Red Velvet Snowflakes with Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

The first recipe for red velvet as we know it was published as a velvet cocoa cake around 1911. (Leavening agents interacting with the acidic cocoa create the reddish hue, though we now intensify it with food coloring.)

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The first recipe for red velvet as we know it was published as a velvet cocoa cake around 1911. (Leavening agents interacting with the acidic cocoa create the reddish hue, though we now intensify it with food coloring.)

New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel helped popularize the dessert in the 1930s, but it was the infamous armadillo groom’s cake in the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias that secured its spot as a Southern staple.

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Yields: 2 dz.

Prep Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 3 hrs 35 mins

Ingredients

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For the cookies:

  • 1 3/4 c.

    all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

  • 1 1/2 tsp.

    unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 1/4 tsp.

    baking soda

  • 1/2 tsp.

    kosher salt

  • 1/2 c.

    (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  • 2 oz.

    cream cheese, at room temperature

  • 1 c.

    granulated sugar

  • 1

    large egg yolk

  • 1 tsp.

    distilled white vinegar

  • 1 tsp.

    pure vanilla extract

  • 1/2 tsp.

    red gel food coloring

For the cream cheese icing:

  • 4 oz.

    cream cheese, at room temperature

  • 2 tbsp.

    unsalted butter, at room temperature

  • 1/2 tsp.

    pure vanilla extract

  • Pinch kosher salt

  • 2/3 c.

    confectioners’ sugar

Directions

  • Step 1Make the cookies: Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Beat butter, cream cheese, and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in egg yolk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring. Reduce mixer speed to low, and gradually beat in flour mixture just until combined. Divide dough into 2 discs; wrap each in plastic wrap, and chill 2 hours. 
  • Step 2Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll between 2 sheets of parchment to 1/4-inch-thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place, at least 1 inch apart, on prepared baking sheets. Freeze 20 minutes. Bake, in batches, until set and dry to the touch, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 
  • Step 3Make the cream cheese icing: Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla and salt. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small open piping tip. Pipe onto cooled cookies as desired.
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