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.
566 Comments
Hi there, just tried this recipe and it was a flop – totally sank in the middle, overcooked and not a lot of flavor. When you say “an oven with a fan” are you talking about a convection oven? I used convection at 320 and then at 340 which I normally use, took out after 25 minutes – neither worked. Mixed by hand, was a bit lumpy? I’m also at a higher elevation here in Canada. Other than that I followed the recipe as exactly as I could. The batter tasted great so I’m not sure what went wrong??
Hi Leanne 🙂 So sorry to hear the cake didn’t quite turn out how you’d hoped! That can be frustrating. Yes when I refer to a fan oven I mean a convection oven, so if using a convection oven you want to bake at 320F otherwise the cake will overcook. My first thought is to check whether you used one 8 inch cake tin or two? If you happened to only use one cake tin, then this is likely the cause of the cake sinking in the middle and overcooking as there would have been too much batter in one cake tin. Another common reason for cakes sinking is when the cake is checked too early and the batter in the middle hasn’t set enough yet. For more tips check out this blog post: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/why-did-my-cake-sink-in-the-middle/
I would also recommend using the gram measurements if you didn’t already for best results. A bit too much flour or not enough sugar can impact the final taste and texture of the cake. With the batter being lumpy, thats fine as long as there aren’t big lumps of unmixed flour.
Lastly, with the higher elevation, I am not too sure about that. I do know there are some adjustments that may need to be made if baking at a higher elevation, though I am not too familiar with what these adjustments are myself. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help in that regard!
Hope that helps for next time 🙂
Hi MK! May I know how long can I keep this cake in the fridge and how long can it be left out in room temperature? Thank you!
Hi Joan! 🙂 You can keep this cake at room temp for the day, but overnight it will need to be refrigerated (pop it in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out) due to the cream cheese in the frosting 🙂
Hi! I’ve tried this recipe twice and in both times mine comes with a hole in the middle of the cake, should I adjust the buttermilk?? I live in Mexico so there is no buttermilk in bottle as in US, so I make mine.
Hi Valeria! 🙂 So sorry to hear the cake seems to be sinking in – cakes can sink in due to a few reasons, with the most common reason being that the cake is checked too early. I would recommend checking out this blog post for tips on how to prevent cakes from sinking in: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/why-did-my-cake-sink-in-the-middle/
In terms of the buttermilk, for this recipe a homemade substitute should work fine. For best results, I would also recommend using the gram measurements provided if possible. Hope that helps for next time! 🙂
Can this recipe be made without the food coloring? If omitting the food coloring will it change its flavor?
Hi Val! 🙂 You can certainly omit the food coloring, the flavor will stay the same you just won’t have the red colour (the cake will be more brown). Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello MK,
I am very excited to try your recipes, they all look amazing! Do I need to modify this recipe for high altitude? I live at an elevation of 4500′.
Hi Laurie! 😀 So happy to hear you’re wanting to try out my recipes 😀
I am so so sorry but I am not too familiar with high altitude cooking so can’t really suggest anything at this stage! I will have to do some research into it – it is certainly an interesting topic that I would love to learn more about 🙂
Hello, I love all your recipes. Can you say how many cups of cake batter this recipe gives please?
Hi Corrie! So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipes 😀
Hmmm good question – maybe about 4-5 cups? I am not exactly sure sorry but it would be somewhere around that mark 🙂
What can i use instead of egg, as i am allergic to them.
Hi Uppu! 🙂 Unfortunately I haven’t tried an egg substitute for this recipe myself so I’m not too sure what would work well sorry! Will keep an eggless red velvet cake in mind for future recipes 🙂
I would love to try this recipe, but I live at 4500′ elavation. Are there any modifications I need to make to the recipe?
Hi Laurie 🙂 So happy to hear you’re wanting to give the recipe a go! Unfortunately I am not too knowledgeable around cooking at different elevations so am not too sure of any modifications that may be required. So sorry about that!
this recipe is definitely worth the 5 star rating! made it twice and me and my husband loved it!! will do it again for sure xx
Thanks so much for the feedback Ino! 😀 So happy to hear you and your husband enjoyed the recipe!
Hi there! I can’t wait to try this! Just wondering if I should avoid using dutch cocoa….
Hi Natasha! 🙂 Yes avoid using dutch cocoa otherwise your red velvet cake may become more brown looking as opposed to red :). Hope you enjoy the recipe!