Take your Halloween Party to the next level!
Table of Contents
❤️ Why you'll love it
- Never dry, super soft cupcakes with a surprise orange filling.
- A sweet and spicy take on a favorite cake flavor.
- No taste of artificial food coloring like some other recipes—I pinky promise!
Chocolate and orange pair perfectly with cardamom, cloves, and New Mexico chilies. It gives a sweet, warm burn which is immediately cooled by the tangy cream cheese frosting. Southern dessert, done right!
🥫 Storage
Store your cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for three to four days. Enjoy cold, or let them come to room temperature.
You can also freeze leftover black velvet cupcakes—frosted and all! Here's how to do it:
- Flash-freeze cupcakes uncovered in the freezer until the frosting is solid to the touch (try 30 to 60 minutes.)
- Wrap the cupcakes tightly with plastic wrap and place them in a freezer-safe storage container or bag.
- Put back in the freezer for up to a month.
- To thaw, unwrap the frozen cupcakes and then place them in an airtight container. Let them thaw in the fridge for a day or two.
📖 Variations
- Run out of buttermilk? It's okay—use the same amount of sour cream in its place.
- You can use cayenne pepper instead of chile, but be aware that the flavor won't be as complex.
- If you don't like to use regular, liquid-based black food coloring, you can use a smaller amount of black gel food coloring. The gel is more pigmented than liquid, so a little goes a long way.
- You can make this black velvet cupcake recipe as written, but bake it in an 8-inch square pan, instead.
- Decorate as you please and pair with whatever color frosting you'd like! These make perfect Halloween cupcakes (for obvious, spooky reasons) but they'd also be a great starting point for a black-and-white party, a black-tie event, black/red for V-Day, and so much more!
💭 Things to know
Expert Tip: Measure carefully when baking, and avoid scooping your flour out of the bag. Rather, after sifting, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then use the flat edge of a butter knife to carefully level off the excess.
- Preheat your oven early on, especially if it's an older model. Even though it may "ding" and let you know it's heated up, sometimes it still takes a bit after that to consistently hold the correct temperature.
- Let your cold ingredients (like the eggs and cup of buttermilk) come to room temperature before baking. It helps the batter to combine better and more quickly.
- When mixing black velvet cake batter, whisk the dry ingredients together very well. Then, when combining the dry with the wet ingredients in the final step, only mix until everything comes together. Overmixing at this point can cause your cake to come out a bit dry.
- However, make sure to beat the sugar and butter together very well. It can take up to five minutes. "Light and fluffy" means that the mixture visually appears lighter in color and fluffier (less dense) than at the start.
👩🍳 FAQs
They're a fun spin on red velvet cupcakes, perfect for Halloween parties or other events where a striking black cupcake is needed. (Yes, cupcakes, are always a "need.")
Classic red velvet cake recipes (the good, traditional ones) use a bit of vinegar to provide that nostalgic, "velvety" soft texture. It was also the vinegar's reaction with the cocoa powder that created a natural, brick-red hue and contributed to the name!
So, we use vinegar to create that same, ultra-soft texture, just in a different color. If you don't have balsamic, use white vinegar. However, balsamic helps create an even darker cake hue.
Cake flour has a lower protein content which makes the final baked result much lighter and more delicate. (High protein flour is best used for things like chewy bagels.)
If you can't find cake flour, substitute every cup of cake flour for ¾ cup of all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch.
The vinegar reacts with the baking soda which makes the cupcakes rise and provides a super light, airy texture. It also acts as a tenderizer so the cake is nice and soft.
This cupcake recipe is easy to split into sections! I like to prep the components one day, then decorate them the next.
Unfrosted cupcakes, once cooled, can be sealed in an airtight container and left at room temperature for up to three days (or you can freeze them, wrapped, for up to three months.)
Cream cheese frosting must be refrigerated at all times, though you can make it in advance and store it as well for up to three days. Let it thaw to room temperature before using, otherwise, you'll have a tough time working with ice-cold frosting!
You could try a natural black food dye swap, like special black cocoa powder. However, there really isn't enough cocoa in this recipe to make it super dark. I'd recommend using dark cocoa and then supplementing with food coloring gel until you're happy with the shade.
📚 Related recipes
- There is nothin' as delicious as a good, Southern Red Velvet Cake—one of the most impressive desserts in both flavor and style.
- Pink Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is a subtle, milder version of its namesake—and, it's super easy to make.
📞 The last word
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Black Velvet Cupcakes with Orange Filling
Print Pin Recipe Save Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
For Cake
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour, sifted, then measured
- 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground chipotle
- 1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons black food coloring, one 4 oz bottle
- 1 ½ teaspoons vinegar, I used balsamic but any will do
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter, room temperature
- 2 eggs, room temperature
For Filling and Frosting
- 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange flavoring
- Orange food color, (or yellow and red)
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 2 cups Confectioner’s sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Line muffin tins with cupcake papers
- Mix the sifted cake flour, cocoa, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, chipotle, baking powder and salt in a bowl
- Beat the butter with sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time
- Add vanilla
- Beat until well blended
- Mix vinegar the black food color, the baking soda, and the buttermilk in a bowl
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour
- Spoon into cupcake papers and bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out with just a little crumb on it
- Let cool
- Meanwhile mix the remaining butter and cream cheese
- Add orange flavor, vanilla, salt and orange zest
- Beat in confectioners until smooth and creamy
- Add orange food color until it is the color you desire
- Cut the center out of the cupcakes and use a pastry tube to fill the hollows with the cream cheese
- Frost tops with remaining frosting.
- Refrigerate if not using within a few hours
Notes
- Scoop the flour into the measuring cup lightly and don't pack in.
- Preheat your oven early on, especially if it's an older model. Even though it may "ding" and let you know it's heated up, sometimes it still takes a bit after that to consistently hold the correct temperature.
- Let your cold ingredients (like the eggs and cup of buttermilk) come to room temperature before baking. It helps the batter to combine better and more quickly.
- When mixing black velvet cake batter, whisk the dry ingredients together very well. Then, when combining the dry with the wet ingredients in the final step, only mix until everything comes together. Overmixing at this point can cause your cake to come out a bit dry.
- However, make sure to beat the sugar and butter together very well. It can take up to five minutes. "Light and fluffy" means that the mixture visually appears lighter in color and fluffier (less dense) than at the start.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
First published October 17, 2011. Last updated for editorial content on October 11, 2022.
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