Red Velvet Brownies are the perfect combination of fudgy brownies and red velvet cake. With a striking red crumb and a thick layer of luxurious cream cheese frosting on top, they are a delicious anytime treat.

Choosing between a slice of red velvet and a gooey brownie is now a thing of the past! These fudgy red velvet brownies will satisfy two sweet tooth cravings at once! When it comes to cake flavors, I think you can rarely go wrong with red velvet - it’s one of my all-time favorite desserts, as are my Red Velvet Cookies. But at heart, I am a sucker for a really good, gooey brownie - like my S'mores Brownies.
Whether you’re looking for a festive treat, something for Valentine’s Day, or you just really fancy that tangy red velvet flavor, this red velvet brownie recipe will not disappoint. I went through so many iterations of this recipe to get it the perfect balance of gooey and cakey to bring you a texture that is just right.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You can have the best of both worlds of Red Velvet Cake and gooey brownies.
- They are beautiful and the perfect dessert for parties, events, or just as a delicious treat.
- Cream Cheese Frosting - need I say more??
Ingredients
This red velvet brownies recipe uses simple ingredients, similar to what you'd find in red velvet cake, but tweaked for texture and homemade brownie perfection.
- Butter - This recipe uses a combination of butter and oil to get a balance between a rich flavor and a gooey texture. Use unsalted butter so you can control the level of salt in the recipe.
- Sugar - Most of the sugar in this recipe is regular white sugar - you’ll want to use extra fine sugar (caster sugar in the UK).
- Light Brown Sugar - Adding light brown sugar to the regular sugar does two things, firstly it will add a little depth to the flavor, but the moisture in the light brown sugar also contributes to the fudgy texture that we want in a brownie.
- Eggs - We’ll need whole eggs and an extra egg yolk on top for additional richness. Use large eggs and always free-range if you can.
- Vanilla - Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste does a lot for this recipe by rounding out all the other flavors.
- Oil - I use vegetable oil, but you can use any flavorless oil you like such as canola oil or sunflower oil. The oil helps keep the brownies gooey and moist.
- Cocoa Powder - You want Dutch-processed cocoa powder for these red velvet brownies. Cocoa powder is an important part of red velvet cake AND brownies, so make sure that you’re using a high-quality cocoa powder if you can find one for that subtle chocolate flavor.
- Flour - Regular all-purpose flour is best for this recipe. It is super important that you measure this accurately as I found while developing this recipe that even the tiniest bit too much flour will make these brownies come out cakey and they’ll lose the brownie-like texture. I always recommend using a scale to measure ingredients rather than cups, but it’s especially important here.
- Vinegar - It might seem strange to add vinegar to brownies, but it is one of the key ingredients in red velvet recipes and will help give them that ‘Red Velvet tang’. I used white wine vinegar but you can also use regular white vinegar.
- Cornstarch - This will help create make the brownie a little chewy.
- Red Food Coloring - You want to make sure you use a gel food coloring for these brownies, or for any red velvet cake. The liquid ones you get at the grocery store are just not strong enough and you won’t get the lovely bright red color.
- White Chocolate Chips (optional) - I tested this recipe both with and without white chocolate chips. Both were good, but in the end, I had a slight preference for the ones without. But it’s totally up to you if you want to throw them in or not!
- Cream Cheese - We’ll need cream cheese to make the cream cheese frosting on top of the brownies. Make sure the brand you use is not too runny - Philadelphia is always a good bet.
- Powdered Sugar - Also for the frosting, we’ll need powdered sugar (also known as confectioners sugar or icing sugar).
See recipe card for quantities.
Reader Review:
Make the Red Velvet Brownies
These homemade red velvet brownies are super easy to make and you don’t need any fancy equipment. I strongly recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh out your ingredients to get the absolute best red velvet brownies.
- Preheat your oven to 335°F / 170°C and line a 9-inch square cake pan with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter in the microwave in 30-second intervals until completely melted.
- Pour the melted butter into a large mixing bowl along with the sugar and light brown sugar. Mix everything together with a whisk. You can use an electric mixer for this recipe if you really want to, but it’s a very easy recipe to do by hand and may actually be better as an electric hand mixer may actually incorporate too much air.
- Add the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla and whisk in until just combined, being careful not to incorporate too much air.
- Add the vegetable oil and the cocoa powder to the wet ingredients and mix in completely.
