Red Velvet Cake!
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A delicious & light and moreish red velvet cake smothered in cream cheese frosting – hello cake heaven!
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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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Hi, may sound silly but do you recommend sandwich tins to bake this cake in. Also what brand of cocoa powder do you use as been reading about non ducked cocoa powder but reading through your notes you haven’t mentioned anything specific.
Generally I use cake tins that are 2.5″ or deeper, so not sandwich tins (As sometimes they are incredibly shallow). I don’t use anything specific for cocoa powder – I swap between Barry cacao, and dr Oetker x
Hi Jane want to do this in as a traybake/square. Could you help me please with the recipe.
Hiya.. I was just wondering if this recipe makes a dense enough cake to use it for a ‘semi-naked’ iced cake?
Yes it should be fine!!
Hi, I’m unable to find the food colouring you recommend and it won’t come in time if I order it online, does a food colour gel work the same?
Thanks
It really does depend on the brand as mentioned on the post – any supermarket brand will not work. Places such as hobby craft sell good quality colours!
Hi Jane, does it have to be block butter for the cake? Thanks
I tend to use it, but for the cake it can be a baking spread like stork!
Hi Jane I loved your red velvet nyc cookies recipe and wondered if you could tell me how long this might take to bake if I put it all in one 10 inch pan instead of 2 pans? So excited to try! Thanks in advance 👍
Hey! I’m really sorry but I am not sure – I don’t often bake 10″ cakes. x
Hi, I made this with 1.5 mix to put in two 9” tins. However, cakes ‘domed’ and cracked in middle! I used a slightly hotter over because of bigger tins?
Hiya – so I wouldn’t recommend making the temperature hotter, either keep it the same or maybe lower it. The larger sizes will take longer to bake either way, but the temperature is the reason it will have domed quite a bit!
Hiya I was wondering shag I would adjust this to to make a 3 tier cake!x
Was wondering what* oops!!
Hey! I would use 1.5x the recipe, and bake into three tins! x
Hey! What’s the red stuff you have sprinkled on top to decorate? I can’t tell what it is and it looks great hahah x
It’s crumbled cake crumbs!
Hi my son wants a velvet cake but multi coloured. Do you have any suggestions on hows best to do it? Do I divide the mixture into 3 batches then add the colours that way?
The risk of that is you will over mix the mixture because of where you are adding the colour at the end! You will also need to make sure they are good quality colours like mentioned xx
Jane I love u. I made ur recipe today and it is a huge mega HIT. Very tasty, moist and light. Thank u. Im from Mauritius.
Hi Jane! Would love to use this recipe for my sons birthday cake but was hoping to do a rainbow cake (6 small layers) do you think the cream cheese will hold them? Or shall I add something else in the middle? He loves cream cheese frosting! Thanks!
I would use the cream cheese from my new cream cheese frosting post compared to this one – then it should be okay! x
Hi Jane I’m planning on making this as a 3 tier cake and increasing the ingredients as you stated in earlier comments. I would like to cover the sides, would you recommend a buttercream to cover the top and side rather than the cream cheese frosting? Many thanks
Hey! Personally I would use buttercream yes! x
Would you be able to tell me how much I would need to create enough buttercream to cover up the sides and top of the cake?
I usually double it!
Hi love your recipes and am going to try this one out tomorrow. If I were to use 3 x 7 inch tins would you recommend change the recipe- increase or decrease? Thank you in advance x
Hey! I don’t often bake 7″ cakes I’m afraid – but I would say increase the recipe slightly as you want three layers! Maybe add on another 1/3? x
Hi,
Am I able to alter this recipe slightly to make into a tray bake? If so, how?
Thank you x
Hey! That depends – what size tin did you want to use? x
It’s 13”x9” x
Ahh okay! So it’s probably best to just double it – if you have any leftover mix you’d be able to make a couple of cupcakes but double should be okay! X
Hi Jane
Huge fan- your recipes are fab and such a crowd pleaser! Do you know if it would be possible to make this gluten free with substituting the flour and adding Xanthan gum?
Yes that should be fine!! Obviously double check all other ingredients for allergens too! x