Red Velvet Cake!
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This striking classic red velvet cake features a wonderfully light, cocoa-kissed sponge layer perfectly balanced by a thick, velvety cream cheese frosting. Requiring 20 minutes of active prep, 30 minutes of baking time, and a 3.5-hour chill, this recipe creates a beautiful 12-slice showstopper that masters the perfect red velvet crumb.
Notes from The Patisserie
The vibrant crimson of a modern red velvet cake is a beautiful marvel of baking chemistry. Historically, the reddish tint came from a natural reaction between the cocoa powder and acidic ingredients like buttermilk and vinegar, which activates the red in the cocoa.
Today’s cocoa powders are heavily alkalised to reduce acidity, which neutralises this reaction and leaves the cake a dark brown. To achieve that signature, show stopping bright red, you must rely on high-quality gel colourings rather than standard liquid supermarket bottles, which contain too much water and fade under oven heat.
The red velvet texture
The word “velvet” isn’t just a marketing term; it describes the incredibly fine, tight, and soft crumb structure of the cake. This unique texture is triggered by a quick-acting chemical reaction between the ingredients:
- Butter – I use unsalted butter at room temperature
- Sugar – caster sugar provides a finer granule of sugar to create that fine crumb
- Eggs – as usual I use medium eggs unless stated otherwise
- Cocoa powder – high quality cocoa powder is the difference in flavour and texture
- Red colouring – I use high quality food gel, a little goes a long way!
- Vanilla – I use vanilla extract for that classic flavour profile
- Buttermilk – the acidic profile works with the akalines creating bubbles in the batter
- Flour – plain flour works well here as we are creating a rising reaction elsewhere
- Bicarbonate of soda – this is the main akaline being utilised to react with the buttermilk
- Vinegar – I use white wine vinegar to act as another acid to work with the bicarb
When the acidic buttermilk and white wine vinegar hit the alkaline bicarbonate of soda, they instantly react to release carbon dioxide bubbles. This reaction causes the batter to expand rapidly in the oven, lifting the heavy flour and creating a crumb that is light, brilliantly tender, and uniquely melt-in-the-mouth.
Delicious cream cheese 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.
FAQs
No, liquid colourings contain too much water and will alter the chemistry of the batter, resulting in a dull, brownish cake with an unpleasantly bitter taste.
Alternating between the dry flour and liquid buttermilk prevents the fat in the creamed butter mixture from separating, ensuring a completely smooth, emulsified batter.
Don’t panic; cream cheese frosting often goes through an unappealing lumpy stage, so simply keep beating it for a few minutes and the lumps will smooth out perfectly.
No, baking powder does not have the same intense alkaline strength needed to react with the vinegar and buttermilk to create the classic velvet crumb.
Red Velvet Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 300 g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 1 heaped tsp red 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
- 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 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.
Storage and freezing
Because of the high dairy content in the cream cheese frosting, I keep the cake covered and stored in the refrigerator, where it will stay wonderfully moist and delicious for up to 3 days. If you want to prepare this dessert well in advance, the un-iced sponge layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic cling film and frozen for up to 3 months. Simply thaw them completely at room temperature before whipping up your fresh frosting and assembling.
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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.
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
Hi jane would you be able to give me a recipe to make this red velvet cake as a 10 inch please
My son has asked me to make his wedding cake.. 10 inch red velvet and 8 inch lemon drizzle
I absolutely love your recipes they haven’t failed me yet thank you so much
Hi Phyllis, I made this recipe last week in a 10″ tin and the quantity above was more than enough for the tin. I am making it again tomorrow, so I will double the recipe for 2 cakes to be sandwiched together. I baked at 150 fan for an hour and it had a very slight crust to it. I usually bake a 10″ for 45mins, but this was definitely not ready at that time. I might check tomorrow after 55mins. Hope this helps. Good luck with the wedding cake!
I’ve been requested to do a 10” cake for a wedding also, so this would be great x
I made this at the weekend and brought it to work today. I can’t tell you how well it’s gone down. So easy to make, looks amazing, deliciously moist and the cream cheese frosting, which I’m not normally a fan of as I find it too sweet, is absolutely delicious – really hard to believe there is any sugar in it. So many compliments I will definitely make this again as soon as possible. I used the red food colouring you recommended and the colour is very vibrant.
This Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting looks stunning, The rich, vibrant color and smooth frosting make it a showstopper for any occasion. I love how the recipe balances the flavors perfectly—sweet, tangy, and utterly delicious. Can’t wait to try making it for my next celebration.