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 Mk
New fan here I love love it here my go to each day , I’m struggling with the measurements for the 6 serving “ are you able to explain it easier ? Thank you
Hi Leona! So glad to hear you’re enjoying the content 😀 and do you mean if you were using 6inch cake tins as opposed to 8inch? In that case this recipe will make four 6 inch cake layers or you can half the recipe for two 6 inch cakes. Hope that helps 🙂
Hi MK
Salam
Would cupcakes take the same amount of time? Or I need to lessen the amount of time?
Wassalaam Umul! Cupcakes would require less baking time 🙂 I do have a red velvet cupcake recipe if you wanted to check that out! Here is the link: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/soft-red-velvet-cupcakes/
I absolutely love all your recipes and this one is no exception, I however would like to know how many kgs does this recipe make, in Kenya we use kgs when ordering for cakes, thanx in advance
So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipes Fathiya! 😀 I haven’t actually weighed these cakes so I’m not too sure sorry!
Love this recipe, I used it for cupcakes.
So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Marie! 🙂
Hi MK, thank you for your AMAZING! Recipes. I made this red velvet cake for my daughters 15th birthday. It was the best, most moist red velvet cake I have ever had. Everyone loved it! It lasted no time in the house. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to try the carrot cake!!!
Sending you ❤️ from 🇨🇦
Aww you’re so welcome Shorna! I am so so happy to hear everyone loved the recipe 😀 and happy 15th birthday to your daughter :). Hope you enjoy the carrot cake just as much 😀
Hi I’m gonna try this recipe today.. so excited 😍 but I have a small question. When should I add the buttermilk to the batter?
Hi Rushi! The buttermilk is added at the end after half of the dry ingredients are added to the batter (step 6 on the recipe card). Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Hellow madam
I tried to make cake by using this recipe for two times but all of my cake become too oily at the top also have sinked at the middle .
Can you help me to know what was the problem please
Hello Aisha 🙂 Sorry to hear your cakes aren’t coming out quite how you’d hoped! It sounds like the batter may need a little more mixing at the end so that the ingredients are well combined and more of the structure of the cake is developed. Also ensure all ingredients are at room temp and the cake tins you’re baking the cakes in aren’t over greased. To prevent sinking, refrain from opening the oven door too early to check the cake as this can cause it to sink. Hope these tips help for next time 🙂
Love watching your videos, thanks for all the tips. I am currently making this came and for the first time, my red velvet is RED Ya!!!!!!! Thank you. I don’t have an 8″ pan, is there any adjustments if I am using 6″ pans? I baked for 20mins then add 5 more mins, there was still a little bit coming out after he stick test. Is that ok?
Hi Shorna! So happy to hear you’re enjoying the videos 😀 if using two 6 inch pans then you’ll want to reduce the recipe by half, or you can make the full recipe if using four 6 inch cake tins 🙂 and that should be okay as long as it wasn’t wet batter 🙂
Hi MK, thank you for your AMAZING! Recipes. I made this red velvet cake for my daughters 15th birthday. It was the best, most moist red velvet cake I have ever had. Everyone loved it! It lasted no time in the house. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to try the carrot cake!!!
Sending you ❤️ from 🇨🇦
I consider myself a baker but this cake made me want to give it up. I followed the recipe and it ran all over the oven, the racks and bottom of the oven. The clean up was intense. That being said it tasted good what was left. Don’t know what went wrong but I won’t try again
Oh no! Sorry to hear the recipe didn’t quite work out how you’d hoped, that can be very frustrating! Sounds like there may have been too much cake batter in the cake tin? Was the batter distributed into two 8 inch cake tins? Happy to provide some troubleshooting tips 🙂
Hi MK,
I love your cake and all the work you have done thank you for sharing your beautiful work with us.
Could you please tell me if I can add gelatin to a cream cheese buttercream for a more stable?
Thanks so much Renee! 😀 and yes you can totally do that for extra stability 🙂
Hi Maryam,
I tried your Red velvet cake recipe for my husband’s BD and it turned out super delicious.
Thanks a lot.
So so happy to hear you enjoyed the cake Rabail 😀