- Take a couple of tablespoons of the batter and put them into a small bowl, add your red gel food coloring to this bowl and mix it in until the gel is all incorporated and there are no lumps. Add this mixture into the main bowl of batter and mix until combined.
Make sure you use red gel food coloring as the liquid kind is not strong enough to give you that beautiful red velvet color. The batter will look like a very dark, deep red color right now, but as it bakes it will lighten into that classic beautiful red color.
- Switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon or rubber spatula and add the dry ingredients, including the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Fold everything together until there are no more lumps.
- Add the vinegar and mix in completely, this will help to achieve that classic red velvet flavor.
- If you want to add some white chocolate chips you can add them at this point.
- Pour the red velvet brownie batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. The top should look set and no longer wet, and a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies should either come out clean or with moist crumbs on it. Don’t overbake the brownies or they will lose some of their lovely fudginess.
- Remove from the oven and let the red velvet brownies cool for about an hour before moving to a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before attempting to frost and slice.
Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat the butter and cream cheese together until completely smooth. Make sure they are both at room temperature, this will help ensure they incorporate nicely without any lumps. I find it easiest to use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or an electric mixer to make cream cheese frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar to the softened cream cheese and butter and mix on low until the dust cloud settles down. I find it helpful to wrap a dishcloth or some paper towels around the top of the mixer to prevent the powdered sugar from flying everywhere.
Once it’s no longer blowing out the bowl, turn the mixer up to high speed and beat for a few minutes until the frosting looks creamy and fluffy.
- Check the consistency of your frosting, if you’d like it to be thicker, add some more powdered sugar and repeat until you reach the desired thickness.
- Add the vanilla and beat for another few seconds.
- Spread the cream cheese frosting in a single layer all over the top of your cooled red velvet brownies.
- Slice the brownies into 16 individual pieces and serve.
Tip: If you want some pretty red crumbs to sprinkle on top of the cream cheese frosting, you can cut a small slice off of one end of the brownies before putting the frosting on, Crumble it up with your fingers and sprinkle on top for that classic red velvet cake look.
Video
Watch my video tutorial on exactly how to make these Red Velvet Brownies:
Reader Review:
These are delicious and easy to make and are now in my permanent recipe file. .. I like the way the recipe is written (with quantities listed under each instruction, making it easy to double check quantities.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Lore
Getting the Perfect Brownie Texture
I always recommend that the best way to measure out your ingredients is with a scale, rather than cup measures. This is because it's incredibly difficult to get exact ingredients measurements with cups and a lot of people end up adding way too much of some ingredients, like flour, which can throw off your entire recipe. This is particularly important with this recipe.
I tested this recipe so many times with the tiniest little tweaks that made massive differences to the texture of the brownies. I had multiple versions of the red velvet brownies with drastically different textures - they all had the exact same ingredients in them, just in slightly different quantities.
If you like to nerd out about the science of recipe development like I do, check out the image below which shows a few iterations of the recipe, with the last one being the final version.
The first brownie was absolutely delicious, but just a little too gooey for what I wanted here. I wanted them to be fudgy, but I also wanted slightly chewy brownies, and I still wanted to show off the gorgeous red velvet color.
The second brownie had more flour and I also incorporated a lot more air into the mixture as I was preparing it - it turned out far too cakey and wasn't really like a brownie at all.
The second last. brownie and the final brownie were almost identical in the recipe, except the last one had 30g less flour in it (about a quarter cup). You can see from the image what a huge difference this tiny tweak made.
If you were measuring your ingredients in cups, it's very easy to accidentally add this amount of flour or more extra to your batter, creating a totally different texture for your homemade brownies. So for best results, use a scale to get the fudgy, decadent red velvet brownies!
Variations
- Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies - For a twist on these easy red velvet brownies, try swapping the cream cheese frosting for a delicious cheesecake swirl. Mix 8oz cream cheese (226g) with 1 egg and â…“ cup white sugar (67g) and swirl it into the top of the brownie batter before baking. It will create a gorgeous pattern and taste delicious.
- White Chocolate Chips - I experimented with these brownies having white chocolate chips and not. Both versions were good but in the end, I liked them best without. You can add them for some extra texture and flavor. You could also add milk chocolate or dark chocolate chips if you prefer, but I feel like they might overpower the flavor of the brownies a little.
