Soft and Fluffy Red Velvet Cake Recipe
Ultra-moist and tender Red Velvet Cake with velvety cream cheese frosting. Each bite is soft, rich, and full of luscious texture.
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cake
- 450 g cake flour see notes
- 24 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 g buttermilk see notes
- 175 g vegetable oil or canola oil
- 4 large eggs room temperature (55g each)
- 14 g vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp red liquid food dye not food gel (see notes)
- 1 1/4 tsp white vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 500g g unsalted butter softened (see notes)
- 500g g full-fat cream cheese blocks chilled (see notes)
- 14 g tsp vanilla extract
- 300 g milk powder see notes
- 600 g powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
Red Velvet Cake
- Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140C / 285F (160C / 320F for no fan). Spray two 20cm / 8-inch cake tins with oil spray and line the bottoms with baking paper.
- Combine dry ingredients - 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.
- Combine wet ingredients - 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.
- Combine wet with dry - 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.
- Bake - 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
- Cream butter and cream cheese - 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.
- Add sugar and milk powder - 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!
- Trim cakes - 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.
- Crumble extra cake - 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.
- Layer cake - 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.
- Finish cake - 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
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.
To make your own buttermilk - Combine 250g of whole-fat cows milk (plant based milks don’t curdle the same way) with 1 tsp of white vinegar. Whisk both ingredients together and allow to rest for 5 minutes. The milk will curdle. Whisk again before using.
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 - 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 – this recipe is offered in weight measurements. This is in an effort to offer the most accurate way to get the best results. Cup measurements simply aren’t accurate enough for a recipe that needs precise measurements and cup sizes differ depending on where you are in the world. Here is where you can learn more about how to measure ingredients using digital kitchen scales
Nutrition
Serving:20g | Calories:842kcal | Carbohydrates:82g | Protein:16g | Fat:46g | Saturated Fat:27g | Polyunsaturated Fat:2g | Monounsaturated Fat:12g | Trans Fat:1g | Cholesterol:185mg | Sodium:549mg | Potassium:495mg | Fiber:2g | Sugar:52g | Vitamin A:1550IU | Vitamin C:2mg | Calcium:339mg | Iron:1mg
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