A moist, classic Red Velvet Cake!! Made from scratch, and surprisingly easy when a few specific, simple steps are followed. This iconic cake has a soft “velvet” texture, just like what you get from the best top end fine bakeries, and is topped with soft, cream cheese frosting.
After Red Velvet Cupcakes? Here they are! UK readers: Please read note 7.
Red Velvet Cake recipe – tried and tested favourite!
This Red Velvet Cake has been taste tested and given a big thumbs up by many people because it’s a rather large cake and I’ve made it 5 times in the last two weeks.
“FIVE TIMES??!!”, I hear you exclaim (out loud or in your head). “You’re MAD!!”
If getting this cake exactly to my taste, as close as I can get it to the cakes you get from posh bakeries, and ensuring it works using both US and metric (i.e. rest of the world!!) measures means that I’m a mad baker, I’ll take that title. 😉
Besides, I’m really enjoying baking at the moment. There is something so satisfying about making something as pretty as Red Velvet Cake.
To tell you the honest truth, the reason I made it so many times in recent weeks is because my original recipe got a “so-so” response from the two toughest taste-testers I know: my mother and brother.
“The sponge is zara-zara”, my mother declared on first bite.
What the….?? Zara-zara? What on earth does that mean??
“Zara-zara” means “rough” in Japanese. The Japanese language has a handful of words which sound like what it means. “Zara-zara” being a perfect example. Usually it cracks me up. Not that day.
I gasped, indignant, and grabbed a spoon to shovel a bite into my mouth, ready to argue. And I realised – she was right. It was not as velvety as it could be. As it should be.
NOT HAPPY.
So I improved it. 🙂
What is Red Velvet Cake?
Red Velvet Cake is not just a chocolate cake with red food colouring added. This cake is softer than most, “velvet-like”, and the chocolate taste is actually quite mild. It’s more like a cross between a vanilla and chocolate cake with a very subtle tang from buttermilk. And it is generously smothered in a fluffy cream cheese frosting.
It’s wildly popular in America and there’s a cult following in Australia. Give it a few years, it will become a firm favourite soon!
The cake tastes buttery and moist, because it has butter in it for flavour, and oil for moisture. Yes, you need both, I promise you. It is not the same if you use only one of them.
Why should you use THIS Red Velvet Cake!
There are 3 more specific things about this recipe which might be a bit different to other Red Velvet recipes you have seen, but there’s a reason for it.
1. Cake flour – it’s a must! It’s key to achieving that soft silky sponge, just like what you get from posh bakeries. However, if you really can’t find it, please see the notes for a substitute;
2. Only 2 eggs – I’ve seen some recipes call for up to 5 eggs. I only use 2. It’s enough to hold the cake together just fine – any more than 2, and find the cake begins to start tasting “eggy”; and
3. Buttermilk – For almost every other baking recipe that I make using buttermilk, I say that you can substitute with lemon juice + milk which, when left for 5 minutes, curdles to have the same effect as using buttermilk. Not for this recipe – sorry! It is just not the same – part of the reason mine was “zara zara”. 😂
Oh, and one more rule. There is no substitute for Philadelphia Cream Cheese for the frosting. I’ve tried better value store-brand cream cheese before. It is never the same. Promise. ❤
I bake the layers in 2 separate tins, but if you don’t have two tins, you can make one big one and cut the cake in half. And to make the layers nice and neat, I cut the dome top off.
I like to crumble the off cuts and use it to decorate the cake. I think it looks pretty, don’t you? But that’s purely optional!
I promise you, there is nothing tricky about this cake. All you have to do is ensure you measure the ingredients properly, rather than just eye-balling it. 😉 As long as you do that, it’s actually easy to make, no more difficult than an ordinary sponge cake.
Putting aside fiddly fancy decorated cakes, Red Velvet Cake is surely one of the most striking and stunning cakes around. If you’ve never tried it before, you’re in for a real treat! – Nagi x
Red Velvet Cake
Watch how to make it
How to make Red Velvet Cake – quick tutorial video! Red Velvet Cake for UK readers – please ensure you read Notes 7 and 9.
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Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 2/3 cups (400 g) plain cake flour (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp (10 g) cocoa powder , unsweetened
- 1 tsp (5 g) baking soda / bi-carb soda , NOT baking powder (Note 2)
- Pinch of salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter , softened (1 US stick)
- 1 1/2 cups (330 g) caster / superfine white sugar (Note 3a)
- 2 eggs , at room temperature (around 2 oz / 60g each)
- 1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (or essence)
- 1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk , at room temperature (Note 4)
- 2 1/2 tbsp red food colouring liquid (UK: use Gel, Note 7)
Frosting (Note 10)
- 14 oz (400 g) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, block , softened but not too soft (UK see Note 9)
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter , softened (but not too soft)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups (450 g) soft icing sugar / powdered sugar sifted (Note 3b)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (all oven types). Butter 2 x 21cm / 8″ round cake pans (sides and base) and dust with cocoa powder.
