Red Rose Cupcakes are wonderful to serve for Valentine’s Day or really anytime romance is the theme. They’re also a nice treat for chocolate lovers who also happen to love roses. Or am I the only one?

Whether you’re making these for your significant other, a party, or sharing them with friends, these simple but bold cupcakes will make a passionate statement, just like these Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes.

chocolate cupcakes decorated with red frosting to look like roses and green frosting for the stems on a white table with more cupcakes and a pink and white cloth in the background

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How to Make Red Rose Cupcakes
📋 Recipe
Other Great Cupcake Recipes

See how elegant they are? Beautiful bold color, the smallest leaf details to distinguish the roses. And a yummy, moist chocolate cupcake beneath it all.

How to Make Red Rose Cupcakes

One great thing about these cupcakes is that they don’t take years of cake decorating experience to create. You’ll get to use a couple of the “expert” tools. But don’t worry, they’re ones you won’t have trouble finding (you may have them already) and I’m going to share plenty of other ideas for getting more use out of them!

Ingredients and Materials Needed

Chocolate cake mix + ingredients listed on box
2 stick butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoon cocoa powder
3 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon red gel food coloring
Green decorating frosting
Wilton tip #21
Wilton tip #101

I’ve linked to the individual Wilton tips above but it’s actually cheaper to buy the starter kit which comes with the start tip and a similar leaf tip.

chocolate cake mix in a metal mixing bowl, a tube of green decorating icing, yellow cupcake liners, red food coloring, cocoa powder, a stick of butter on a white plate next to decorating tips, all on a white table and a blue and white flowered linen

Directions

Step 1: Bake Cupcakes

Follow the instructions on the box to make the cupcakes.

chocolate cupcake batter in cupcake liners in a muffin tin next to red food coloring, baking cocoa, green icing, and butter on a white plate, all on a blue and white flowered linen

Step 2: Make Frosting

Next, combine the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon of milk in a large bowl.

sugar and cocoa powder in a metal mixing bowl, next to two metal beaters, red food coloring and green icing on a blue and white flowered linen on a white counter

Beat on low to break up the butter then gradually increase the speed to high. Add more milk if you need it (you may not) to reach a creamy consistency. Your frosting should form semi-stiff peaks when it’s reached the right consistency.

Add red gel food coloring to the frosting and beat until it’s well combined and the frosting is rose red.

red frosting in a metal mixing bowl with metal mixers in it next to green decorating icing and decorating tips on a blue and white flowered linen on a white counter

Step 3: Frost Cupcakes

Add the buttercream to a piping bag with Wilton tip #21 attached.

In the center of each cupcake, pipe a small circle (about 1/2 an inch wide). Then, outside the center circle, pipe five more similar-sized circles around the edge of each cupcake.

chocolate cupcakes, one starting to be topped with red frosting to look like roses, next to a bag of red frosting on a wire rack on a blue and white flowered linen on a white counter

Step 4: Add Stems

Now we just need to add the green stems to our flowers.

Attach Wilton tip #101 to the green frosting tube. Pipe 3 to 4 leaves onto each cupcake in between circles.

chocolate cupcakes decorated with red frosting to look like roses and green frosting for the stems on a wire rack next to a tube of frosting with a blue linen with white flowers underneath them

That’s it! Your red rose cupcakes are ready to gift or serve!

an overhead view of chocolate cupcakes decorated with red frosting to look like roses and green frosting for the stems on a white table with more cupcakes and a pink and white cloth in the background

📋 Recipe

Other Great Cupcake Recipes

I promised that I wouldn’t let your cake decorating supplies go to waste. If you want to get more use out of your Wilton tips, try one of these other cupcake recipes.

If you love this easy cupcake decorating idea, pin this to your favorite cupcake decorating ideas board on Pinterest so you can find it quick later!

Red Rose Cupcakes