Equipment
- 9-inch square cake pan
- Scale - for measuring the ingredients accurately (not required but recommended)
- Large Bowl
- Whisk
- Rubber Spatula
Storage
Once the red velvet brownies are frosted it's best to keep them in the fridge as the frosting contains dairy. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge. They will be good like this for up to five days.
If you are storing the brownies separately before frosting them, you can keep them at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, or in an airtight container until you are ready to frost them.
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Recipe
Red Velvet Brownies
Ingredients
For the Red Velvet Brownies
- ¾ stick Butter 85g
- 1 cup Sugar 200g
- ¼ cup Light Brown Sugar 55g
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- â…“ cup Vegetable Oil 72g
- ¼ cup Cocoa Powder 25g
- ¾ cup All-purpose Flour 90g
- 1 tablespoon Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Red Food Coloring
- ¾ cup White Chocolate Chips optional
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz Cream Cheese 114g
- ¾ stick Butter 85g
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar 480g
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
Instructions
Make the Red Velvet Brownies
- Line a 9-inch square cake pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 335°F / 170°C.
- Melt butter in the microwave in 30-second increments until completely melted.¾ stick Butter
- Put the white sugar and light brown sugar in a large mixing bowl, then add the melted butter and whisk together until combined.1 cup Sugar, ¼ cup Light Brown Sugar
- Add the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla and mix together. Be careful not to overmix - we are not trying to add air into the mixture as that will make the brownies cakey.3 Eggs, 1 Egg Yolk, 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- Add the vegetable oil and the cocoa powder to the brownie batter and whisk together gently until completely combined - again we are not trying to incorporate air.¼ cup Cocoa Powder
- Take a couple of tablespoons of the batter and put them into a small bowl, add your red gel food coloring to this bowl and mix it in until the gel is all incorporated and there are no lumps. Add this mixture into the main bowl of batter and mix until combined.⅓ cup Vegetable Oil, ½ teaspoon Red Food Coloring
- Switch from a whisk to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and fold in the dry ingredients including flour, cornstarch and salt.¾ cup All-purpose Flour, 1 tablespoon Cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon Salt
- When there are no more lumps of flour, add the vinegar and mix in well.1 tablespoon Vinegar
- Optional: If you like, you can add some white chocolate chips at this stage. I decided I liked the brownies better without.¾ cup White Chocolate Chips
- Pour the brownie batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out with just moist crumbs on it.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely before attempting to frost and slice.
Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat the room temperature butter and cream cheese together until smooth and combined.4 oz Cream Cheese, ¾ stick Butter
- Add the powdered sugar and mix in slowly, once the dust cloud settles, turn your mixer onto high speed and beat for a few minutes until light and fluffy.4 cups Powdered Sugar
- Add the vanilla and beat in for another few seconds.1 teaspoon Vanilla
- Spread over the red velvet brownies before slicing.
VIDEO
Notes
It really helps and I love hearing all your feedback!
Judi Christianson
Can I use swerve powered sugar and almond four for this recipe
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Judi,
I haven't tested this recipe with those substitutions but I can't see a reason why the swerve powdered sugar wouldn't work.
As for almond flour, you can use it but the texture will be quite different and you might not get as much rise.
Hope this helps,
Jules
Judi Christianson
Can I use almond flour and swerve sugar for this recipe
A
Think there is something wrong with this recipe
To thin and took over 25 mins .
Jules Grasekamp
Hi A,
Thanks for trying my recipe. I'm happy to help you troubleshoot! A lot of people make this recipe with great results, but a few have ended up with thin brownies - it seems to usually be a result of mismeasured ingredients or overmixing the batter.
Hope this helps,
Jules
Nancy
I have always found red velvet anything to be dry. THESE RES VELVET are the exception!
I made these and didn’t have a lot of expectations, that is until I took the first bite! OMG! AMAZING. So good my father told me to laminate the recipe and ensure I never lose it. So good that we made another batch the next day!
The frosting adds to the brownies but they are delicious all on their own! I highly recommend. Jules thanks for another wonderful recipe!
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Nancy,
Thank you so much for such a glowing review of my red velvet brownie recipe! I'm SO happy to hear you loved them!
Thank you for being here.
Happy baking!
Jules
Gaby
How can I make these gluten free?
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Gaby,
I haven't tested a version of these as gluten free so unfortunately I can't give a confident answer on that.
I believe some people have tried with a 1:1 substitution with gluten free flour.
