Soft, light cupcakes with a berry preserve filling and cream cheese frosting. These Berry Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes are so tasty, nobody would guess they start with a boxed cake mix.
Changes in Life
I’ve mentioned in my last few posts that I’ve had some big life changes this year. All good, but changes nonetheless. The changes have been time consuming, which has cut into cooking and blogging time. It has actually worked out well though, because it has allowed me to create some faster recipes, and some ‘shortcut recipes’.
By shortcut, I mean ones where I spice up a boxed cake mix and use jarred preserves instead of making the cake and preserves from scratch …. like this recipe.
I think we can all agree that sometimes, less time preparing a dessert makes it all the sweeter.
Berry Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes
Boxed Cake Mix
My best friend from high school used to make a delicious cake that began with a few additions to a boxed cake mix. I use variations of her boxed mix additions on a regular basis, including with these cupcakes. These cupcakes use:
- 15.2 ounce (or similar size) box of Red Velvet Cake Mix
- 3.4 ounce box Instant Vanilla Pudding
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
Easy peasy. Whisk everything together then fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full. The recipe will make about 30 standard size cupcakes, so plenty to share.
Filling
Again, I go for easy with this recipe. I have successfully used jarred blueberry preserves and jarred mixed berry preserves.
If you want to step your game up a notch, you could consider making your own filling. I have a raspberry filling recipe in my White Almond Cake with Raspberry Filling and Buttercream Frosting post.
I have seen recipes for mixed berry filling on Hod Rod’s Recipes and on Oh So Delicioso that look they would be tasty and work well.
Frosting
Red velvet cupcakes scream for a cream cheese frosting, so that is exactly what these have. The ingredients for the frosting are:
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6-8 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or milk
This makes enough for each of the cupcakes to have a nice frosting-swirled top. If you want just a bit of frosting, you can cut the recipe in half and spread a small amount over each of the cupcakes. For me though, more frosting is always welcome.
Serving
The cake part of these cupcakes is light and moist. Therefore, the filling can seep to the bottom of the cupcake after a day or two. To prevent soggy cupcakes, I recommend you serve them on the day they are filled, or the next day. By no means are they bad on day 4 or 5, but they will be messier to eat.
Alternatively, you may choose to freeze the cupcakes after you make them.
These Berry Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes are beautiful and delicious, while taking less than an hour to make!
Berry Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 15.25 ounce box red velvet cake mix
- 3.4 ounce box instant vanilla pudding
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
Frosting* and Filling
- ~1/2 cup berry fruit spread or preserves
- 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6-8 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or milk
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners (makes about 30 standard size cupcakes so you may need to cook in more than one batch depending on size of your cupcake pan).
- In a large bowl, use electric mixer to beat cake mix, pudding, oil, buttermilk and eggs together for 2-3 minutes, or until mixture is smooth.
- Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake in the center of the pan comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Let cupcakes cool completely before filling and frosting.
Filling and Frosting
- Use a cupcake corer or a small spoon to remove about 1 teaspoon of cake from the center of each cupcake. Fill space with about 1 teaspoon of berry fruit spread. NOTE: If you're using preserves that have a liquid, drain any excess liquid before filling the cupcake core.
- Use an electric mixer fit with paddle attachment to beat cream cheese and butter until lightened and fluffy. Then mix in salt and vanilla until well combined.
- Add powdered sugar, about 1 cup at time, followed by about 1/2 tablespoon of cream or milk, until desired taste and consistency is reached.
- Pipe frosting onto top of cupcakes as desired.
Notes
Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.
If you enjoyed these Berry Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes, you may also enjoy these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Blueberry Cupcakes
Cadbury Mini Egg Cupcakes
Muddy Buddy Cupcakes
Blueberry Lemon Cake
