Red Velvet Loaf Cake!
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An easy red velvet loaf cake topped with delicious and smooth cream cheese frosting
Red velvet bakes
I love all things red velvet, and whilst it did confuse me a bit when I was younger (what even is ‘red velvet’?!) I just love it so much now. It’s something that makes me go “ooooh” when I see it at a cake shop
Red velvet cake to me is a chocolate and vanilla flavoured cake, that has a particular texture, flavour and style. More classic recipes do not use red food colouring, as the red colour comes from using a particular type of cocoa powder. However, many many recipes now do use the colouring to make the style more accessible.
Red velvet flavour
The flavour also comes from the more bizarre ingredients that you may see, compared to the usual sugar, butter, eggs and flour style cakes. Red Velvet cake uses buttermilk, vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and plain flour. The raising agents are completely different.
Some people don’t get the fuss about red velvet, and I can get it… not all red velvet cakes are pleasant to eat, but you can say the same about any cake. I think it’s a flavour that is 100% worth trying again, as I have developed such an adoration for it
The cake mix
This cake uses 11 ingredients, which may sound a bit over the top – but they are all worth it. You beat together the butter and sugar like you would with any other cake, and then things start getting interesting. Add in the cocoa powder, eggs, vanilla extract and red food colouring.
For this recipe, the colouring is SO important it’s crazy. Just like my other red velvet bakes on this blog, I always use the same red food colouring.
The reason you need to use a good quality colour, is because supermarket colours such as the liquid bottles, or the tiny gel tubes just do not have the strength to make a difference. I say this every time, and people will still ignore it, and then ask why isn’t it red.
I wish that all red food colours worked just as well, but they honestly don’t! The chemical reaction with the buttermilk, vinegar and cocoa powder, then mixed with the red food colouring will give you the finish you are after!
Tin
I used this 2lb loaf tin as always! It’s my favourite loaf tin, and I just adore it. It’s the perfect size for me (as mentioned in other loaf cake posts, a 2lb loaf tin can really really vary, even though they have the same name and I have no idea why) – so if you find your tin is a bit small, fill the tin 3/4 of the way maximum, and then bake some cupcakes with the spare mix!
Cream cheese frosting
For the topping, I use cream cheese frosting. I have done a post purely about cream cheese frosting now because it is such a hard thing to make sometimes, and it’s the same style going onto this cake.
This version uses equal amounts of unsalted block butter and icing sugar, beaten together until smooth. Then, it adds in the cream cheese. For this one, I used 125g of unsalted butter and sugar, and 250g of full-fat cream cheese. It MUST be full fat.
Decoration
For the decoration, just like my other red velvet cakes, I trim off a really small amount from the cake and leave it to the side before decorating with the frosting. Then, I use a 2D closed star piping tip as it’s my favourite ever, and decorate away!
Finish with a sprinkle of the red velvet crumbs, just because it’s so cute and always looks good, and then devour every slice of the cake!! If you have any questions then leave them below in the comments.
Red Velvet Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 300 g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp red food colouring (see notes)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 ml buttermilk
- 300 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 125 g icing sugar
- 250 g full-fat cream cheese (I use philadelphia)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Red Velvet Loaf Cake
- Preheat your oven to 170ºc/150ºc fan and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper
- Beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar in a bowl until smooth and fluffy
- Add in the eggs, cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract and beat again until combined.
- Add in the buttermilk and plain flour, and beat again. Try not to over beat the mixture.
- Finally – beat in the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar.
- Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, and smooth over.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the middle of the cake comes out clean when poked with a skewer! Once the cake is baked, leave to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes, and then on a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Make sure your unsalted butter is at room temperature, and make sure to use block butter and not a spread.
- Beat your unsalted butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy - like you would a normal buttercream. I beat them together for about 5 minutes.
- Add in your full-fat cream cheese (That has been drained if needed), and beat for about a minute.
- Scrape the bowl well, and add in the vanilla. Beat again for another minute.
- Scrape the bowl again finally, and beat again if needed. It should be a thick and smooth frosting once finished
To Decorate
- Level off the cake ever so slightly so you have some cake to use as crumbs. Crumble it up into crumbs
- Using your piping bag and piping tip, pipe your cream cheese frosting onto the cake.
- Once piped on, sprinkle over the cake crumbs. Enjoy!
Notes
- These cake can be kept in the fridge, for up to 3 days!
- I used...
- The food colouring you use IS SO IMPORTANT. If you use a basic food colouring from a supermarket, it will NOT work. This is the best one I can recommend.
- You can use self raising flour instead of plain flour - if so, also leave out the baking powder. I prefer using plain flour for red velvet cakes though.
ENJOY!
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J x
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I bought the recommended tin and food colouring to make this cake and it truly is superb ! My rise is massive though, so to ‘level off’ the cake would make more than just crumbs for decoration. I’m not sure why it is so massive compared to your picture – not complaining though, it’s delicious, just nowhere nearer as squared up.
Can I use this recipe in two sandwich tins instead of a loaf?
I baked this yesterday and the cake was lovely and the instructions clear as always. I used a Wilton colouring gel, as it’s all I had, and you’re right that it’s not bright enough. The cake was delicious but I had trouble when piping the cream cheese. It seemed to get stuck and didn’t pipe well for me. I did beat for the times you recommend and the frosting seemed smooth but do you think I needed to beat it a bit more? Altogether, the cake is really lovely 😋
Hey! Yeah I would just try beating it bit more next time. I am glad you love the cake though!xx
Loved this recipe but next time would like to do just normal vanilla buttercream – what measurements should I use? x
125 unsalted butter, 250 icing sugar with half a teaspoon of vanilla xx
Hi Jane,
Thank you so much for this recipe!
So I’m about to make my first ever red velvet bake! Please can I check … the caster sugar … will the recipe work with white caster sugar or golden caster sugar … the cocoa powder
… which brand of cocoa powder do you use and lastly the frosting … can mascarpone cheese be used instead of philadelphia. Thank you!
Either caster sugar works – and I use Barry cacao powder. The frosting can be mascarpone but I haven’t tested it with that yet!
Hi Jane, do you have any suggestions for how this recipe can be used in an 8 inch cake (two 8 inch tins)? Love your red velvet cupcake recipe, always goes down a treat. Thank you! X
Have a look at my cake version for that! x
Can I use dutch-process cocoa powder instead of natural? Thank you so much!
Yes it should be fine! x
To make this gluten-free as it’s a dryer flour would you increase the butter?
Hiya, no I would just do a straight swap and maybe add some Xantham gum x
Hi would this recipe work for making cupcakes please?
Have a look at my red velvet cupcakes – https://www.janespatisserie.com/2015/11/30/red-velvet-cupcakes/
Love all your recipes and have made many! However made this one and had double the mix I would need for both the cake and then lots too much frosting. Ended up making 2 but not sure why the recipe would make that much batter for 1 tin xx
As mentioned on the post 2lb loaf tins can really vary in size, so likely is just that yours is much smaller than mine because mine fit perfectly x
Hi Jane
Could I add white chocolate chips in this or would that be too much do you think? Is there such a thing as too much chocolate?!!!
Thanks
I wouldn’t say it’s too much! However they may sink x
Thanks for sharing your recipe, can you tell me the name or make of the food colouring you used ??
And if it’s available in England please !!!!
I can search for it over here .
Thank you
It is linked on the post x
Hi Jane,
My husband can’t eat cheese but I desperately want to do a red velvet cake. Would vanilla buttercream work or should I just tell him he can’t have any of this cake?
Yeah I would just use a simple vanilla buttercream haha!! x
You could do a white chocolate buttercream too, it’s pretty yum.