If you do make them GF, I'd love to know how they turn out!
Jules
Louise
When you say 3/4 stick butter, do you mean 3/4 of a cup or 3/4 of a stick of butter?
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Louise,
3/4 of a stick, so 85g.
3/4 of a cup would be double that amount. (170g)
Hope this helps!
Jules
Jody
These definitely are too thin. I'm going to have to make cake pops from it instead. They actually came out only 1/2 inch thick. I weighed my flour and ingredients, as I always do for every recipe. I used a 9x9 inch pan. It would have been better in a 8x8.
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Jody,
Ah I have just seen your second comment saying you did use a kitchen scale. It might have been down to overmixing. I did test the recipe in an 8x8 pan as well in one of the many experiments (seriously we had brownies piled high in our kitchen haha), but it was too small and the brownies didn't bake properly. Most people that bake these do use a 9-inch pan and see good results, so I'm hoping that the over mixing thing might be the fix for you.
Sorry they didn't turn out for you!
Jules
Jody
No worries, we loved it anyway! Taste was absolutely delicious!
Jody
I just took mine out of the oven. It didnt rise at all. It's only about 1/2 thick. Is that how it's supposed to be?
I wish I had made it in an 8x8 inch pan for a thicker brownie.
Not sure if this is how thin it's supposed to be?
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Jody,
No they definitely shouldn't be thin like that! The two main causes of this are inaccurate measuring of ingredients (happens regularly if using cups to measure instead of a kitchen scale), or overmixing the batter.
Especially in a recipe like this, if the dry ingredients are not accurately measured it can make a huge difference to the end result, so I strongly recommend using a scale if you didn't already.
I hope this helps and that your next batch turns out perfectly!
Jules
Jody
I did use a scale as I always do when baking.
Maybe I overmixed it then?not sure.
I ended up cutting in half and making it 2 layers with cream cheese in between and on top. The taste was fabulous so I give it 5 stars for that alone!
Charlie
Mine has baked for 20 mins and is still very lose?! Is it supposed to be 350 and not 330 temp?
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Charlie,
How did your brownies turn out in the end?
335 is the correct temperature but every oven is different so if you find that they bake too slowly at that temp you can try it at 350 next time. You might always want to try calibrating your oven if you find this happens regularly. Lots of other factors can also contribute to bake time including the kind of bakeware you use and the temperature of your ingredients, that's why it's always best to know what signs to look for if things are baked, rather than relying solely on baking time - and it sounds like you were looking out for those signs!
I hope they turned out great for you 🙂
Jules
Ashley
Mine came out very short.. looking like the first brownie in your comparison pic! They still taste great tho! Would you say that's probably a flour measuring issue? As I didn't use a scale just cups!
Jody
Mine came out thin as well. I weighed my flour and butter so in my opinion this should be baked in an 8x8 inch pan.
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Jody, sorry I am just making sure to reply to each one of your comments on this so you will likely get multiple notifications at once.
Just want to reiterate for other readers that if made correctly a 9-inch pan is best.
Thanks
Jules
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Ashley,
Oh no I'm sorry to hear your brownies didn't turn out how you hoped!
Yes I would definitely say this was down to the flour measurement. The difference in the amount of flour in the recipe was quite small, so just the tiniest discrepancy can. make a big difference to the height and texture of the brownie. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking to give more consistent results.
The other thing that could cause flat brownies is overmixing the batter.
I hope this helps and that your next brownies turn out beautifully!
Jules
Jennifer
My husband saw this somewhere on the internet and forwarded me your recipe to make. They turned out perfect, and he loves them!
Jules Grasekamp
Thanks Jennifer! I'm so glad to hear youa nd your husband loved the red velvet brownies!
Thank you for trying my recipe and for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Jules
Heidi Welch
Oh my goodness! These are the absolute best red velvet brownies I have ever had. Sweet, chocolatey moist and dense at the same time . The chewiness is what really won me over though. My family loved these too.
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Heidi,
I'm so happy to hear how much you love the red velvet brownies! I put a lot of time into getting that texture juuuust right so it's really nice to hear that it is appreciated!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for taking the time to let me know you and your family loved them!
Jules
Susan
Could you make these using an egg replacer?
