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.
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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. 😉
Smriti says
Hey! Thi is an amazing recipe.
I just have one question, I have powdered colouring instead of the liquid. Could you relate the amount that I have to use?
Thanks a lot! Kudos.
Aimee says
Hi Nagi. I love this cake recipe- the cake is light and airy and the cream cream icing is a great consistency I just wanted your opinion on your choice of red food colouring. I have used the gel for my cake and its worked out fine- but am yet to try it with the liquid food colouring. Have you tried both the gel and the liquid food colouring- do you find it makes a better cake? Also do you have a preference for vanilla extract- as I have used some rubbish ones in my time and the cake seems to need a good vanilla extract to balance the flavours and bring out the vanilla. Love the cake 🙂
Nagi says
Hi Aimee! I personally have a preference for liquid because I find it’s easier to measure out, I know that sounds weird as most people recommend gel but that’s my personal preference 🙂 Also I have found some gels differ in strength which is really annoying because a tiny bit too much can make an icing WAY too blue or go red instead of pink etc 🙂 I don’t have a personal preference for vanilla, I just make sure to use real vanilla rather than fake essence. Generally the stores here in Australia only sell good quality real vanilla extract, whereas the artificial stuff really varies in quality. So glad you enjoyed it Aimee, thanks for letting me know! N xx
Mark Broad says
Can you tell, does this need to be refrigerated once it’s made? I was just wondering about the cream cheese and you can’t beat Philly xx
Nagi says
Hi Mark! I don’t as long as it’s not too hot 🙂 I prefer the frosting to be at room temperature because it’s creamier! But on hot summer days I refrigerate it then take it out before serving.
Zara says
Hi Nagi! I made this recipe into cupcakes yesterday for my niece’s 2nd birthday and I had to report back. They were absolutely perfect!!!!! So moist, flavourful and I loved the vibrant red colour. I will never need another red velvet recipe again. You were so right about the oil, it makes a huge difference in insuring the cupcakes come out perfectly moist instead of using all butter. Thank you so so much, I can’t wait to try many of your other delicious recipes! Take care.
A fan from Canada
Nagi says
I am so happy to hear it wasn’t “zara-zara”!!! 😉 N xx
Gwen says
I made this recipe for my daughter’s birthday and it turned out delicious. My cake pans are 9″ ones, but it worked fine, except the layers were not domed. I used regular sugar, cake flour, and the 2 T cocoa in the recipe, plus the 2 1/2T red food coloring. The batter was red, but the cooked cake looked more like a slightly reddish devil’s food. If I do it again I will make 2 changes: I had an open box of dark chocolate cocoa; I will use regular cocoa instead, and I will NOT dust the buttered pans with cocoa but use flour instead: the cocoa on the cooked layers’ surface bled into the frosting, and I had to refrost the cake after it had set overnight in the refrigerator. Fortunately the frosting recipe is so generous that I had plenty left over.
Nagi says
Hi Gwen! So glad you thought this was delicious! Yes please use REGULAR cocoa, not dark 🙂 Dark cocoa darkens the cake which is why yours didn’t come out bright red!
Zara says
Hi Nagi, I love red velvet cake and this looks amazing! I just finished making red velvet cupcakes and they were ok, but a tad dry. The recipe I used called for just butter, no oil, although I keep reading that oil is needed also, so perhaps that’s why they were dry. So I’m still searching for the perfect red velvet recipe. This one looks like a winner. Can this recipe be made into cupcakes? Thank you for sharing your recipe! Oh yeah, and my name is Zara so “zara-zara” made me laugh out loud! Ha, that’s funny.
Nagi says
Hi Zara, glad to hear you LAUGHED at that!!! 🙂 I can 100% assure you, some oil is necessary. Butter = flavour but not moistness, oil = moist but less flavour. So combine the 2 for max results! YES this recipe is fantastic with cupcakes! Bake for around 25 minutes 🙂
Angela Leong says
If I were to make a 9 inch 2 layer cake , how much do I increase the quantity of ingredients. I would probably make it in 2 x 9 inch tin or just one 9 inch tin, then cut it into 2 layers to sandwich the cream cheese.
Thank you.
Nagi says
IN all honesty, I would just stick with this recipe and accept that the cake height will be slightly less. Not much! I think the pain of calculating the ratio to increase batter slightly will not be worth it! 🙂
Giselle says
Hi Nagi,
I’ve never made Red Velvet cake before, so I wasn’t sure what to look for in a recipe. I stumble across yours and decided to try it. Oh boy!! was this cake awesome!! I made if for a Valentine’s Day gathering I was going to and the cake was the star of the day. Everyone was wanting to take some home. I couldn’t find caster sugar so I used confectioner’s sugar instead and it was not a problem. I made the cakes one day in advance and didn’t lose a bit of moisture. I think I’ll be making red velvet more often.
Thanks for posting this recipe.
Nagi says
Oh wow oh WOW!!!! I’m so happy to hear that Giselle, thanks for letting me know! N xx
Gigi says
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.
Nagi says
I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed this Gigi! Thanks so much for letting me know! N x
Gigi says
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!
Jackie says
I just made this cake for valentine’s day, it turned out amazing!! thanks so much
Nagi says
I’m so pleased to hear that Jackie, thanks for letting me know! N x
Chloe says
Hello I cant find white vinegar in the uk, what else can I use? Thank you x
Nagi says
Hi Chloe! You really can’t find the clear vinegar???
Gudrun says
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
Gigi says
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. (-:
Nagi says
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. 🙂
Gillian says
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 🙁
Nagi says
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! ❤️
Genie O'Neill says
What will happen if I leave out the food coloring?
Nagi says
Hi Genie! It won’t be red 🙂 It will be like a pale chocolate colour! Same flavour though – deeelish!
Aihra says
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
Gigi says
I put regular sugar into a grinder and BRIEFLY ground it.
Nagi says
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
Tina says
I have made this twice now and both times the centres are not rising…what could be wrong? Old baking soda?
Nagi says
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?
Tina Coates says
Yes, the edges rose perfectly but the middle did not rise and was a crater. The cake was cooked, not raw.
Nagi says
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?
Gudrun says
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!
Nagi says
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! 🙂
Jess says
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!
Nagi says
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!
Gabi says
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!
Nagi says
Hi Gabi! That will work fine 🙂
jonathan says
Halved the sugar, skipped the food colouring THEY ALL WENT NUTS!
SOOOOOO DELICIOUS
Nagi says
HIGH FIVE! YOU ROCK!!!! ❤️