Red velvet cake. This stunning cake not only strikes a beautiful color contrast between red and white, but it also brings in chocolate cake in its most vibrant form. Moist and soft with a velvet texture, it’s perfect for any special occasion, and the decadent cream cheese buttercream frosting takes it to the next level.
Yes, red velvet has always been an all-time favorite, and if you get the color and flavor right, it’s just magical. As you know, the base flavor is chocolate, but ingredients like buttermilk, vinegar and bicarbonate soda reacts with cocoa powder to create the best color and flavor. Literally perfect.
The amazing red color comes from food coloring or natural food dyes. With food coloring, you can either use gel or regular red color. However, gel is the preferred choice as you’ll only need a few drops of the concentrated version. On the other hand, you will need at least a tablespoon of the food coloring to achieve the desired result. The frosting is the basic cream cheese buttercream with a combination of cream cheese and butter. In other words, the classic red velvet frosting. I opted for a naked cake with minimal amount of frosting, but you can decorate the cake anyway you like.
Key Ingredients In Red Velvet Cake
- Cake flour - This gives you lighter, softer cake. Check ‘notes’ section below for DIY cake flour.
- Cocoa powder - The essential base flavor of the cake.
- Sugar - Granulated or caster sugar for sweetness.
- Vinegar - White vinegar is one of the key ingredients.
- Buttermilk - Another key ingredient of red velvet.
- Cream cheese - Beat with butter and sugar for the perfect frosting.
How To Make Red Velvet Cake
Cake batter - Start with combining together all the dry ingredients including flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and cocoa powder. Mix the wet ingredients separately starting with basting together butter and sugar. When the mixture light and fluffy, beat again with egg yolks, vanilla extract and white vinegar. Make sure the ingredients are combined really well before adding in the dry mixture. Alternate it with buttermilk to create the fluffiest cake ever.
At this stage, you can also add in the color. Remember we are after a very bright red batter. Now, you will need to beat the egg whites separately. It will take about 3-4 minutes to form fluffy soft peaks. The next step is folding it into the batter.
Cream cheese frosting - This is a basic combination of cream cheese, butter, and sugar. Add a splash of milk to get the right consistency, and a pinch of salt to balance the flavors.
Bake and decorate - I baked the cake in three cake pans to make three layers. Once they cool down, decorate with frosting. You can also use red crumbs to decorate.
Best Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 ½ cups cake flour, see notes
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 190 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated or caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- A few drops of red gel food coloring
Cream cheese frosting:
- 500 g cream cheese softened
- 120 g butter, at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered or icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Grease and line 3, 20 cm round cake pans.
- Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate soda into a large bowl. Set aside.
- Place butter and sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric hand held or stand mixer, beat for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add egg yolks, vinegar and vanilla extract. Beat again on high for about 2 minutes.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in flour mixture (2-3 additions) alternating with buttermilk, making sure the mixture is well combined between each addition.
- Add red food coloring. Beat until just combined.
- In another bowl, beat egg whites for about 3 minutes or until peaks form.
- Fold egg white mixture gently into the cake batter.
- Divide the batter among the cake pans. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven.
- Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the cream cheese frosting, using an electric hand held or stand mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter for about 2 minutes or until smooth.
- Add sugar, vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon milk and salt. Beat again until well combined.
- Add more milk, if required, to achieve the desired consistency.
- Decorate cake with the frosting.
Video
Notes
- Cake flour - For DIY mixture, measure 2 and ½ cups all purpose (plain) flour and remove 5 tablespoons of flour. To this, add 5 tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour). Now you have 2 and ½ cups cake flour.
- Food coloring- Red gel is the preferred choice, but you can also use regular food coloring. For natural color, use beet powder.
Nutrition
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Check out more cake recipes:
- Beet Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Blueberry Coconut Cake
- Easy Vanilla Cake
- Chocolate Cheesecake Cake
- Chocolate Drip Cake
- Best Chocolate Cake Recipe
Anonymous says
Tim says
What a beautiful cake!