Robert
How we know recipe is american????? Because it's overpounded w sugar, only things you taste is sugar ,like any other American made cookies or pastry, what rest of world just laughed about, use half of sugar and result be the same, just less adhd kids and less diabetes
Bry
I’m screaming. She’s Scottish
Jules Grasekamp
Haha thank you Bry, you beat me to it!
Yes Robert, as mentioned by another commenter, I am actually not American, but Scottish. I am sorry to hear you thought the brownies were too sweet. May I ask, did you bake them and dislike the flavor? Or are you just speculating about the sugar content based on the recipe? If you made them and thought they were too sweet, you are certainly welcome to make the recipe with less sugar to suit your taste next time 🙂
All the best,
Jules
P.S. I don't believe ADHD is caused by sugar consumption 😉
Belinda
Hi Jules!
My husband sent this recipe to me and said instead of a birthday cake he wanted these red velvet brownies. I made them and he LOVED them! They were delicious!
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Belinda,
I'm so happy to hear your husband loved the brownies! Thank you for trying my recipe and for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it.
I hope he had a lovely birthday!
Jules
Carissa
I’ve never put vinegar in brownies before. Curious what that does for the recipe?
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Carissa,
The vinegar is in there because it is a classic ingredient in red velvet cake, which these brownies are based on. In red velvet cake, the vinegar interacts with baking soda to bubble up and act as a leavening agent to give red velvet cake its texture.
Thought this brownie recipe doesn't contain baking soda (so they can be nice and fudgy), the vinegar gives a very subtle tangy flavor as a nod to red velvet cake.
In the brownies it doesn't add anything but flavor, so if you want to you can leave it out and it won't be detrimental to the recipe.
Hope this helps!
Jules
Aia
Haven’t tried it yet, but i was wondering, was it was intentional to leave out baking powder? Just that I very rarely see baking powder or soda skipped in a recipe and was wondering why. Thanks, and l’m excited to try this based on all the other comments!
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Aia,
That's a great question! Yes it is very intentional to leave the baking powder out to help give these a fudgy brownie texture. Baking soda and baking powder are both leavening agents and their role in baking is to make things rise. Adding a leavening agent to this recipe would make them more fluffy and cakey. I wanted them to be a perfect mix between red velvet cake and fudgy brownies, rather than just squares of red velvet cake. That's why I left out the baking powder.
I hope that explains it well enough and answers your question!
Jules
Izzy
More cake like than brownie… measured everything using the scales and made sure I didn’t over mix but somehow they look nothing like yours… might have to try again…
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Izzy,
Aw I'm sorry to hear the texture didn't come out quite right. I'm happy to help you troubleshoot.
Did your batter look the same as in my video before it went into the oven?
Jules
Vee Vee
Hi Jules! If I'll be making it into a red velvet cheesecake brownies, how long will be the baking time for? Also what will be the recommended multiplication of the recipe for a 9x13in pan?
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Veevee,
If you are swirling the cheesecake into the top of the brownies the bake time shouldn't vary from the original bake time of the brownies.
As every oven is different though, I still recommend checking your brownies with a skewer or toothpick. Try to test in a spot without cheesecake. It should come out with just moist crumbs on it.
Enjoy the brownies!
Jules
Will
I am making these tomorrow and my taste buds can't wait. I do have one question. Can I line my pan with aluminum foil instead of parchment paper? That's what I typically do with brownies, but I don't want to mess up your recipe if it drastically changes the time to bake or temperature.
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Will,
You can totally use aluminium foil to line the pan! It shouldn't affect the bake at all, but it may be slightly more likely to stick to the brownies which is why I prefer parchment paper - but you can use whichever you prefer.
I hope you love the brownies!
Jules
Joy
Hello I just made these brownies and I haven’t tried them yet but they took 1hour to fully bake and was wondering if there was something I did wrong or a reason why the only thing I know differed from the recipe was a circular glass pan instead of square but it took triple the time the recipe said so that doesn’t feel like it would make such a drastic change but I’m a new baker so I may be wrong and would love to learn what went wrong for next time
Jules Grasekamp
Hi Joy,
I hope your red velvet brownies turned out beautifully! This is probably because you were using a glass pan rather than a metal one. Glass takes a lot longer to heat up than metal does, so it means things take longer to bake when using glass bakeware.
The good news is it sounds like you had great instincts by leaving them in there until they seemed done! Bake times will always vary depending on different ovens and bakeware, so learning how to tell when your baked goods are done by look and feel is an invaluable skill! Hope you love the brownies!
Jules