Celebrate Halloween with these moist black velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and raspberry jam.

It’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeaaaaar! And no, it’s not Christmas (obv). It’s the dawn of Halloween aka the best holiday ever. I don’t know what it is about Halloween, but I adore all the pumpkins and costumes and hot apple cider. Plus Halloween parties and trick-or-treating. It’s so much fun! To celebrate, I’ve made some really amazing black velvet cupcakes I need to share asap.

I’ve been trying to come up with something good for Halloween for a few weeks now, and I am so happy that these black velvet cupcakes came out of it. It’s a delicious and simple dessert to make, but makes a seriously spooky impact while remaining relatively kid-friendly. My daughter’s favorite part is adding her own bloody drizzle and pretending she is a vampire baker.

To make these black velvet cupcakes, I just used my favorite red velvet cupcake recipe and swapped it out for black gel food coloring. I am not the biggest fan of food coloring, but I always make an exception for Halloween. My favorite brand if Americolor because you can get a really vibrant color without using a lot of the gel which is perfect for getting a true black color instead of something more dark grey. I also used a touch of the red in the raspberry jam to make the color really pop and look bloody. Again, you don’t need anything more than a drop to get this color.

Since these black velvet cupcake are, well, black, it also means I can up the cocoa a little more which I love. I always find that red velvet cupcakes usually never have enough cocoa in them.

So what are your plans for Halloween? Are you dressing up? Having a party or trick or treating?

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Black Velvet Cupcakes

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Deliciously spooky black velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and "bloody" raspberry jam

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Total Time 48 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cupa all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon black food color (may need more depending on the brand.
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam
• 1 drop red food coloring
• 2 tablespoons water
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt together. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat together the butter, oil, and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each egg.

Beat in the vanilla and the black food color. Add more black food color as needed. The mixture should look mostly very dark grey. The color will deepen and intensify during baking.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk. Add another 1/3 of the flour, then the remaining buttermilk followed by the last 1/3 of the flour. Mix until just combined.

Quickly, but carefully, mix together the vinegar and baking soda. The mixture will bubble up a lot.

Pour the baking soda mixture into your batter and stir in well for 10 seconds.

Evenly divide the batter among the cupcake liners.

Bake the cupcakes for 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Let the cupcakes rest in the tin for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut out a hole in the middle of the cupcakes using a sharp knife. Fill in the cupcakes with raspberry jam, you should still have plenty left over.

Beat the butter and cream cheese for the frosting and add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and creamy. You can add a tablespoon of heavy cream if your frosting seems too thick.

Pipe the frosting over the cupcakes.

Mix the remaining raspberry jam with a drop of red food coloring and a tablespoon or water. Drizzle over the cupcakes.