Red Velvet Cake!
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A delicious & light and moreish red velvet cake smothered in cream cheese frosting – hello cake heaven!
THANK YOU!
HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG – Jane’s Patisserie! Just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that supports my blog, likes my posts, comments on my posts, and especially to those who bake & share my recipes – I love you all!!
Red Velvet
Red velvet cake is one of those ‘in things’ that all coffee shops will sell at some point, and the recipe that everyone wants to have and use, but its one of the most inconsistent cakes to make at home that I have come across! I use this as a base for all things red velvet – red velvet NYC cookies, red velvet brownies, red velvet loaf cake and red velvet cupcakes… the list goes on!
After trying out a few recipes from other websites and such I decided that developing my own was best – as some recipes were so unreliable I just didn’t feel comfortable! It really is science when it comes to red velvet, and whilst the classic was really a beetroot cake, this is my more modern version of a red velvet cake.
Food colouring
I would definitely say the key to the recipe is good quality food colouring – using the little liquid bottles you can buy from the supermarket, will NOT work! You will end up having to use about 5 bottle to make it work, and it’ll just taste nasty.
I use Sugarflair food colouring for all of my baking, and this is no different! I use the Sugarflair Red Extra food colouring which you can buy, which comes in at about £5/£6 a pot, but it lasts for sooooo long that this doesn’t matter! Also, the key of using the buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda, and vinegar means that the red colouring will be brought out even more, and you will get the classic velvet cake texture!
I find the reason that peoples red velvet cakes can fail is because of using lower quality food colouring, not mixing it with the cocoa powder (which is the ingredient that makes the colouring not work sometimes!!) and then not taking their time with the making of the cake. Gradually adding in all of the ingredients in the order specified makes a deliciously moist cake, that comes out super super SUPER bright red!
Frosting
The cake has a delicious mix of the flavours of chocolate and vanilla, which is utter heaven to me!! The cream cheese frosting on top is sweet, delicious, and marries with the cake perfectly – but cream cheese frosting can always be a liiiittle bit runny in comparison to others, thats its nature, however – as long as you don’t over beat it too much – it’ll be lovely and delicious!
I love this cake so so so much, so I really hope you guys do too! For the cream cheese frosting, you have to make sure that your cream cheese has no extra excess liquid, and try not to over mix the mixture. Also, room temperature butter is important so there is no lumps. Take a look at this blog post for a whole post dedicated to cream cheese frosting.
Red Velvet Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 300 g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 1 heaped tsp Sugarflair Red Extra food colouring
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 ml buttermilk
- 300 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 150 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 150 g icing sugar
- 300 g full fat cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan and line/grease two 8" cake tins - leave to the side for now.
- Beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar in a stand mixer until smooth and fluffy like you would a normal cake, and then gradually beat in the egg so that it doesn't curdle (if it doesn't curdle, beat in a little flour to bring it back)
- In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, Sugarflair red extra food colouring, and vanilla extract to a thick dark paste (if it is struggling to become a paste, then add in a little milk to make it runnier and mix better - it needs to be smooth!) - it may take a couple of minutes but this will make it easier to add to the rest of the mixture if you do it this way - and the sponge will be more red!
- Add this mixture to the unsalted butter and caster sugar mixture and beat until combined and evenly coloured.
- Turn the speed down to slow, and pour in half of the buttermilk.
- Add in half of the plain flour and beat again, and then the other half of the buttermilk & beat, and then the other half of the flour & beat (I realise this is faffy, but it works!).
- Beat in the bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar.
- Beat again for a couple of minutes until everything is smooth and incorporated well.
- Separate into the two tins and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the middle of the cake comes out clean when poked with a skewer!
- Once the cakes are baked, leave to cool fully on a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Make sure your unsalted butter is at room temperature. I leave mine out overnight when it's cold weather, but in the hotter months this can take as little as 30 minutes!
- Beat your butter on it's own for a few minutes to loosen it.
- Add in the icing sugar, and beat again - I beat this for about 5 minutes, to make it really smooth.
- Make sure your cream cheese doesn't have any excess water - I find it best to add it to a bowl first just to make sure.
- Add in the cream cheese, vanilla and beat. At first, it may look a little weird, but just keep on beating.
- I end up beating it for a few minutes - it can go through a lumpy stage first, but eventually the lumps beat out and it's smooth and thick!
- Once beaten - it should be lovely and thick.
- Pipe/spread 1/2 of the frosting onto the top of one sponge.
- Add the other sponge on top, then pipe/spread the other half of the frosting onto the top and decorate with sponge crumbs if you fancy!
Notes
- I really really really recommend in investing in good quality Sugarflair Red Extra food colouring for a red velvet cake - I use Sugarflair paste colours which you can buy online, or in cake decorating shops etc - but they don't have a funny taste to them, you use far less to make them work, and they last so much longer!!