- Sift the Dry Ingredients and whisk to combine in a bowl.
- Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beater or in stand mixer until smooth and well combined (use paddle attachment if using stand mixer).
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating in between to combine. At first it will look curdle – keep beating until it’s smooth.
- Add vegetable oil, vinegar, vanilla, buttermilk and red food colouring. Beat until combined and smooth (Note 5).
- Add Dry Ingredients. Beat until just combined – some small lumps is ok, that’s better than over mixing.
- Divide batter between cake pans. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes on the same shelf, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. (Note 6)
- Rest for 10 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.
Frosting
- Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla for 3 minutes (this makes it really smooth and changes from yellow to almost white). Add icing sugar and beat for 2 minutes or until frosting is light and fluffy to your taste. If your frosting seems too runny (depends on quality of cream cheese/ if the cream cheese was too soft), just add more icing sugar.
Frost Cake
- Cut the top off the cake using a serrated knife (to make the layers neat).
- Spread one cake with 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Top with the other cake. Spread top and sides with remaining frosting.
- Optional: Crumble offcuts and use to decorate the top rim and base of the cake.
Recipe Notes:
Let them eat cake! 10 more classic cakes
.Life of Dozer
This is how he starts every day: assessing the surf. 😉
hello,
I am GIgi. I am in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. I used this recipe but instead of making a cake. I made 24 big cupcakes. I brought them in for Valentine, February 14 2017. Everyone loved it. Some asked for the recipe. I followed the recipe to a T. Except the cream cheese frosting I reduced the sugar. Because of that my frosting was not as thick as it should. Next time I will reduce lesser powder sugar than what I have done this time. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe, Nagi. I appreciate your kindness and generosity for sharing MANY great recipes with us. I printed many out and will definitely use them. Thank you Yumiko.
I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed this Gigi! Thanks so much for letting me know! N x
Oops, I meant next time I will not reduce as much powdered sugar as I have done this time. Better yet, I probably should keep the same as the recipe called for. Yeah!
I just made this cake for valentine’s day, it turned out amazing!! thanks so much
I’m so pleased to hear that Jackie, thanks for letting me know! N x
Hello I cant find white vinegar in the uk, what else can I use? Thank you x
Hi Chloe! You really can’t find the clear vinegar???
Hi Nagi
I have another question! My Red Velvet cakes come out brown. I tried yours the other day and thought that was because it had cocoa in it (although yours still looks red!) but I tried one today without cocoa and loads of red colouring and it’s still come out brown. Why?
Gudrun
I didn’t have all the red color as the recipe asked for. I put in what I had, which was a little more than one Table spoon. It turned out bright red. Come to think about it, I guess I cannot say I follow the recipe to a T. (-:
Hi Gudrun! Did you use the amount of red food colouring per my recipe? It needs LOTS to overpower the cocoa colour! If you look at the photo in the post, you can see the colour of the batter that is required. 🙂
My son just made this recipe, under supervision so each step was followed, however it just ended up coming out of the tin in crumbs, didn’t hold together at all … such a shame as he made a lot
Of effort 🙁
Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear that. But full marks for effort! I’m super impressed! if the cake did not hold together, it sounds like there was an mis measurement of one of the liquid components as that’s what happens if the batter is too dry. Wish I could have been there to help! ❤️
What will happen if I leave out the food coloring?
Hi Genie! It won’t be red 🙂 It will be like a pale chocolate colour! Same flavour though – deeelish!
Im sorry i just want to ask if there is any substitute for caster superfine sugar? But i will still try to find that thing in every store here, mostly the store only selling the white sugar brown sugar and confectioner sugar
Tnx
I put regular sugar into a grinder and BRIEFLY ground it.
Hi Aihra! Superfine / caster sugar works better because it’s finer so it dissolves more easily but normal white sugar will work too 🙂 To be honest, it’s one of those things where I probably could not tell if a cake was made with or without superfine sugar, but it’s just the “better” way to make most cakes because the sugar dissolves easier. N x
I have made this twice now and both times the centres are not rising…what could be wrong? Old baking soda?
Hi Tina! I’m sorry to hear that. It could be any number of things – can you describe what it looks like? So are the outside edges rising and the centre is a crater? Is it cooked through or raw in the centre?
Yes, the edges rose perfectly but the middle did not rise and was a crater. The cake was cooked, not raw.
Hi Tina! Does your oven run a bit weak? The only other thing I can think of is that the baking soda was past its shelf life?
Hi Nagi, I have just made this recipe for the first time but what did I do wrong. I used two 8″ (as you suggested) heart-shaped tins as my son was making a charity cake for the British Heart Foundation bake sale. Unfortunately there was a lot of batter and it just spewed over and out of the tin!
Hi Gudrun – this cake is made using round tins, not heart shaped tins. I think heart shaped tins would be too small for the amount of batter this makes, I’m sorry to say 🙁 I’m devastated on your behalf because you were making it for a charity bake sale. Were you able to cut the top off to level it off and make it anyway? The frosting will hide anything! 🙂
Hi Nagi
Could this recipe be made in advance? It’s my daughters first birthday on Saturday so I thought this would be great. Was hoping to make it today (Thursday).
