These heart-shaped red velvet brownies are so much fun to make for Valentine’s Day. They are a sweet, soft cakey brownie with the classic flavour of red velvet and are egg free and dairy free and easily made gluten free.
Today’s recipe is just something a little fun and light as we get closer to the February 14th date. Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, you can’t tell me there hasn’t been a time when showing your love through baked goods isn’t a wonderful idea.
Whether you bake these for yourself, a loved one, or a gathering of friends, these are sure to help you spread the love and joy as we move through this new year filled with old uncertainties.
I love this recipe because it’s so quick and easy to make, meaning it’s perfect for the last minute. It also makes just 8 brownies, meaning that it’s a great small batch recipe when you don’t need to feed a crowd.
These brownies are more on the cakey side rather than fudgy and have a soft texture, but they are still moist and sweet and just overall a really delicious treat.
The red velvet flavour comes from a combination of both chocolate and vanilla, neither of which should be overpowering of the other, but rather equal partners. A metaphor for a relationship perhaps?
These brownies are also vegan, meaning that they are made both dairy free and egg free. Again this is why we have more of a cakey texture rather than fudgy (fudgy is usually a result of the egg in a traditional recipe), but when it comes to red velvet, that is just fine by me!
If you like the look of these but want a more fudgy style brownie, definitely try my classic vegan brownies recipe instead.
Key Ingredients
I love this recipe again because it uses all very basic ingredients, most of which I’m guessing you already have in your pantry.
- Almond milk – My preference when making this is to use vanilla almond milk, but really any plant-based milk will work.
- White vinegar – an important ingredient for red velvet to give it that distinct tangy flavour. This gets added to the almond milk to create ‘buttermilk’.
- White sugar – for sweetness.
- Vegan butter – I tried using coconut oil instead and found the flavour was too overpowering for the red velvet. I recommend using vegan butter for the best taste and texture.
- Vanilla extract – for flavour.
- Plain flour – you can definitely use gluten free flour here instead.
- Cocoa powder – just a little bit goes a long way for the flavour.
- Bicarbonate of soda – or baking soda in the US. As this is a vegan recipe that doesn’t use eggs, I’m using a little bit of bicarb soda to give the brownies that lift you’d usually get from the eggs.
- Red gel food colouring – I highly recommend using a gel food colouring for this recipe as you only need a little bit for a vibrant colour and it wont change the texture of your batter like a liquid colouring.
Step-By-Step Instructions
This recipe is so easy to make, it’s perfect for beginners or for times when you just need to throw something together quickly. All you’ll need is a large mixing bowl, a whisk and a square baking tin – no electric mixer required!
Start by making your ‘buttermilk’ by mixing together the almond milk and white vinegar. Your milk will start to curdle but that’s ok!
Everything else will come together in the same bowl. Mix together the melted vegan butter, white sugar and vanilla. Add in the milk mixture and combine.
Add all of the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix together until a thick batter forms. From here, you can leave it as is which will be a browny red colour, otherwise add in the red food colouring to give it that nice vibrant red colour.
Once you reach your desired colour, add the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until the top is just cooked and slightly springy when touched.
Once cooked, you can just cut it into squares OR you can cut them into hearts because that’s way more fun.
To do this, you really need to make sure your brownies are cool otherwise they will not hold their shape. I often find placing the brownies in the fridge makes this easier.
Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many shapes as you can. I get 8 brownies using my cookie cutter, but this may vary depending on the size of your hearts.
You can elevate your brownies a little bit by finishing them off with a little glaze. To make this I keep things really simple and add a little bit of water to ½ cup icing sugar until a drizzly consistency forms then drizzle over the top of the brownies. To make them extra pretty, you can add some sprinkles to finish.
Other option would be to drizzle melted vegan white chocolate over the top instead. I struggle to find a vegan white chocolate that I like so this is why I prefer the easy icing option. The flavour combination of red velvet and white chocolate though is delicious!
And what about all the leftover bits after cutting out the brownies? Well save them for a little kitchen snack, or crumble over vanilla ice cream. Do not let these go to waste!
More Valentine’s Day Recipes:
Chocolate Lava Cakes
Mini Vegan Chocolate Cake
100s & 1000s Sugar Cookies
Vegan Chocolate Truffles
Heart-Shaped Red Velvet Brownies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vanilla almond milk or any plant-based milk
- ½ tablespoon white vinegar
- ½ cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup 80grams vegan butter, melted and cooled
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- Red gel food colouring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 20cm square baking pan with a light spray of cooking oil and baking paper. In a small bowl, mix together the almond milk and white vinegar and set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the white sugar, melted vegan butter and vanilla and whisk until combined.
- Add in the milk mixture and combine, followed by all of the dry ingredients and whisk until all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the batter is shiny and smooth.
- Add in the red gel food colouring if using until you reach the desired colour.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is just springy when lightly touched.
- Let cool in the pan for a few minutes (if you can wait) before lifting it out using the baking paper onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out 8 hearts. Top with a drizzle of icing or melted vegan white chocolate if desired (see notes) and store brownies in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
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