strawberries, scoops a hole from the centre, fills it with lemon curd, then tops with blowtorched meringue. Berry describes them as “strawberry pavlova and lemon meringue pie combined in a little sponge.”
Why does Berry say to fill the cases only two-thirds full?
The sponge rises significantly in the oven because of the self-raising flour and eggs. If you fill the cases higher, the batter overflows and you end up with flat mushroom-shaped tops instead of neat domes. Two-thirds full gives the sponge room to rise above the rim without spilling over the edges.
It also leaves space for the piped frosting to sit inside the rim of the paper case rather than perching on top. Berry pipes generous swirls with a star nozzle, and if the sponge is already level with the top of the case, the frosting has nothing to anchor to.
