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 Jane I’m looking to make this cake for my cousins graduation I would like to decorate it more in a drip style I have read through the reviews and seen were you suggested to use your white chocolate ganache recipe from the biscoff drip cake, would I do a crumb coat of the cream cheese frosting? If so do I need to increase the amount of cream cheese frosting I make? Also shall I use your new cream cheese frosting recipe? Is this red velvet recipe the same as your spider cake not sure which one to follow just know I want some cream cheese frosting involved because I think it makes a red velvet cake.
I’ve never used cream cheese frosting as a crumb coat, but if you follow the new method and recipe it should be fine! xx
Can i use sour cream instead of buttermilk as cant find and buttermilk in tesco now
You need to make your own buttermilk – notes on the post about this x
Hi Jane
I Have the sugerflair velvet red paste and the wilton red paste but I’m either using too much or too little because the colour is never the colour I would like. Can you advise how much paste/gel I should use and should it be mixed with liquid?
I use the listed amount – 1 heaped tsp of the red extra. I use the same type of colouring for my other red velvet bakes as well so it may just be that you need to change it until you find what works for the colours you are using as all reds can vary, but I find the red extra the best by absolute far!
Hey! I’m making this this weekend, but can’t find buttermilk anywhere, is this simple enough to make yourself? Do you have a recipe you’d recommend using for it? TIA x
Theres notes on the post about making your own xx
Hi Jane, my cake tins are 9” springform tins, if I wanted to use this recipe to do a 3 layer cake in these tins how much would you recommend increasing the recipe by to get next size layers. Thanks
Hey! So I’m not certain, but usually a 9″ tin is about 1/3 bigger, but as you want another layer as well you would need to increase it quite a large amount. Maybe double it? x
Hey
Is there any other vinegar you could use as I don’t have white wine vinegar?
You need a white vinegar of sorts, so a good alternative is apple cider vinegar!
Hi jane i want to make a 6″ cake 2 layers how much batter would i need? Thank you in Advance
I would use about 2/3 of the recipe x
Always wanted to make red velvet successfully. Made once and wasn’t very red. Followed your method and came out beautifully. I found vanilla bean extract in the cupboard too which worked do much better than the usual vanilla flavourings I tend to use. Will store this recipe for future use.
Hi love your recipes recently I tried your chocolate cake which turned out so well! Today I tried the red velvet cake the sponge was lovely but for some reason the cream cheese icing was too runny, I tried to make it twice but both times I got the same result. I tried to add more icing sugar but that didn’t work either. Would you have any tips on Improvement xx
You can have a look at my new cream cheese frosting on this post – https://www.janespatisserie.com/2020/05/02/how-to-make-cream-cheese-frosting/ – as it’s different. It may be a better method for you xx
Hi Jane,
Love your cake recipes, have baked a few now and my family always love them.
I am going to try this recipe soon for my friends birthday. However I need some inspiration as i would ideally like to make it pretty…like a drip cake style. I am just not sure what chocolate would taste best, or what else I could pop on the top to make it more of a statement. Any ideas would be amazing
Thank you xx
I would basically use 1.5x the recipe to get three layers, and then use the ganache outside from my Biscoff Drip Cake recipe (White chocolate ganache) as you can then fill it with cream cheese frosting still! (use my new cream cheese frosting recipe on my blog) x
Hi I’m looking to do the same with my red velvet cake how did yours turn out? Did you use the white chocolate ganche do you still need to do a crumb coat of the cream cheese frosting? If so do I need to increase the amount of cream cheese frosting I make?
Hi Jane I adore all your recipes thank you so much!! I was wondering if I could use powdered red food colouring instead of the paste?
Honestly, I have no idea – I have never used a powdered red food colouring in such a way.
Hi Jane! Do you still recommend that red colouring mentioned in the recipe? I want a super intense red, like a blood red (sorry!) so should I use the colouring recommend or is there others I could use that you have perhaps used and liked?
Yep, still the same one!! x
Hi Jane
Is cultured buttermilk ok with This?
Yes!
Hi Jane would it be possible for me to use this recipe in a 2lb loaf tin at all?
Thanks
yes! x
Hey Jane
If I wanted to make this three layered how much More ingredients would I need?
Thank you
I would use 1.5x the recipe, so another half x
Hi Jane,
I just adore your recipes, your website is my go to’ when wanting inspiration for a new or different recipe and they ALWAYS go down an absolute treat! I’m going to make your Red Velvet cake for an anniversary and wondered is the PME Berry Red Paste a strong enough colour to use? X
I haven’t used that one before, and do believe the red extra is by far the best, but it should be okay! x