Okay I am SO EXCITED to finally be sharing my red velvet cake recipe! This red velvet cake is so incredibly soft, full of flavor and is topped with the most delicious cream cheese buttercream. It has a super velvety texture and slightly tart, yet sweet and creamy frosting – making it the best red velvet cake recipe I’ve tried!
What exactly is a red velvet cake?!
A red velvet cake is a combination of a vanilla and chocolate cake, with a distinct tangy taste. This is due to the buttermilk and vinegar (which are common ingredients in a red velvet cake).
Traditionally, red velvet cakes didn’t have any red food coloring, and were a more brownish, reddy colour. This natural red colour was due to the chemical reaction between non-dutched cocoa powder and the acidic ingredients (white vinegar and buttermilk).
Red velvet cake is often paired with cream cheese frosting (which I have done for this cake) or ermine frosting.
How to make red velvet cake
This cake comes together really easily! Just be sure to follow the steps exactly as stated.
Begin by preheating your oven to 160°C fan forced, and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake pans (I like to use my homemade cake release). If your oven doesn’t have a fan option, then you will need to increase the baking temperature to 175°C/350°F.
For the cake batter, start off by sifting together flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. By premixing our dry ingredients, it helps ensure that everything is mixed well, preventing us from overmixing our batter when we come to combining our wet ingredients with the dry, later on in the recipe.
Set your dry ingredients aside and in another bowl cream together butter, oil and sugar with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) for 2-3 minutes on a medium-high speed. This is going to incorporate air into our batter, which will give us a fluffier cake!
Next add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition. Eggs add structure and moisture to our cake.
Next add in vanilla extract or essence, white vinegar and red liquid food coloring and mix until well combined.
Now the last step is to fold in our dry ingredients while alternating with 3/4s of a cup buttermilk. So to do this, add in half of your flour mixture and fold it into the wet mixture until just combined. Then add in your buttermilk, and fold that through until just combined. Lastly, add in your remaining dry ingredients and fold through until just combined.
It’s important to do this step by hand as this will prevent us from overmixing our batter and developing too much gluten. Gluten is what gives bread great structure, and although we want SOME structure for cakes, we don’t want too much otherwise it’ll make our cake tough and dense.
Once the batter is done, evenly distribute it into the two 8 inch cake tins and cook for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the cake tins for 20 minutes, before turning them out onto a cooling rack. Allow to completely cool before frosting.
How to decorate your cake
There’s no particular way to decorate a red velvet cake, but here’s how I did mine using my cream cheese frosting recipe 🙂
Now usually I would trim (or torte) the tops of my cake layers with a serrated knife to make them flat, but these red velvet layers bake up really nice and flat so no trimming was required. So I went ahead and added a generous amount of frosting to my first cake layer and smoothed it out with my offset spatula. I then placed the next cake layer on top.
I then placed some frosting on my top cake layer and spread it out with my offset spatula. I then used the excess frosting on the sides to cover the entire cake. I only did a thin layer of frosting and didn’t worry about a crumb coat because I was piping rosettes all around the cake. If you also want to pipe rosettes, then you will need to make 1.5x my cream cheese frosting recipe to ensure you have enough frosting.
I then used a 1M piping tip to pipe rosettes all around the cake! If you’re new to piping check out my beginner’s piping tutorial or 1M piping tip tutorial.
Once your cake is decorated, pop it into the fridge to allow everything to firm up. This will make it easier to cut. We don’t want cold cake though, so bring it out of the fridge about an hour or so before it’s going to be cut. If it’s still cold when you cut through it, then let it come to room temperature before eating. Trust me, it is worth the wait 😀
Commonly Asked Questions
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?
For a cupcake version of this cake, check out my red velvet cupcake recipe. It’s basically a smaller quantity of this recipe – just enough to make 12 cupcakes!
Can I use a buttermilk substitute?
A buttermilk substitute will work fine for this recipe. Check out how to make your own buttermilk substitute here.
Soft 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
Red Velvet Cake
- 2¼ cups (275 g) flour - regular all purpose (see note 3 if you want to use cake flour)
- 3 tbsp (18 g) cornflour - also known as cornstarch
- 3 tbsp (14 g) cocoa powder - unsweetened
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt - omit if using salted butter
- 6 tbsp (86 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ¾ cup (141 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola
- 1¾ cups (344 g) white granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs - room temperature
- 1 tbsp (12 g) vanilla essence/extract
- 1½ tsp white vinegar
- 3½ tbsp (38 g) red liquid food colouring
- ¾ cup (158 g) buttermilk - room temperature
Cream Cheese Buttercream
- 1 batch of my cream cheese buttercream frosting recipe - see note 4 if piping rosettes around the cake like I have
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160 °C (320°F) with the fan on (see note 7 if you don't have a fan function) and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
- In a bowl, sift together your flour, cornflour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
- In another bowl, add in your butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine - see note 6), cream together for 2-3 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between eggs).
