Craving a rich, velvety, and super moist red velvet cake but need it to be egg-free? You’re in the right place! Inspired by my 5-star rated eggless vanilla cake, this eggless red velvet cake has all the classic elements you love—the signature cocoa-kissed flavor, vibrant red hue, and ultra-velvety texture. Topped with a creamy, tangy cream cheese frosting, it’s so delicious, you’d never guess it’s made without eggs!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Creating my first eggless cake, the Eggless Vanilla Cake, was one of my biggest baking challenges. Eggs are a cornerstone of traditional baking, crucial for texture and structure. Creating an eggless version that matched the original’s velvety & fluffy texture was challenging to say the least!
After extensive testing and research, I found a method that resulted in a delightfully fluffy, moist vanilla cake. In fact, some of my readers now prefer this eggless version over my original vanilla cake recipe with eggs! This approach, inspired by the hot milk cake technique, uses yogurt as an egg substitute. To prevent the yogurt’s tanginess from overwhelming the flavor, I mix it with baking soda beforehand, helping to slightly neutralize the tang.
This method has become the foundation for all my eggless cake recipes, including this Eggless Red Velvet Cake recipe. Here’s why you’ll love it:
– Ultra-Velvety Texture: This cake boasts a soft, moist, and velvety texture.
– Perfect Tang: The combination of yogurt and vinegar gives that signature slight tang to the cake layers that red velvet is known for.
– Enhanced Cocoa Flavor: To compensate for the missing creaminess and flavor eggs usually provide, I increased the cocoa content. This adjustment enriches the flavor without tipping it into full-on chocolate cake territory (unlike my rich eggless chocolate cake)!
– Easy to Make: This recipe is so easy to make and the cake batter itself doesn’t require any fancy electric equipment!
How to Make Eggless Red Velvet Cake
You can find the full list of ingredients for this recipe in the recipe card at the end of the blog post (for easy navigation, hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the blog post). Here is a quick visual breakdown of the recipe (recipe video is also provided in the recipe card below).
Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃) conventional and grease and/or line two 8-inch cake pans (I use my homemade cake release).
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix with a whisk until well combined and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine yogurt, sugar, white vinegar and baking soda. Mix using a whisk until well combined and set aside.
In a microwave-safe bowl or jug, combine butter, oil and milk. Heat in the microwave (you can do this over a stovetop if you prefer), until the butter is fully melted and the mixture is hot to the touch.
At this stage, your yogurt and baking soda mixture should be frothy. Gradually pour in half of the heated milk mixture, along with the vanilla extract/essence and red food color (I use liquid not gel colour for this recipe). Whisk gently until everything is well combined. Next, add half of the pre-sifted dry ingredients and whisk gently until just incorporated. Repeat with the remaining milk mixture, whisking gently until combined. Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients and whisk gently until just combined and the batter is uniform. Be careful not to overmix.
Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8-inch cake tins. Tap the cake tins lightly on the counter once to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 28-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs on it.
Allow the cakes to cool in the cake tins for about 20 minutes, before turning them out onto a wire/cooling rack to completely cool.
Once cool, frost with my cream cheese frosting. See below for steps on how I decorated mine 🙂
How to Decorate Eggless Red Velvet Cake
Begin by levelling the tops of the cake layers. They’re already quite flat, so I only trim off a small amount.
Place the first cake layer onto your cake stand/serving plate and spread out a generous amount of frosting (I use my offset spatula).
Place your second cake layer on top and spread out a generous amount of frosting on the top and sides. You can use a cake scraper to smooth out the edges (see video demonstration). If you don’t want any cake crumbs getting into the frosting, then I recommend doing a crumb coat first. Check out this video for more tips on how to do that.
Place the remaining frosting into a piping bag with a 1M piping tip on it and pipe swirls around the top of the cake. Slice and enjoy!
Commonly Asked Questions
How do you store eggless red velvet cake?
This cake can be left out at room temperature for about half a day, but due to the cream cheese, it will need to be refrigerated after that/overnight.
Place in an airtight container before putting it in the fridge to prevent the cake from drying out. For more tips on how to best store a cake in the fridge and prevent it from drying out, check out my blog post on 3 uncommon baking tips.
Can I use gel food coloring instead of liquid color for this recipe?
Yes, you can use gel food coloring in replacement of liquid coloring, however you will need to dilute the gel colour with just under 3 1/2 tablespoons of water or milk to make up for the liquid lost when using gel colors. This recipe requires 3 1/2 tablespoons of liquid colour, however if using gel colours you won’t need that much as gel colours are concentrated. Additional liquid helps to thin out the batter and results in a fluffier, more velvety texture in your final cake.
Can I use this recipe to make red velvet cupcakes?
