Red Velvet Cake

There’s a reason why they call this soft and ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake the queen of desserts. When baked right, the result is an ULTRA-MOSIT, lightly cocoa flavored cake that when paired with my dreamy Cream Cheese Frosting is a melt in your mouth experience in every bite.

Honestly, it’s like no other cake you’ve had. It’s light, it’s dreamy and it is the first cake I try when I go to a bakery. If you can get a Red Velvet cake right, and it’s not that hard with the right recipe, you’re a star baker!

For today’s recipe you’ll need to make a batch of my Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s super creamy. But this cake pairs well with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate Buttercream too!

And if you’re looking for more amazing cake recipes, I have heaps on the blog, but I’d recommend my Easy Chocolate Cake, Hungarian Chocolate And Hazelnut Cake and my Raspberry Lamington Sponge Cake. They’re crowd pleasers!

I have been making this recipe for 10 years!

Well, sort of. This recipe is an updated version of my older recipe. It’s easier to make, comes out even more moist and isn’t as high. It’s a sensible 4 layers. But here’s some other reasons you’ll love my recipe over others!

• Rich, unique flavor! – Red velvet cake is known for it’s super unique flavor. It’s a moist vanilla cake with a hint of cocoa which, when paired with Cream Cheese Frosting is other wordly!
• It’s MOIST! – I know, I used the M word but honestly, it has to be said! The buttermilk in this recipe gives this cake it’s light, yet moist texture. And here’s a secret, it’s even better the next day!
• Cream Cheese Frosting – Look, there are a lot of frosting recipes out there, but the smooth, tangy and creamy flavor you get from this frosting is a match made in heaven with this cake. It’s science.

Why is red Red Velvet Cake, Red?

Traditionally, Red Velvet cake started off as a really deep red color because of a chemical reaction between the cocoa powder and the vinegar. Personally, I love the addition of food dye to make this a bright red color. It makes it a perfect seasonal cake that you can make for valentine’s day or Christmas. Although it’s a great all-rounder cake you can have any time of the year!

Ingredients You Need To Make Red Velvet Cake

Note: the whole recipe, including the ingredient quantities, can be found at the bottom of this page – just scroll down to the bottom, or click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button at the top of this post.

• Cake Flour – Cake flour is a low protein flour that is used to make desserts light and moist. You can use store bought which has a much finer flour consistency, or simply make your own with my simple recipe. Click here to get the recipe and learn all the tips and tricks.
• Unsweetened cocoa powder – Dutch or natural will work. The small amount use is where this cake gets it’s super unique flavor from and combined with the bright red food dye. its deep red color too.
• Baking powder – helps the cake rise.
• Bicarb soda – also known as baking soda.
• Salt – I used fine salt.
• Caster sugar – otherwise known as superfine sugar.
• Buttermilk – I always use store bought because I think that even though you can make your own, it just always comes out more moist. At a pinch, it’s easy to make your own.
• Vegetable oil – or canola oil. Any light oil will work. Olive oil, coconut oil, those are too heavy and the cake won’t be light in texture with a heavy oil.
• Eggs – make sure your eggs are at room temperature. Super important.
• Vanilla Extract – Always use good quality vanilla extract when baking, it makes a huge difference. I have a great recipe here for it if you’d like to try your own!
• Red food dye (liquid) – I know a lot of people don’t like using food dyes. I used to use them a lot, but I avoid using them as much as possible now. for this cake, there is no substitute. Can you add less than the recipe says? Sure. It won’t be as red though. And let me be clear, you need to use liquid food dye, not food gel.
• White vinegar – reacts with the bicarb soda to help give this cake a boost in the oven as it bakes making it light and fluffy.

How to make The BEST Red velvet Cake!

1. Mix your dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Mix your wet ingredients in a separate bowl
3. Combine both ingredients, taking care not to overmix!
4. Divide batter amongst two 8-inch cake tins. Bake in the middle rack. Allow to cool.

5. Trim the top of your cakes.
6. Then trim in half again. You’ll end up with 4 layers.
7. Turn the tops into crumbs.
8. Add a smear of cream cheese frosting on the bottom of your serving plate.

9. Add frosting on the first layer of cake and smoothen out
10. Add the next layer of cake and repeat
11. Cover the cake in frosting
12. Smoothen out.
13. Add crumbs on the outside to finish.

