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. 😉
Loved this when I made it last year for my 2-year-old. I wanted to make it again this year. Being pregnant I thought I would reduce the workload and wondered if it is possible to make this cake ahead of time and freeze it and pull it out the day before for icing etc? Thanks so much 🙂
Yes you can Dianne – cake layers actually frost better from frozen! N x
This cake was so good. Even thought I had to substitute for cake flour and buttermilk. I also halved the recipe to make a small 6 inch cake. It was fantastic. So delicate, soft and moist, this was an absolute treat for Valentine’s Day. Thank you.
I followed the recipe, but mine ended up SO dry! I’m not sure what I did wrong. I measured things by the gram. Will have to try again sometime soon.
If you measured it all correctly then it could be your bake time or oven temp Nikki – maybe check those before trying it again! N x
I have tried this recipe and yes it was and is amazing.
Is there a eggless version of this cake?
I don’t have an eggless version sorry! N x
Hi Nagi, do you have any make ahead instructions for this? I’m trying to make it the day before a birthday. Thanks!
Hi Nagi, is the amount of red food colouring (2.5 TB) in Aus tablespoons? So that’s 50ml, right?
Hi Nagi,
I would like to make this cake over two days so I’m not crazy rushed on the day I want to serve it. Would you recommend baking the cake layers AND crumb coating the cake on the first day, and leaving it in the fridge overnight for decoration the next day OR just baking the cake layers and storing them overnight before doing all the frosting the next day. If the latter, if it’s only stored for one night should I freeze the cake layers or just refrigerate them (properly wrapped, of course)?
Thank you in advance for your expertise!
Hi Taylor! You could do it either way and the cake would be fine. It’s a bit easier to frost cake layers frozen so I would pop them in the freezer! N x
I made this tonight for my son’s 12th birthday, per his request. It just came out so light and fluffy and the frosting was perfectly tangy and not too sweet. I highly reccomend!
Hi! Could you please give instructions regarding how to evenly distribute the cake crumbs on lower side of cake evenly for decoration?
This is a fantastic recipe. It tastes divine and is truly velvety. Followed the recipe exactly. Tasted even better the next day!!
I made this recipe for an end of year staff party, and had so many compliments! The cake is just as Nagi describes. Delicious, soft, fluffy… moreish.
Hi!
In the baking you mention covering with tinfoil, I thought the most important rule of baking was not to open the oven until the cake was done. Does this need to be done ASAP? Does the cake lose some of its rise/make it more dense? Thank you!
I can see now, it is in wet ingredients. Newer thought sugar is wet ingredient;)
Hi Naida – it’s not a wet ingredient per se, just part of the ingredients for the wet part of the mixture! N x
I can’t see sugar in sponge recipe
Full Circle.
About 3 or 4 years ago I was looking for a Red Velvet cake recipe for my daughters birthday. She warned me that they are very hard to get right. Thats when i discovered Nagi’s website for the first time. Made the cake and it was awesome. She wants it again tomorrow for her birthday and I am going to supervise my 11 year old grand daughter make it. She is an awesome baker and uses your website all the time too. I dont have much more to teach her. Thanks again Nagi for all the wonderful recipes that you create and make us all better cooks
Hi, I’m planning to make this for Christmas and I just wanted to ask What food colouring you use in this recipe? Thanks
Hi Nagi,
Am I able to do an ombré frosting
with Philadelphia cream cheese
I want to try this red velvet cake.
Q1. Instead of red dye, how to switch to beetroot powder?
Q2. How to reduce sugar so cake n cheese frosting don’t taste so sweet?
Q3. How to swop this to using match powder to make it a green velvet cake?
HI Caroline – sorry I haven’t tested those variations so am not certain they will work! N x
Hi Nagi, can I substitute food colouring for red beet juice? If yes, how much juice should I use? Thank you so much!
Hi I’d like to make a 3 layer cake – would it be possible to use the same amount of ingredients and share the batter between 3 x 6″ pans?
I haven’t tested the timing on that Leanne but I think it would work. You will have to watch it carefully so it doesn’t overcook. N x
Thanks for your reply. Hope that one day you will try out the variation matcha velvet cake and share it with us 🙂
I don’t seem to see in the notes; I have 9 inch pans, how much should I adjust bake time? Cheers
Hi Sheun – I haven’t tested that but I would estimate 20-22 mins bake time on 9 inch pans. Thanks! N x
Hi, I am from México and I love your recipes, they are completely bullet proof. I really want to do this red velvet recipe for Christmas dinner but we don’t have buttermilk available in Mexico, I was wondering if I can replace it for yoghurt or mild and vinegar, I know you say it is not the same but, is that bad?, thank you!!