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Red Velvet Cake is the best ultra moist, buttery, soft cake recipe with cream cheese frosting! It’s a classic cake with a vibrant red color and delicious flavor – looking for an authentic red velvet cake recipe? This is it!
I’ve always wondered about the flavor of Red Velvet Cake – is it vanilla? Is it chocolate? It’s actually neither – or a combination of both. This is a classic cake recipe has just a hint of cocoa for a flavor that’s all its own – and it’s SO good!
This cake is the softest one you’ll eat. It is always moist, sweet, soft, and delicious, especially with the frosting. Nothing goes better together than red velvet and cream cheese frosting; they’re the ultimate pair…but I wouldn’t hesistate to frost this with cookies ‘n cream frosting either! If you need a delicious cake that has a great texture and flavor, and can be made easily, this is the best recipe to try.
Important Ingredients
- Cocoa Powder: Use unsweetened cocoa powder – not Dutch process cocoa. Dutch process can interfere with the baking soda, and you want a fluffy moist cake, so don’t chance it.
- Buttermilk and White Vinegar: These are important ingredients for making that moist airy cake (the acid activates the baking soda) but red velvet is also supposed to have a tiny tang from the vinegar flavor, so there is no substitutions for the vinegar. (It also helps the red color POP!) You can use a buttermilk substitute if needed.
- Food Coloring: I prefer to use regular grocery store food coloring (not gel) for red velvet recipes.
How to Make Red Velvet Cake
- I like to whisk my dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then mix them together. This is very similar to how I make my chocolate cake.
- Because there’s no softened butter in this cake, you can whisk it by hand (but using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment is fine too).
- Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing.
- I always add the red food coloring last.
- Cool cake layers completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
- If you want visuals on how to make cream cheese frosting, be sure to see the post at that link. I go into detail about ingredients and how to make it (with step-by-step photos and a video).
Expert Tips
- Pan Sizes: This cake can be baked in two 9-inch round cake pans, three 8-inch round cake pans, a 9×13-inch pan, or as 24 red velvet cupcakes (see recipe for baking times).
- If using round cake pans, be sure to add batter to prepared pans: grease and flour the bottoms for easy removal.
- When frosting a dark colored cake like this with a light colored frosting, you can avoid getting crumbs in your frosting by first doing a crumb coat: a very thin layer of frosting that goes on first – all over the cake. Chill until the frosting semi-sets and then do a thicker second layer and you’ll minimize the amount of red crumbs that are in your final cake.
- Decorating Red Velvet Cake: I used some cake crumbs to decorate the top, but you could leave it plain or make swirls with a piping tip and extra frosting. Or decorate with sprinkles or strawberries.
FAQs
No – it’s its own flavor; red velvet has just a few tablespoons of cocoa so it’s not an overwhelming chocolate flavor.
I know people use natural ways to dye red velvet red, however I’ve only used red food coloring and can only recommend that.
Red Velvet Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 3 cups (372g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (10g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ cup (177ml) vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cups (355ml) buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon red food coloring
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 16 ounces (454g) cream cheese softened
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter softened
- 5 cups (600g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9×2-inch cake pans or three 8×2-inch cake pans.
- Whisk sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
- Add oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and vinegar to a large measuring cup or medium sized bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Whisk in red food coloring.
- Divide into pans equally. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
- If the cake has rounded tops, cut off the top to make the cake level. Reserve this to add crumbs to the top of the cake, if desired.
- Place cake on cake plate. Fill with frosting. Top with second layer and frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting.
- Decorate top of cake as desired. Store loosely covered in the refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
- You can also make 24-28 cupcakes (bake 18-22 minutes).
- I prefer regular food coloring (not gel) for this cake, but either may be used. If using gel food coloring you will not need the full tablespoon.
- Store cake loosely covered at room temp for up to 2 days or chilled for up to 3 days. You can freeze slices, or make ahead and chill/freeze cake layers well wrapped and frosting in an airtight container.