Yes! Simply reduce the cook time to around the 18-minute mark. Everything else stays the same and one batch of this recipe will give you around 24 cupcakes.
Can I use cake flour?
For this recipe, I would recommend using all-purpose or plain flour. Due to having no eggs, the cake lacks structure and the protein from the flour will help to provide more structure to the cake layers. Cake flour may result in a cake that falls apart too easily.
Moist Eggless Red Velvet Cake
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
- 2½ cups (330 g) all-purpose flour - plain flour in the UK
- 4½ tbsp (29 g) natural cocoa powder - avoid using Dutch-processed cocoa for a brighter red color
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ cup (185 g) yogurt - regular yogurt or low-fat Greek yogurt, room temperature
- 1½ cups (300 g) white granulated sugar
- 1½ tsp white vinegar
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter
- ¼ cup (50 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola
- 1 cup (240 g) milk
- 1½ tbsp vanilla essence/extract
- 3½ tbsp red liquid food coloring
Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃) conventional (see note 1 if using a convection oven) and grease and/or line two 8-inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix with a whisk until well combined and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine yogurt, sugar, white vinegar and baking soda. Mix using a whisk until well combined and set aside.
- In a microwave-safe bowl or jug, combine butter, oil and milk. Heat in the microwave (you can do this over a stovetop if you prefer), until the butter is fully melted and the mixture is hot to the touch.
- At this stage, your yogurt and baking soda mixture should be frothy. Gradually pour in half of the heated milk mixture, along with the vanilla and red food coloring. Whisk gently until everything is well combined. Next, add half of the pre-sifted dry ingredients and whisk gently until just incorporated. Repeat with the remaining milk mixture, whisking gently until combined. Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients and whisk gently until just combined and the batter is uniform. Be careful not to overmix
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8-inch cake tins. Drop the cake tins lightly on the counter once to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 28-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the cake tins for about 20 minutes, before turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
- Once cool, frost with my cream cheese frosting (check out my blog post above or recipe video for decorating tips!).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
14 Comments
I love this red velvet eggless recipe. Thank you for sharing with us. I have baked it twice – first time with yogurt and second time with sour cream as I was running out of yogurt so I decided to give it a go. It was super moist both the times. Although, with sour cream it was a little too delicate! Thnak you again 🫶
You’re so welcome Simran! So glad you loved the recipe 😀
Thank you so much ❤️
You’re so welcome! Enjoy 😀
The red velvet cake turned out incredible. I enjoy your recipes specially because they aren’t too sweet and you focus on flavour, texture and techniques. Thanks Maryam 🙂
Thanks so much Prat! Really appreciate the wonderful feedback 😀
Hello! I’m obsessed with your blog and content! Is there any chance of you doing a white velvet version for a Pink Velvet cake? Basically a pink velvet cake without cocoa powder.
Hi Chanel! So glad to hear you’re loving the recipes 😀
I have a white cake recipe which may be what you’re after? You can find the recipe here: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/moist-white-cake/
Hope that helps 😀
My 8-year old daughter made this cake entirely on her own following the video. It seemed overly moist and took longer than expected to bake but came out absolutely perfectly. Easy to make and delicious!
Amazing! So glad she was able to successfully make the cake, sounds like she did a great job and so glad you all enjoyed it 😀
Hi, I’ve tried many of your wonderful recipes, but the chocolate ones don’t seem to work very well and I’m guessing it’s to do with the baking soda and baking powder…
How many grams would you say each of your recipes require for one teaspoon
Google says its 4.8g per a teaspoon but the cskes don’t rise evenly and sink in the middle
Thank you
Hi Shanila! 🙂
So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipes, but so sorry to hear the chocolate recipes don’t seem to be working well for you – that certainly is strange and I wonder what it is about them that is causing issues!
The amount of baking soda and baking powder used in my recipes are based on other ingredients used in the batter, so I can’t really give an amount that can be used across the board for all the recipes sorry! What I can say is that every recipe is thoroughly tested so the stated amount of baking soda and baking powder should work well. Is it mainly the uneven rise and sinking in the middle that are the issues? If so, then uneven rising could be due to the batter not being mixed enough, or hot spots in the oven (rotating the pans can help prevent this). Sinking can happen for a number of reasons, but the most common reasons are too much batter being placed into one cake tin, opening the oven door too early to check the cakes and ratio of ingredients are slightly off (for best results I would recommend using the gram measurements if you don’t already). Check out this blog post for more tips: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/why-did-my-cake-sink-in-the-middle/
So sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but hope these tips help for next time Shanila 🙂
Absolutely moist and delicious highly recommend this recipe. Cooked for elderly and all said very nice
Yay! So glad everyone loved the recipe Shezza 😀