Also, how would you suggest storing it if ok to make in advance?
Thanks!
Gosh sorry if I’m late responding Jess! It will definitely be perfect for Saturday. Do you have a large cake container? I got mine from Woolies or Coles when it was on sale. For extra security, I cover the container with cling wrap then put the lid on. 🙂 If it’s super hot, refrigerate it and bring to room temp before serving. Icing will be best made on the day if you have to refrigerate because it will sweat. Hope that helps!
If I didn’t want to make this a layered cake, could I just halve the recipe? I just want to make one layer cake with a 9 inch spring form cake pan.
Thanks!
Hi Gabi! That will work fine 🙂
Halved the sugar, skipped the food colouring THEY ALL WENT NUTS!
SOOOOOO DELICIOUS
HIGH FIVE! YOU ROCK!!!! ❤️
Hi,
Love this recipe! I had a trial run the other day and it came out very well in texture and flavour.
I’m now going to attempt making a 10 inch cake – do you think your recipe x 1,5 sounds sufficient?
Comparing another 10″ recipe I found everything is very similar apart from the amount of white vinegar where they use 1tbsp rather than 1,5 tsp. What would you recommend?
Many thanks!
Frida
Hi Frida! Personally I’d just use this recipe and know that it won’t be quite as high 🙂 But yes other 1.5x and please scale up every ingredient including the vinegar! N x
Oh my oh my, the cake came out beautifully and everyone absolutely loved it!
For any UK based people I’d recommend using sugarflare paste extra red food colour as it makes it really red and pretty. Food colour liquid didnt work for me at all.
Thank you for the recipe Nagi! I’ll be making it again very soon x
I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed this Friday, thank you for letting me know! And thank you for sharing that tip, you’re very kind 🙂 N x
Will premium 100% pure sugar cane work for the recipe?
I’m sorry I haven’t tried Kat. 🙂 I don’t know enough about cane sugar, sorry!
Hi Loved this recipe it worked perfectly and everyone commented on how amazing it was! Thankyou! If I was going to make these into cupcakes how long do you recommend cooking it for??
That’s so great to hear Maddy! 22 – 25 min for a standard cupcake size @ 180C/350F 🙂 Check with a skewer at just over 20 min, see how it’s going!
Recipe looks great! Is there a reason you specify liquid food coloring and not gel? I’m in the states and typically gel is preferred over liquid. Our version of liquid can sometimes give the cake a funny aftertaste.
Thanks in advance
Hi Carlo! I use liquid because it’s easier to measure out because gel is so concentrated. You can definitely use gel if you prefer! 🙂
Oh great! Thank you! Can’t wait to make it tomorrow morning..
How do I modify this to make 3 layers? Will the amount of batter work or should I double the recipe?
Hi Abbie! Just divide the batter between 3 tins, bake for 22 minutes (check with skewer). If you don’t have 3 tins (like me!) then pour 2/3 into one tin (30 min bake) and 1/3 in another (22 min bake), and cut the larger one in half. 🙂
great! i’ll give it a try! thank you.
My son asked for a red velvet cake for his birthday cake. I’ve never made one before so I thought I’d give it a whirl with your recipe. I live at 7000 ft above sea level so can you please tell me what adjustments would you make to the recipe for baking at this altitude? Thank you!
Hi Kim! Sorry I don’t know the specifics for this recipe but this resource will help! http://dish.allrecipes.com/high-altitude-cake-baking/
ain’t it perfect for valentines day? 😛 Probably one of the most insanely perfect cake it looks amazing, i can’t wait to make these Valentines day!!!. Thank for the sharing this great recipe with us. May God Bless You.
Oooh yes you are SO RIGHT about that!!!! ❤️
So I made this last night and the flavour was bang on but my cakes sunk horrendously in the middle. I only had plain flour (which after googling lots was advised by the Internet to go with 2 cups of flour which is standard for a cake this size if you don’t have cake flour) I did think it was too liquid-y when it went in the pans so will either add more flour next time or reduce the oil cos when I was crumbling my offcuts my fingers were very greasy after!
Also I thought it would be good to mention that I’m in the UK and most of our shop bought liquid food colourings are ‘natural’ and will not hold their colour when baked. I didn’t realise this til it came out looking like a normal chocolate cake. I noticed it said ‘not bake stable’ on the side of my food colouring bottle so after more googling found out that the gels and pastes which are artificial as opposed to natural are bake proof. So I will try a paste next time and hopefully it’ll stay red in the oven! My other half is very happy to eat the practice runs though. 🙂
X
Hi Hannah – sorry to say that 2 cups of flour is certainly not enough 🙁 Also if you see Note 1, there are the substitutions for how to make this with plain flour. Hope you do give it a go again! Promise it is worth it 🙂