Tips and Tricks For Recipe Success!

• Don’t overmix your batter! Mix only until no dry ingredients are showing to avoid a tough cake.
• Trim the tops of your cake to flatten them – it results in a neater looking cake and you can use the crumbs to decorate the outside of your cake.
• Use scales to measure your ingredients! You get far more accurate results.
• Use room temperature ingredients.
• Sift the dry ingredients to make sure there are no lumps. That’ll help stop the risk of overmixing as you try to get rid of lumps.

Frequently Asked Questions about Red Velvet Cake

What does it taste like?

This cake has a light cocoa flavor, a slight tang which pairs perfectly with my smooth, creamy Cream Cheese Frosting!

How do I store this?

Red Velvet Cake should be stored in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s even more moist the next day!

Can I turn these into cupcakes?

I’ve done the hard work for you and have a great Red Velvet Cupcake recipe here on the blog!

Can I freeze it?

Yep! Wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 2 months.

Can I use other frostings?

Yes! Chocolate Ganache, Chantilly Cream and Chocolate Buttercream are also great with this cake. But hey, if you want it plain you can just dust powdered sugar on top!

Can I use food gel instead?

No. Sorry, I’ve tried using red food gel for this recipe and the color, weirdly, just isn’t as bright. Liquid food dye works best. If you don’t want to color your cake, that’s fine. It won’t affect the end result or the flavor, but your cake just won’t be red.

How do I make buttermilk? Can I use regular milk?

You could use regular milk, but the cake wont come out as moist. Buttermilk is also acidic which helps react with the bicarb soda in the cake to help give it its light texture.

To make 1 cup of your own buttermilk whisk together 1 cup (250ml) milk and 1 tsp of white vinegar together and allow to rest for 5 minutes. The milk will curdle. Whisk again before using.

Couple more notes:

• Store bought buttermilk is always better than home-made. For some reason the end result of your cake just comes out moister and lighter. I would use store bought if you can get it.
• Make sure your buttermilk is at room temperature.

Gave this a go? Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! Hungry for more? Join me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok for more great recipes!

If you loved this recipe, check these out!

• Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake
• Easy Chocolate Cake
• Hungarian Chocolate And Hazelnut Cake (Esterhazy Torte)
• Fluffy Coconut Cake
• Cookies And Cream Cake
• Raspberry Lamington Sponge Cake
• Easy Carrot Cake
• Ferrero Rocher Cake
• Lemon Sponge Cake

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @thescranline on Facebook and Instagram!

Red Velvet Cake

There’s a reason why they call this soft and ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake the queen of desserts. It’s easy to make and utterly luscious in every bite!

Serves 12

4.8 from 35 votes

Author: Nick Makrides

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep: 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Cook: 1 hour hr 55 minutes mins

Cool: 2 hours hrs

Total: 3 hours hrs

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Calories: 840kcal

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Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake

• ▢ 450 g cake flour, (see notes)
• ▢ 2 tbsp / 15 g unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• ▢ 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ▢ 1 1/4 tsp bicarb soda
• ▢ 1/2 tsp salt
• ▢ 260 g caster sugar, (see notes)
• ▢ 600 ml buttermilk, (see notes)
• ▢ 175 ml vegetable oil, or canola oil
• ▢ 4 / 212 g large eggs, room temperature
• ▢ 2 tsp / 10 ml vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 tbsp / 40 ml red liquid food dye, not food gel (see notes)
• ▢ 1 1/4 tsp / 7 g white vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 375 g unsalted butter, softened (see notes)
• ▢ 375 g full-fat cream cheese, chilled (see notes)
• ▢ 1 1/2 tsp / 7 ml vanilla extract
• ▢ 230 g milk powder, (see notes)
• ▢ 465 g powdered sugar, sifted

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Instructions

Red Velvet Cake

• Preheat a fan forced oven to 140C / 285F (convection oven to 160C / 320F). Spray two 20cm / 8-inch cake tins with oil spray and line the bottoms with baking paper.
• Add the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and caster sugar to a large mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine. Set aside.
• To a large jug or medium sized mixing bowl add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, red food dye and white vinegar. Use a whisk to combine.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until no dry ingredients are showing. Small lumps are ok, the key is to not overmix.
• Distribute the batter amongst both cake tins evenly. Bake in the middle rack of your oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Once baked allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer. Mix on low speed to begin with, to help break up the cream cheese a little, then increase the speed to high for a couple of minutes to help combine the cream cheese and butter.
• After a couple of minutes, stop your mixer and scrape down the side of the bowl with a spatula. Add the powdered sugar, milk powder and vanilla. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, then bring the speed back up to high. Continue beating on high speed, about 5 minutes, until your frosting is fluffy and turns pale in color. Scrape down the bowl and beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Add to a piping bag.

