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
If you double the recipe, do you still have to back in 8 8nch tin? Can you place in 2 x 25cm (9.8 inch) tins?
Hi Sylvia! Yes you can bake double the recipe in two larger tins 🙂 9.8inch should be fine. Just make sure there isn’t too much batter in one cake tin and you should be fine 🙂
Hi MK, hope you are well. Can I use this recipe for a sheet cake in a 9x12x3 rectangle pan? Would the cooking time be about the same? Thanks so much, love seeing your smiling face, Regards Maria
Hi Maria! 🙂 Yes that should be fine. Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Hello, thanks for the recipe it’s been helpful. Is there a different between liquid paste and gel food coloring?
I tried the recipe with gel food coloring but I could taste the coloring. And can powder also work? What will be the changes in measurement?
Hi there! Yes so liquid food colouring isn’t as concentrated as gel food colouring so there will be a difference. If using gel colours then you want to use a lot less, but then add additional liquid to make up for the lack of liquid in the gel colour. Powder should work too but I haven’t tried that myself so not sure of the exact measurements sorry! What I would suggest is whatever you use, try and make it equal the same liquid portion as the liquid colour in the original recipe, so if using powdered colour, then dilute it in water and then add it to the batter 🙂
Hey MK, can I use the same amount of ingredients if I am baking a tall cake in 4x 6 inch tins? . Also is it possible to replace the granulated sugar with the same amount of caster sugar. Thanks!
Hi Vino! So usually for two 8 inch cake layers it translates well to three 6 inch cake layers, but four layers may still work they’ll just be on the thinner side and will require a slightly shorter cooking time 🙂 in terms of the sugar, I haven’t tried this recipe with caster sugar myself so I’m not sure if it’ll result in the same texture but I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem 🙂
Thanks MK! I will just multiply the recipe 1.5 times to get the equal amount of batter for 4 x 6 inch tins.
cream cheese is mandatory ?? If I dont use it then??
Hi Ayesha! If making the cream cheese frosting then yes it is required, otherwise you can use a different type of frosting that doesn’t require cream cheese 🙂
Aslmwrbrkt Maryam
If i want to make cupcakes with same recipe, how long should cupcakes bake?. 15mins maybe?
Jzkl
Hi Rugaya! I have the exact same recipe in cupcake form and it has all the cooking instructions etc. 🙂 here is the link: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/soft-red-velvet-cupcakes/
Hi, as I don’t have an oven, can I make this cake in the microwave? If so, for how much time should I microwave it?
Hi Raisa! Unfortunately I haven’t tried making this cake in the microwave before and I’m not too sure it’ll give the same result sorry! If you do decide to experiment with it then would love to hear how you go 🙂
This cake is the best one that a every tried..a must try recipe…. thanks MK … your a superstar
Aww thank you so much! So happy to hear you enjoyed it Dsouza! 🙂
Best cake ever…thank you so much for sharing with us…..
Yay! So happy to hear you enjoyed it 😀
Hi MK,
i really enjoy your recipes.
If I want to bake in a 10 pans can I just double the recipe?
Thanks so much Xiomara! For a 10inch cake tin 1.5x the recipe will be good 🙂
Hi,
I just tried this recipe and used a scale and measured everything but while baking the cake sunk in the middle then after I took it out and tried to remove it from the tins it broke even thought I used the cake release. Also the cake came out very oily.
Can you please tell why would the cake sink in the middle .
Only variation I did was instead of 2 8inch cake tins I used 4 6″ inch tins. My buttermilk was slightly cold.
Thanks
Hi Samira! Sorry to hear your cake sank as well as stuck to the sides – that can be frustrating! In terms of the cake being oily, this is most likely due to your batter not being well combined which can be due to cold ingredients. When the fat in the cake is not mixed well with the other ingredients it can cause the cake to be oily. In terms of the cake sticking to the sides, you may need to use a little more cake release, otherwise if the cake release isn’t working well with the pans you’re using then stick to parchment paper. Lastly, there could be a few reasons causing your cake to sink. Check out this blog post for some troubleshooting tips 🙂 https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/why-did-my-cake-sink-in-the-middle/