Red Reaper Cupcakes
Red Velvet becomes re-animated this Halloween. These incredibly soft ruby red cupcakes will make your mouth have a rush with Reaper itself with its sweet fiery center. Whipped cream cheese icing provides a classic homage to the traditional style, while keeping it light and capable to cut any lingering heat. These accents go well with the flavor and texture of raspberry jam and provide a nice contrast to the typically oh too sweet red velvet cupcake.
I won’t pretend me or my grandma has a perfect, made from scratch red velvet cake blend. Red velvet traditionally used to get it’s color the red producing antixodant [anthocyanin] from un-Dutch processed cocoa or from beet sugar. With a intricate balance of brown sugar and baking soda, that I just leave it to the food science experts. All for under $5 no less! Elevate instead a standard cake box mix with a little creativity and play on the tastebuds.
Try these out at your next Halloween party! For more baking ideas, check out my Halloween 2021 must-have list!
You Will Need:
- Standard Red Velvet cake mix
- Eggs
- Olive oil
- Cayenne
TIP: Vamp up any cake mix with quality eggs, butter or oil.
For this red velvet mix, add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the blend.
Line cupcake pan with decorative cupcake liners, fill only halway to two-thirds full with batter.
Raspberry Reaper Filling
- 1 cup Raspberry jam (with seeds)
- 4 tbsp Raspberry Reaper Rush hot sauce
- 2 tsp Raspberry Chiptotle Glaze
- Fresh lemon juice
- Cracked pink pepper
Core out some of the upper tops of cupcakes, leaving plenty of cake at the bottom. My preferred weapon is a wine bottle stopper.
In a medium saucepan, combine the jam, hot sauce, chipotle glaze. Stir regularly until smooth. Finish off with a squeeze of lemon and just a touch of pepper.
Allow sauce to cool before pouring into a piping bag. Carefully inject each cupcake with the spicy raspberry filling.
We prefer to get our raspberry reaper rush from the original sauce man himself, Shawn Allison, in Sanford FL. He uses real raspberry, sugar and organic blue agave in his sauces.
Whipped Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 cup of softened cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream (none ultra pasteurized)
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
Whip cream and vanilla to a soft peak, then slowly fold in soften cream cheese. Spoon into a piping bag. Carefully swirl around each cupcake, starting on the outer perimeter working towards the center.
Garnish with dribbles of your raspberry sauce, and Halloween edible decor. For this year, we went with blood splattered bones!
Happy Baking and Happy Hauntings!
For the Love of Food & All That’s Good
