Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream
A Special Buttercream for Valentine’s Day:
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream
My friends, The Buttercream Series continues here at Wicked Good Kitchen! Today, I am happy to finally share my recipe for Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream. I am telling you, this buttercream rocks.
The beauty of our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream recipe is that there is no need to add buttermilk, sour cream or vinegar to create a subtle tart flavor to match the classic Red Velvet Cake flavor profile as the cream cheese contributes just the right amount of tang.
As with my other cream cheese buttercream recipes, this special Red Velvet Cake inspired buttercream is a variation of my recipe for Best Ever Cream Cheese Buttercream—a veritable blank canvas for me when creating new cream cheese buttercream recipes. This Red Velvet Buttercream Frosting pairs beautifully with a special chocolate cake that I had hoped to squeeze in before the Christmas holiday season ended. But, no worries. That incredible chocolate cake is scheduled to be posted very soon for Valentine’s Day. I promise.
In the meantime, our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream would be the perfect frosting for our White Velvet Layer Cake, white chocolate cake, pink or red velvet cakes, or your favorite chocolate or yellow layer cakes and cupcakes.
If you are in need of a special buttercream to frost or fill cookies for Valentine’s Day, this one will fit the bill and then some. It is rich and creamy and everything you would expect it to be without overwhelming or overpowering the flavor of your sugar cookies, chocolate cookies or red velvet cookies and will only complement them. In fact, I can’t wait to use our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream to frost fudge brownies or Red Velvet Brownies! The ideas for its applications in dessert making are endless.
For this buttercream, just like my recipes for Pink Champagne Buttercream and Mint Cream Cheese Buttercream, I call for all-natural food coloring made by CHEFMASTER®. You will be amazed at the performance of this organic red food coloring made with glycerine, lycopene (from vegetables like tomatoes), water and red cabbage color. Plus, this incredible gel based, 100% natural and organic food coloring does not impact the flavor of the buttercream negatively, or water it down causing buttercreams to break, like artificial red food coloring does.
CHEFMASTER® Natural and Organic Gel Based Food Color – Red
For food color used in baking and buttercream making, I highly recommend CHEFMASTER® 100% natural and organic gel based food colorings and purchase mine from The Baker’s Kitchen online. Kosher certified powdered food coloring is also a very good option.
My friends, you are going to love this Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream with its pleasing silky-rich yet light and fluffy mousse-like texture and flavor profile that tastes just like Red Velvet Cheesecake!
Seriously, once again, I could not stop tasting it straight from the spoon. For my version, I used my favorite corn-free (cornstarch free) and vegan powdered sugar, 365 Everyday Value brand Organic Powdered Sugar by Whole Foods Market shown below.
Organic Powdered Sugar, 365 Everyday Value brand by Whole Foods Market.
For my friends that do not have a Whole Foods Market nearby, I highly recommend Wholesome Sweeteners for corn-free powdered sugar that can be found online in their store at Amazon.com.
As I have shared previously, this exceptional buttercream base is rich and buttery, melts on the tongue and is truly divine. Now, with the addition of Italian Pernigotti unsweetened cocoa (my favorite cocoa in the world!), our Best Ever Cream Cheese Buttercream becomes truly extraordinary. Red Velvet Cake lovers and cheesecake lovers, rejoice!
What about consistency? As is, the recipe is ready for frosting and piping cookies, brownies, cakes, cupcakes and cheesecakes (Red Velvet Cheesecake!) or even doughnuts and other baked sweet treats. However, you can lighten it up even further by whipping in a few tablespoons of heavy cream to create an even lighter mousse-like filling. Valentine’s Day and other holiday baked treats have never had it so good!
What makes our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream wicked good?
This exceptional cream cheese buttercream literally melts on the tongue. It is buttery-rich, creamy with cool peppermint flavor, silky-smooth and light and fluffy like mousse. A slight tang from the cream cheese balances the sweetness of the pure peppermint oil and sugar so as not to be overly sweet. This cream cheese buttercream tastes just like cheesecake and mint ice cream! Due to the adequate amount of fat from the butter, this special buttercream pipes beautifully.
Our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream is versatile and pairs extremely well with white cakes, yellow cakes and chocolate cakes alike as well as cookies, brownies, cupcakes, cheesecakes and other sweet treats like baked doughnuts. Stir in some chopped chocolate or mini semisweet chocolate chips for Red Velvet-Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Buttercream to frost chocolate treats. Quite simply the best Red Velvet Buttercream Frosting! Truly, wicked good.
For Valentine’s Day, you really must treat yourself to a batch of our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream to frost your favorite holiday baked sweets. You and your loved ones will love it! I promise.
Bon appétit!
xo,
Below are Pinterest-friendly sized images to pin at Pinterest!
Yield: Makes over 4½ cups; enough to fill and frost two 9-inch layer cakes or three 8-inch layer cakes.
Simply the BEST! Our Red Velvet Cream Cheese Buttercream is full of flavor, made with the finest all-natural ingredients and is light and fluffy. Just the right amount of rich cocoa is added to our Best Ever Cream Cheese Buttercream, along with natural red food coloring, to create the spot-on color and flavor profile of classic Red Velvet Cake. It pipes beautifully, the texture is like mousse and it tastes just like Red Velvet Cheesecake! Everyone will love this recipe. Perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks/226 grams) unsalted butter, softened (or 1 stick salted & 1 stick unsalted)
- 1 (8-ounce/226 grams) package cream cheese, such as Philadelphia®, chilled from the fridge
- 2½ teaspoons (12.5 ml) pure vanilla extract, such as Nielsen-Massey®
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) gel base red food coloring, kosher or natural, such as ChefMaster®
- 4½ cups (540 grams) confectioners’ sugar, spooned in cup, leveled off & sifted
- ¼ cup (28 grams) fine-quality unsweetened cocoa, such as Pernigotti, available at Williams-Sonoma, spooned in cup, leveled off & sifted
Preparation
Using an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or handheld mixer and large bowl, beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add cream cheese; beat until fully incorporated. Add vanilla and food coloring and mix until well blended. Gradually increase mixer speed to high and continue beating until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of bowl as necessary with rubber spatula.In a large bowl, whisk together sifted confectioners’ sugar and cocoa. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and cocoa mixture, beating on low speed (stir), until well combined. Beat on high speed until well combined and smooth while scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, about 2 minutes.
Before filling, frosting, icing and piping cakes, rebeat buttercream to ensure smoothness.
Notes
Tips:
If not using immediately, the buttercream can be refrigerated for up to 2 to 3 days in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature before beating smooth again. If using the buttercream to pipe details, be sure to use chilled hands when handling pastry bag as warm hands can melt the buttercream. To lighten up the texture of this buttercream even further, whip in a few tablespoons of heavy whipping cream to create an even lighter mousse-like cream cheese buttercream filling. Variation: Red Velvet-Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Buttercream: Stir in desired amount of finely chopped chocolate (bittersweet or semisweet) or mini semisweet chocolate chips. 3.1 http://wickedgoodkitchen.com/red-velvet-cream-cheese-buttercream/