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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Happy birthday to the blog! I can’t believe you’ve only been doing this a year, hands down my favourite blog and I’m planning on trying one of your cheesecake recipes this weekend! This is definitely one to remember too 🙂
Awwwwh thank you so so much!! 🙂 I really hope you like the cheesecakes – let me know how you get on!!
Happy 1st Blogoversary….Red Velvet Cake is the perfect choice 🙂
Hehe thanks Marisa! 🙂
This is my husband’s favourite. I made him one for his birthday 🙂 http://abbiosbiston.com/2015/07/15/things-i-have-been-cooking-lately-120-red-velvet-cake/
Its amazing isn’t it!! 🙂
Only a year? Wow, you’ve come so far!!!
Thank you!! Haha 🙂
can this recipe be baked only for one cake? And not two baking trays?
The baking time will be considerably different if you do it one, and you potentially risk it drying out, but I don’t see why not.
Okay 🙂 and should I use self raising flour or just normal flour?
Stick with plain flour like the recipe states – the self raising side of things might make it rise too much and then fall in the middle!
Happy birthday to your blog and what a wonderful cake to celebrate with. 🙂
Hehe thank you so much!
Happy blogoversary, I do love a good red velvet cake. I have been disappointed with the recipes I have tried in the past. Your cake looks really perfect, next time I make one I will use your recipe. I do use good quality food coloring so I get that classic red color but am so glad you posted such detailed instructions. Thank you and Happy Birthday to your blog.
Aww thank you so much! 🙂 I really would say that getting the paste of cocoa powder, vanilla and colouring is helpful – otherwise the paste food colouring might not disperse and it ends up all icky coloured! And thank you again!! 🙂
Happy birthday! I agree, Red Velvet in the shops can be a hit or a miss. Well done! 🙂
Its always a gamble when you buy it!! And thank you so much! 🙂
Happy 1st Birthday to your fab blog. The cake looks delicious … i’ll be baking it for a friends birthday in a few weeks time.
Thanks Mary! And Oooh perfect, I hope everyone likes it!
Happy 1st birthday!!! That cake looks so delicious! Perfect way to celebrate ?
I agree 😉 hehe thank you!!
What a beautiful and delicious looking cake!!
Hehe thanks so much Lynz!! X
so pretty! I will try it
Yay!
Happy 1st birthday hope you have many more so glad I came across your blog x
Can I ask do you use homemade buttermilk or shop bought please Jane? Many thanks xxx
I use shop bought 🙂 and thank you so much! xxx
Hi Jane, I love all your recipes!If I wanted to bake this cake in two 6” tins how much should I reduce the ingredients by and the cooking time? Thanks
This is the best website to use for conversions – http://www.cakebaker1.co.uk/apps-for-bakers/baking-tin-size-conversion-calculator/ – as for baking time I’m not 100% sure. It would obviously be less, so check 10 minutes earlier maybe?
Happy blogoversary! Looks incredibly delicious, as usual!
Thanks Haylee!! 😀
Amazing 🙂
Thank you!!
Happy birthday! (To your blog) and red velvet is a perfect way to celebrate! Yummmm
Thanks Cher!! 🙂
Hi Jane can you use stork instead of butter on the red velvet sponge?xx
For the sponge, yes! Not for the topping x