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. 😉
MRS LISA M GARNER says
Hi, I only have 9 inch tins would these be ok to use out do I need to increase amounts? Thanks x
Nagi says
Hi Lisa, that’s fine, the cakes will just be slightly shorter 🙂 N x
S says
Hi Nagi, I want make these into cupcakes, so would there be any adjustments to quantity or baking time?
Lisa says
Thank you 😊
Hue says
Can we half this recipe without any adjustment?
Nagi says
Sure can Hue! N x
Sharon Hunt says
Hi, can you use salted butter and leave out the salt x
Nagi says
Hi Sharon – you sure can, I just prefer to use unsalted so I can control the amount that get into the cake. N x
Kirsty says
Hi, I’m going shopping to get these ingredients to bake this cake…. it looks delicious. Would white wine vinegar be ok?
Nagi says
Hi Kirsty – yes that will be fine. N x
Kirsty says
OMG…. I love this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it. I will be making it again and again. I will never buy another red velvet cake, I will only make it using your recipe. I look forward to making the red velvet cookies next.
Xx
Coral says
Hi, as we are on lock down at the moment (we are in the UK) I am going to attempt this cake for my sons birthday. Ive looked for white vinegar but cannot find it, I bought distilled vinegar. Is this the same thing. If not what should I use? Thanks x
Zara says
Hi Nagi, I made this cake on Eid day for the 2nd time and my family loved it. It tasted much better than the first attempt as I swapped some of the plain flour with cornflour as we do not have cake flour in the UK & used readymade buttermilk! The issue I had this time was the red food colouring gel I used did not dissolve in the cake mixture it remained as dark red streaks/dots in the cake so the red colour was not as rich once baked. I noticed that the cake layers were more brown towards the edges and then red towards the middle even though I baked at an even lower temperature of 170°C instead of 180 so I’m not sure if its the food colouring or not. Also the cream cheese frosting didn’t seem to set. When I initially mixed the softened butter & soft cheese the colour and thickness looked fine and as soon as I added the icing sugar the mixture went more runny which I found strange as powder should thicken it.
Any tips for improvement? I wish I can upload photos on here to show you
Shola says
I had the exact same issue with the frosting as well and it just wouldn’t get thicker. I put it in the fridge for a couple of hours and it was still runny. I added more using sugar but still runny.
Nagi says
Hi Coral – any vinegar like cider, white, rice vinegar will work fine here – N x
Coral says
I bought distilled vinegar. Is this ok?
antonella says
Hi Nagi,
i baked this cake for my birthday, i think i slightly over cooked it but the taste is great, first time i made red velvet
Nagi says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Antonella! N x
Gillian says
Has anyone tried substituting the cake flour with a gluten free flour blend, to make it gluten free?
Nagi says
I haven’t tried to be honest Gillian, I feel like the texture just wouldn’t be the same though. N x
Gillian says
Got it! Thanks for your quick reply Nagi. Always appreciate your awesome recipes.
Michaela says
Hi Nagi, jist a quick question, hope you don’t mind..I am planning to make this cake as a cake balls. Do you reckon it could work? How much of the frosting you would use then to make the best structure? Thank you! 😊😊☺️
Nagi says
Hi Michaela, I haven’t tried to be honest! It would definitely work but I’m unsure how much frosting you’d need. N x
Doodles says
Hi! I made this cake for mother’s day (I used a different frosting because I wasn’t sure if yours would have been enough). The cake is absolutely delicious!! It came out so fluffy and moist enough .. I was worried it would be dry based on some reviews but it was just perfect. My oven is slower so it took me about 10 or 15 minutes longer.
My family loved it!! We rarely eat more than a few bites but we have been enjoying this cake non stop!! It’s almost gone in only one day. Thanks for this amazing recipe. Also – I used americolor food coloring and I definitely did not need 2 tbs. I think I used about one teaspoon and my cake was nice and bright red. Next time I’ll try adding even less because I hate adding food coloring .
Becci says
Super moist and delicious!
Nagi says
Thanks so much Becci! N x
Zahra says
Can I add strawberries inside the layers and on top?
Nagi says
I don’t see why not Zahra! N x
Rachel says
if I bake the cake the day before, how long would I be able to store it for before it dries out?
Nagi says
Hi Rachel, it will be fine baking it the day before, you can even freeze it in advance. Just make sure you wrap it tightly with cling wrap!
Mary says
Hi Nagi,
Can I leave out the white vinegar or is there any substitute?
Nagi says
Hi Mary, you can sub with apple cider vinegar to lemon juice – you need the acid here. N x
Eli says
I made this cake with just baking soda to raise as per your recipe, which surprised me as i always thought baking powder was the better raiser. The cake did not rise to a light sponge and turned out rather dense. What did i do wrong?
sam says
would i be able to swap cake flour for plain flour ?
Nagi says
Hi Sam – I talk about this in the recipe notes – N x
Mili says
Hi could I use less icing sugar .
Swathi says
Hi, this is an amazing recipe !! A dream cake for me. Tried several times and always turned out to be great. But however every time i baked, it took longer than 30min; are the timings correct?
antonella says
same, i had to cook it for a further 10mins or so then it was overcooked 🙁 but still tasted great
Motunrayo says
Hi Nagi, I love you recipes and they’re my go to for EVERYTHING !!! I wanted to know could if I could make a 4-layer cake with Red Velvet and the Vanilla Sponge Cake.
Nagi says
Hi Motunrayo, sounds great!! Keep me updated on how it goes! N x
Philip says
2 years ago I couldn’t boil water without burning it but since finding this place wow. I reckon my family are eating one of your recipes 3/4 nights a week and they love it, I am a worse baker though but I need to try this cake. Please wish me luck lol and thank you for your blog it’s completely changed the way my family and I eat.
Love from Bonnie Scotland
Nagi says
That’s so great to hear Philip!! You’ve got this – keep me updated on how you go! N x
Philip says
Well I was shocked, I even shocked my wife haha. The cake itself went very well everything is want from a red velvet cake, my disaster come from the cream cheese and not checking to see exactly how much icing sugar I had ( I didn’t have much only 200g) and with lockdown over here and panic buyers icing sugar has proven very difficult to get, but I got it today finally and it has went down a treat, even if it was 2 days later lol
Will make it again thank you
Kyra says
Hi Nagi. Was a bit intimidated by the idea of baking a red velvet cake, but having complete confidence in your recipes decided to give it a try!
Only had access to large muffin pans so baked the cake in that and then frosted using angel wings. Huge hit in the household! Thank you again for another great recipe. Wish I could post a picture to show you, lol.
Thomas says
Hi. I tried your recipe and had a bit of issue on the cake structure. I don’t know if it was the oven issue. When the cake was done from the oven and when I tried to scrape off the top portion, the cake started to disintegrate. The taste is there although. Is it ok to used reduced fat for the cream cheese?
Nagi says
Sounds divine Kyra, I bet you had plenty of happy tummies 🙂
Kierra A Rosebury says
Can I make this cake ahead and freeze the layers?