Let’s decorate!

• Start by trimming the tops off your cake layers to make them flat. Then slice each cake in half. You’ll end up with four cake layers.
• Add the tops of the cakes into a food processor and pulse until you reach crumbs. You can also do this by hand, but a machine will give you finer crumbs.
• Add the first layer of cake to a serving plate or cake board. Pipe some frosting on top and use an offset spatula to spread around flat. Add the next layer of cake and repeat that until the fourth layer of cake is on top.
• Cover the cake in frosting and even off the sides and top as neatly as you can. Stick some red velvet crumbs on the side of the cake. Finish the cake by fitting the end of a piping bag with a star tip and pipe swirls on top of the cake. Slice and serve at room temperature.

Notes

Buttermilk – To make 1 cup of your own buttermilk you will need:

• 1 cup cow’s milk (250ml) (vegan, plant based or cow’s milk)
• 1 tsp white vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice

Whisk both ingredients together and allow to rest for 5 minutes. The milk will curdle. Whisk again before using.

Couple more notes:

• Store bought buttermilk is always better. I would use store bought if you can get it.
• Also make sure your buttermilk is at room temperature.

Cake Flour – Cake flour is a low protein flour that is used to make desserts light and moist. You can use store bought which has a much finer flour consistency, or simply make your own with my simple recipe. Click here to get the recipe and learn all the tips and tricks.

Red Food Dye – For this recipe, you need to use liquid food dye. Not food gel. To get that bright red color, you would have to use the entire bottle of red food gel. Trust me, I’ve tried it.

Caster sugar –  also known as superfine sugar, is a fine sugar often used for cakes which helps give you a finer and more delicate cake crumb. If you don’t have it, you can use granulated sugar.

Butter – It’s important to use butter that is high in fat and softened. Usually, butter made in New Zealand and France is good quality butter. Using cheap butter can cause your frosting to split. You also want to make sure your butter is softened. If you keep your butter in the fridge you can soften it by adding it to the microwave for 10 seconds at a time, turning over each time until softened. It usually takes about 2-4 goes.    

Cream cheese – You want to use what is called ‘block style’ cream cheese for this recipe and straight out of the fridge, cold. This is different to ‘spreadable’ cream cheese which is soft even when it’s cold. ‘Block style’ cream cheese helps give this frosting structure. If you’re in the UK, you can use any brand block style cream cheese, I would recommend the Philadelphia brand cream cheese. It’s important that you use cold cream cheese, straight out of the fridge.

Milk Powder – Milk powder is what people used to use to make milk before fridges were widely used in kitchens. It can be found in the long-life milk isle of your supermarket. Skim or full fat can be used. To learn more about Milk Powder, take a read of the post I wrote up!

Storage – this cake can be stored in an airtight container, the fridge for up to three days. Thaw to room temperature before serving.

Nutrition – is based on per slice. This recipe makes 12 slices.

A note on measurements – all ingredients in this recipe are offered in Australian cup measurements and weight measurements. Weight measurements are created by me, in my kitchen here in Melbourne Australia. The best way to get recipe success is to measure ingredients by weight, using kitchen scales.

Nutrition

Serving: 20g

Calories : 840kcal

Carbonhydrates: 81g

Protein: 16g

Fat: 45g

Saturated Fat: 27g

Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g

Monounsaturated Fat : 12g

Trans Fat : 1g

Cholesterol: 185mg

Sodium: 550mg

Potassium : 478mg

Fiber: 1g

Sugar : 52g

Vitamin A: 1551IU

Vitamin C: 2mg

Calcium: 338mg

Iron: 1mg

Nutrition Disclosure

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