Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies {Your new favorite Christmas Cookie Recipe!} (2024)

FAQs

How to make boxed red velvet cake better? ›

To enhance a store-bought red velvet cake mix, replace the oil with melted butter, add an additional egg, and substitute milk for water. Introduce a box of chocolate instant pudding mix for increased moisture and flavor, and don't forget to add a splash of red food coloring for that classic red velvet look.

Cream Cheese Frosting – A silky, tangy cream cheese frosting is the perfect compliment to these cookies. They taste exactly like classic red velvet cake in cookie form!

For the Red Velvet Cookies:

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and red food coloring and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed, just until combined.

When bakers added vinegar, baking soda, or buttermilk to their recipes to tenderize the cakes, the acid in those ingredients reacted with the cocoa, which was not Dutch-processed, to give the cakes a red tint. That color became a signature of velvet cakes.

Substitute the water with equal parts milk, or in the case of red velvet cake, buttermilk. Or substitute half parts water and half parts sour cream. For a rich consistency, make sure to incorporate these ingredients evenly into the batter, ideally using an electric mixer.

With a higher acidity, natural cocoa works with the cake's baking soda and buttermilk to leaven the cake to a tight, tender crumb. The results are an almost melt-in-your-mouth tender cake. Natural cocoa is also lighter in color, making the red velvet cake more vibrant.

It contains cocoa but not the same quantity as traditional chocolate cake, resulting in a more subtle cocoa flavor and tanginess due to the buttermilk and vinegar. Its uniqueness is a harmonious blend that sets it apart from other cakes.

(I like Americolor Red Red or Super Red.) Liquid coloring is fine in a pinch, but you need more of it for the color to actually show up. If you're looking for a natural alternative, use 2 teaspoons of beet powder. The color stands out a lot more in cookie dough than in cake batter, and you won't taste it.

You can upgrade your cookie dough by adding spices to it, said Tracy Wilk, lead chef at the Institute of Culinary Education. This can lead to a warm, spicy cookie. To do so, combine ground cinnamon, ginger, and sugar, and then roll your balls of cookie dough in the mix before baking.

The ingredients that make cookies soft do double duty: they add and maintain moisture and they add flavor that develops while the cookies bake. Butter is more than 15% water, so it plays a role in making cookies soft by adding water and fat, which contributes flavor and tenderness.

How do I upgrade my Betty Crocker cookie mix? ›

Easy Add-In: After creating the dough according to the sugar cookie mix instructions, Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream to create a tangier, cakier and all-around more flavorful cookie. Flavor Twist: For a punchier twist, swap the water in the sugar cookie mix instructions for rum, bourbon or coffee liqueur.

While red velvet cake is technically a cocoa cake, there is a key difference between standard chocolate cake and red velvet cake. Chocolate cake recipes traditionally use Dutch-processed cocoa, while red velvet cake uses unprocessed cocoa, a more acidic ingredient that produces a deeper, more intense chocolate flavor.

Baking products like sugar and butter were a part of the rations. As a result, some bakers chose to use beet juice in their cakes. You can still find red velvet cake recipes today that call for beet juice. The red color of the beets makes the cake have a more delicious appeal.

Boxed cakes often call for water, but swapping it out for equal amounts of milk, coffee, or even soda will give you a moister, more tender, and flavorful cake. For white cake mix, you can use whole milk or your favorite non-dairy milk.