My daughter loves red velvet anything.
And her eyes really lit up when she saw these.
Soft, fluffy muffins with cream cheese swirled into the batter. It adds a subtle tanginess and provides extra moisture.
The muffins are made with buttermilk, oil, and with the cream cheese, it’s impossible to have dry muffins.
The crumb topping adds texture and an extra pop of sweetness. I can’t resist crumb toppings and wanted to pick those sandy, slightly crunchy crumbs right off.
When you’re filling your muffin pan with batter, make sure not to overfill the cavities. Sometimes I like to overfill for a nice big domed muffin top, but this isn’t the recipe to do it because you need to account for the crumb topping and oven rising.
If the cavities are too full, you’ll have crumb topping all over your muffin pan rather than on the muffins. I may have done this. Not fun to clean up.
But the muffins were sure fun to eat.
They’d be so festive for holiday parties from Christmas to Valentine’s Day. Or really anytime.
I think red velvet fans love it year-round and the muffins will be a hit with any red velvet lover.
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Red Velvet Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced into cubes
Cream Cheese Mixture
- 4 ounces brick-style cream cheese, softened (lite is okay)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Muffins
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons red liquid food coloring (I used McCormick
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan very well with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pan; set aside. (I don’t prefer the cosmetic look of muffin liners).
- Crumb Topping – To a medium bowl, add the sugar, flour, and using two forks or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until you have coarse crumbs; set aside.
- Cream Cheese Mixture – To a separate medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and beat with a handheld electric mixer until smooth, or whisk by hand until smooth; set aside.
- Muffins – To a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and whisk to combine; set aside.
- To a separate medium bowl, add the egg, oil, buttermilk, cocoa powder, red food coloring, and whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until moistened. Batter is thick and some lumps will remain, don’t overmix.
- Fold the cream cheese mixture into the muffin batter, being careful not to overmix. Some streaks of cream cheese should remain.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, filling each cavity about two-thirds full.
- Evenly sprinkle each muffin with the crumb topping.
- Bake for about 17 to 19 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter, Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 10 minutes, or until they’ve firmed up and are cool enough to handle, and then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Muffins will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days (I’m comfortable storing baked good with cream cheese at room temp, but use the fridge if you prefer), or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
- Lightly adapted from Red Velvet Lover’s Cookbook who blogs at Taste and Tell
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Made these today as a gift, but only 6 fit in the tin so, oh darn, I’ll have to eat the other 6 myself!
I made these using powdered buttermilk and lite cream cheese, although I think I’ll use full-fat next time. Just barely folding in that cream cheese is the key! I bit in to the moist muffins and there was a pocket of ooey, gooey cream cheese. So yummy!
Glad that they came out great for you and yes, full-fat anything is always best :) But you know, trying to be good, a little bit, is a good thing :) And yes to not over-mixing! Those cream cheese bites are the best!
These look amazingggg! Honestly never heard of red velvet muffins, only cupcakes! Definitely going to have to try out this recipe ASAP!
-Jessica
Love the muffings! Pinned it ofcourse :) buttermilk, oil, and cream cheese is a very nice combination. Thanks Averie!
Thanks for pinning!
I’m so glad you made these – definitely one of my favorites. Now I want to bake up a batch!
Your book is gorgeous and I cannot believe you came up with 50+ red velvet recipes – you are amazing :)
Wow, these look so festive! I never really thought of red velvet for the holidays, but what a great idea! I can’t wait to try these!
I LOVE RED VELVET! These look sooooooooo good.
Trish
You caught me — I definitely would’ve picked off all the crumb topping too! ;) I actually had never tried red velvet anything until I was 21. Such a shame! I missed out on way too many delicious cupcakes and cake slices… All in the name of dark chocolate instead. Lesson learned. You have one smart daughter!
Daughter of a food blogger, gets exposed to everything at a young age!
Oh These looks really delicious! *.*
Ahem #cakeforbreakfast I approve! Way to breakfast-ify a cake classic!
They are perfect! I’m with her – I can’t resist red velvet either. Or crumble. It’s why we’re friends. :)
And thank you for pinning! :) xo
My daughter is also a huge fan of red velvet…love it as a muffin…and with the cream cheese? Amazing!
What a fun breakfast treat :) I wish I was eating one (or two) of these right now!
Thanks, Brandon, and Merry Christmas!
Averie, these muffins look absolutely perfect! I’m a huge fan of anything red velvet and these definitely take the cake (or muffin)! I love that you rolled these in a crumb topping, too. Pinned!
Thanks for pinning! :)
I love red velvet anything too and the crumb topping is a creative twist! Some people aren’t frosting lovers (and you know I don’t fall into that category) so a streusel type topping is a perfect solution.
I always forget that you’re not a huge frosting lover – that’s okay, I’ll take your share :) But the little crumbs were a fun twist I thought!
Well, that is just the most perfect Christmas morning breakfast if I ever saw one! The color is SO pretty, and I am a sucker for ANYTHING with streusel! Bring it on. Pinned!
Thanks for pinning! :) And I was thinking the same thing too about a Christmas morning breakfast!
I love red velvet for its striking color and these would be perfect for a holiday spread. I like that you used the crumb topping instead of the traditional cream cheese frosting you can’t beat a streusel topping the best.
Streusel topping is always my weakness. Well, so is cream cheese frosting :) You can’t go wrong with either in my book!