- Add in your vanilla, vinegar and red liquid food colour, and mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
- Finish off by adding in half of your premixed dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and gently fold it in with a spatula until just combined. Then add in all of your buttermilk, and fold it in until just combined. Lastly, add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold it into the mixture until just combined. Do not overmix (see note 1).
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not to open the oven door too early otherwise this can cause the cake layers to sink (see note 2). Also avoid overbaking the cake layers otherwise they will dry out.
- Once baked, allow them to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool before frosting with my cream cheese buttercream frosting. For tips on how to frost your cake, check out the blog post above where I walk you through how I decorated mine with pictures, or watch my YouTube video below 🙂
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.
558 Comments
I used cake flour and cornstarch. Hope it turns out well. I’ll let you know.
Hope it turned out great Karen! 🙂
Hi Maryam! I want to try this recipe but in cupcake form; is it the same temperature and cooking times for regular sized cupcakes? I’m afraid it might dry out.
Hi Trish! For red velvet cupcakes check out this post which is basically my red velvet cake but a smaller batch for 12 cupcakes 🙂 https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/soft-red-velvet-cupcakes/
Enjoy!
Totally amazing!! This was my first time making a red velvet cake and oh my gosh i will never use any other recipe it was so soft and melts in your mouth and everyone told me it tasted like the popular bakery in our city. Loved this so so much thank you!!
Yay! So so happy to hear you loved the recipe Sun 🙂 really appreciate the feedback!
Hi Mk. I was wondering if it would be ok for me to use one baking pan instead of two. Or would doing this affect the cake results? Thank you
Hi Samira! 🙂 It’s best to use two tins, or 1 larger cake tin (like a 10 inch cake tin). I haven’t tried this recipe in only one 8 inch cake tin, and sometimes soft cakes don’t rise as well if there is too much batter in one tin and you can sometimes have a dense layer on the bottom of your cake – not saying it won’t work, but since I haven’t tried it myself I wouldn’t recommend it 🙂 hope that helps!
hi!! i was wondering if i could use my hand mixer for the entire process? just to incorporate the ingredients on the last steps (specially the dry ingredients). i have made this cake 2 times now and it has turned out delicious, but i have a hard time on the last step. my batter ends up having a lot of clumps when i use a spatula (even though i make sure everything is incorporated, it still has clumps) and i worry that i could end up having clumps of flour in my cake. Hope you could help 🙂
Hi Natalia! 🙂 If using the hand mixer on the lowest speed, then I think you can get away with mixing it with the hand mixer at the end, just be sure not to overmix the batter 🙂 you could also hand mix the dry ingredients, and then use the hand mixer for a few seconds at the end on a low speed just to make sure everything is mixed well. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi..can I make this cake eggless? If yes may I know what should I replace the eggs with to make this an eggless recipe?
Hi Muskaan! 🙂 I haven’t tried this recipe as an eggless version myself so I can’t recommend any substitutes at this stage sorry!
Hi! I tried your recipe it was amazing but it was a bit thin because I used an 9 inch cake tin. I want to make it again for Christmas is there a way to change the quantities in a way it would suit the 9 inch tins?
Hi Bimsara! So glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂 I would recommend making 1.5x the recipe for thicker 9 inch cake layers! Enjoy 🙂
My absolute favourite!
My son is allergic to egg so I would be forever grateful for an eggless version 😀
So happy to hear you loved the recipe Kate! Will keep an eggless red velvet cake in mind for future videos 🙂
Hi MK.
Tried your recipe
Wow
I veganized it
But now I need to make it gluten free too
Can I do that wirh a 1 to 1 gf flour like Bob’s red mill?
Hi Tersha! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe 🙂 I haven’t tried a gluten free flour for this recipe myself, but I think if it’s a regular flour substitute it should work fine 🙂 you may just want to mix a little longer at the need to ensure everything is mixed well and the cake holds together once baked 🙂 would love to hear how you go if you try it out!
Hi MK
Love following You
Bought the Gluten free flour
Going to make it tomorrow
It will be lactose free
Eggs will be in this time since it’s not dairy for a gluten free person
Everyone loved the vegan version
I used flax instead of eggs 🥚
So happy to hear the vegan version was a success! Hope the gluten free version also turns out just as well Tersha! 😀
Hi, I’d love to try this recipe out but we don’t have buttermilk in my country. Can I make a substitute version with milk and lime juice or vinegar? If so how much of milk and souring agent do I use?
Hi Sarah! 🙂 Check out this blog post for a homemade buttermilk substitute: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/how-to-make-buttermilk/
Hi MK! I made your red velvet recipe at home yesterday and when i cream the butter, oil and sugar, they did not rise at all, as if i just stir it with a spoon. Unlike your fluffy batter. But i continue to do the next step anyway. Any idea what did i do wrong? Aside from that, i still got the softest red velvet cake ever! Amazing recipe! Thanks a lot 💖
Hi Felicia! 🙂 This could be due to the butter being too soft. Check out this video for more info 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVgfSV437kI&t=51s
So glad to hear it still turned out great 😀