- This cake will last in the fridge for up to 3 days, covered, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months!
- I use these 8" Cake Tins
- I use this red food colouring
- I use this Vanilla extract
- I use these piping bags
- I use this Medium 2D Closed Star Piping Tip
- If you would like the original cream cheese frosting recipe it is:
- 125g room temperature unsalted butter, 280g full fat cream cheese, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 400-600g icing sugar.
- Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth, and add the vanilla extract.
- Gradually add the icing sugar until thick and delicious.
ENJOY!
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J x
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Love all of your receipes so much!
Could this be adapted to use in a number mould for a 30th birthday? Or could the receipe be left the same?
Many thanks!
This is my new go to red velvet cake, the texture is perfect, the flavour delicious and I love the red colour! I’ve had so many compliments when making it, thank you1
Hey, do you think this recipe would work for a Swiss roll/Yule log?
Thanks 🙏
I don’t think I’ll get a reply in time, but the amount of butter to sugar seems too little and my mixture doesn’t look right, it’s not smooth, it’s just a mass of sugar, I keep beating it. Lots of people have made this cake so the quantity must be correct I guess.
This was a truly fabulous recipe. I made a 12″ 3 layer version of those by adjusting the recipe quantities. Got rave comments from everyone who ate it “the best velvet cake” they had ever eaten!
What were the quantities for a 12 inch?
30g of cocoa? am I reading this wrong? Does this not just make chocolate cake?
No, it doesn’t! It’s quite a small amount really and required for the recipe x
Hello! I want to make this recipe for my friends birthday but in two number silicone tins. It’ll be 3 and a 0. They are 33cm tall and 6cm deep… do you know how much I would need in each? Would I just do it like they’re the two twins? Please can someone advise
This is the fluffiest cake I’ve ever made! I made it for my partner’s birthday and got rave reviews. I had a bit of a struggle beating together the sugar and butter but otherwise great success
Hi im making this for my cousins wedding this weekend but dont know how to get the ingredients and cooking time for a 6 inch cake
Can this cake be stored at room temperature? I want to use it for a wedding cake but can’t refrigerate it to the wedding or at the wedding?
Cream cheese frosting needs to be kept in the fridge for food safety – you’d need to swap to a regular buttercream, and add cream cheese flavouring to make it food safe x
How many cupcakes would this recipe make please?
Thanks for this amazing recipe! I made it over the weekend with my daughter for her 9th birthday. It’s the first cake either of us has ever baked completely from scratch. It came out perfect, even better the red velvet from an expensive bakery!
Would add the “paste” directly in with the butter and sugar next time instead of adding after the eggs as the written recipe suggests. The chocolate clotted into tiny balls and I had to sieve all of the batter. I should have rested through the entire recipe first, I would have thought of it.. otherwise fab!
I tried your method (I make this a lot) and it definitely does not
work out well.
Jane is right, making the paste bakes a deep more consistent
bake and a whole lot better texture and colour than what you
suggested! I would definitely stick with her method next time.
So anyone else thinking this eases the method! It does but
detracts a lot away from the end result.
I made this yesterday – absolutely amazing. Stunning looking and tasting Thankyou so much I used the red flair dye so super bright red.
Hi Jane, how can you increase the ingredients to make this into a traybake?
Thanks.
Greetings from Ireland ☘️ This is an amazing recipe! Thank you so much for sharing it ❤️ I’m making niece’s wedding cake and this is definitely 1 of the tiers. You may have posted this already but would you have quantities for a 12 inch/30 cm version? If not no worries, I’ll work on scaling it up. Thanks again! S
Hi Sinead,
I love this recipe also. But the red never comes outs as much as it should and I have bought quality products. My red paste doesn’t break through the colour of the coco powder. I’m in Ireland too so was wondering if our ingredients are slightly different to the states? What coco powder and food colouring do you use?
Neasa
Hiya! You need to use the red colouring I have linked on the post xx
Can I use dr oetker instead of sugar flair? If yes, how much should I use?
I would say no – it’s not strong enough and the bake will likely still be brown. x
Hi, I’ve just made this cake using pro gel concentrated food colour in red from Hobbycraft and it’s worked a treat.
Could I use gluten free flour instead and if so, is it the same quantity? I’m baking this for my friends birthday…..fingers crossed it looks like the pics!
My cream cheese frosting so so runny I can’t pipe it? Is 150g icing sugar enough?
Why is it different on the recipe to what’s in the notes. at the bottom?
Thankyou
What exact cream cheese did you use, and what exact butter? This is usually why it’s too soft (using low fat, or a baking margarine for example doesn’t work). The recipe in the notes is the original recipe in case someone still wants to make it, but I use the updated version now x