A moist, classic Red Velvet Cake!! Made from scratch, and surprisingly easy when a few specific, simple steps are followed. This iconic cake has a soft “velvet” texture, just like what you get from the best top end fine bakeries, and is topped with soft, cream cheese frosting.
After Red Velvet Cupcakes? Here they are! UK readers: Please read note 7.
Red Velvet Cake recipe – tried and tested favourite!
This Red Velvet Cake has been taste tested and given a big thumbs up by many people because it’s a rather large cake and I’ve made it 5 times in the last two weeks.
“FIVE TIMES??!!”, I hear you exclaim (out loud or in your head). “You’re MAD!!”
If getting this cake exactly to my taste, as close as I can get it to the cakes you get from posh bakeries, and ensuring it works using both US and metric (i.e. rest of the world!!) measures means that I’m a mad baker, I’ll take that title. 😉
Besides, I’m really enjoying baking at the moment. There is something so satisfying about making something as pretty as Red Velvet Cake.
To tell you the honest truth, the reason I made it so many times in recent weeks is because my original recipe got a “so-so” response from the two toughest taste-testers I know: my mother and brother.
“The sponge is zara-zara”, my mother declared on first bite.
What the….?? Zara-zara? What on earth does that mean??
“Zara-zara” means “rough” in Japanese. The Japanese language has a handful of words which sound like what it means. “Zara-zara” being a perfect example. Usually it cracks me up. Not that day.
I gasped, indignant, and grabbed a spoon to shovel a bite into my mouth, ready to argue. And I realised – she was right. It was not as velvety as it could be. As it should be.
NOT HAPPY.
So I improved it. 🙂
What is Red Velvet Cake?
Red Velvet Cake is not just a chocolate cake with red food colouring added. This cake is softer than most, “velvet-like”, and the chocolate taste is actually quite mild. It’s more like a cross between a vanilla and chocolate cake with a very subtle tang from buttermilk. And it is generously smothered in a fluffy cream cheese frosting.
It’s wildly popular in America and there’s a cult following in Australia. Give it a few years, it will become a firm favourite soon!
The cake tastes buttery and moist, because it has butter in it for flavour, and oil for moisture. Yes, you need both, I promise you. It is not the same if you use only one of them.
Why should you use THIS Red Velvet Cake!
There are 3 more specific things about this recipe which might be a bit different to other Red Velvet recipes you have seen, but there’s a reason for it.
1. Cake flour – it’s a must! It’s key to achieving that soft silky sponge, just like what you get from posh bakeries. However, if you really can’t find it, please see the notes for a substitute;
2. Only 2 eggs – I’ve seen some recipes call for up to 5 eggs. I only use 2. It’s enough to hold the cake together just fine – any more than 2, and find the cake begins to start tasting “eggy”; and
3. Buttermilk – For almost every other baking recipe that I make using buttermilk, I say that you can substitute with lemon juice + milk which, when left for 5 minutes, curdles to have the same effect as using buttermilk. Not for this recipe – sorry! It is just not the same – part of the reason mine was “zara zara”. 😂
Oh, and one more rule. There is no substitute for Philadelphia Cream Cheese for the frosting. I’ve tried better value store-brand cream cheese before. It is never the same. Promise. ❤
I bake the layers in 2 separate tins, but if you don’t have two tins, you can make one big one and cut the cake in half. And to make the layers nice and neat, I cut the dome top off.
I like to crumble the off cuts and use it to decorate the cake. I think it looks pretty, don’t you? But that’s purely optional!
I promise you, there is nothing tricky about this cake. All you have to do is ensure you measure the ingredients properly, rather than just eye-balling it. 😉 As long as you do that, it’s actually easy to make, no more difficult than an ordinary sponge cake.
Putting aside fiddly fancy decorated cakes, Red Velvet Cake is surely one of the most striking and stunning cakes around. If you’ve never tried it before, you’re in for a real treat! – Nagi x
Red Velvet Cake
Watch how to make it
How to make Red Velvet Cake – quick tutorial video! Red Velvet Cake for UK readers – please ensure you read Notes 7 and 9.
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Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 2/3 cups (400 g) plain cake flour (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp (10 g) cocoa powder , unsweetened
- 1 tsp (5 g) baking soda / bi-carb soda , NOT baking powder (Note 2)
- Pinch of salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter , softened (1 US stick)
- 1 1/2 cups (330 g) caster / superfine white sugar (Note 3a)
- 2 eggs , at room temperature (around 2 oz / 60g each)
- 1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (or essence)
- 1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk , at room temperature (Note 4)
- 2 1/2 tbsp red food colouring liquid (UK: use Gel, Note 7)
Frosting (Note 10)
- 14 oz (400 g) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, block , softened but not too soft (UK see Note 9)
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter , softened (but not too soft)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups (450 g) soft icing sugar / powdered sugar sifted (Note 3b)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (all oven types). Butter 2 x 21cm / 8″ round cake pans (sides and base) and dust with cocoa powder.
- Sift the Dry Ingredients and whisk to combine in a bowl.
- Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beater or in stand mixer until smooth and well combined (use paddle attachment if using stand mixer).
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating in between to combine. At first it will look curdle – keep beating until it’s smooth.
- Add vegetable oil, vinegar, vanilla, buttermilk and red food colouring. Beat until combined and smooth (Note 5).
- Add Dry Ingredients. Beat until just combined – some small lumps is ok, that’s better than over mixing.
- Divide batter between cake pans. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes on the same shelf, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. (Note 6)
- Rest for 10 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.
Frosting
- Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla for 3 minutes (this makes it really smooth and changes from yellow to almost white). Add icing sugar and beat for 2 minutes or until frosting is light and fluffy to your taste. If your frosting seems too runny (depends on quality of cream cheese/ if the cream cheese was too soft), just add more icing sugar.
Frost Cake
- Cut the top off the cake using a serrated knife (to make the layers neat).
- Spread one cake with 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Top with the other cake. Spread top and sides with remaining frosting.
- Optional: Crumble offcuts and use to decorate the top rim and base of the cake.
Recipe Notes:
Let them eat cake! 10 more classic cakes
.Life of Dozer
This is how he starts every day: assessing the surf. 😉
Followed every part of the recipe exactly, and didn’t have a particularly satisfactory result. My cake is quite dense and very oily. I have never had this issue before and have made several Red velvets. Disappointing.
I recently made this cake for the middle tier of a 3 tier wedding cake and it was perfect. It stayed in place for the whole ceremony and reception and was a huge hit with guests. Thank you for sharing your recipe, it’s now my go-to (as is your website!)
Hi there, thank you very much for this recipie – curious to know if light olive oil could be substituted for the vegetable oil please.
Wow! This was so delicious and perfectly velvety! I made it for my 12 year old’s party and she said it was the best cake she’s ever tasted 🙂 It’s only the second red velvet cake I’ve made and your recipe was definitely better! Thank you so much 😀
Hi! From the U.K. 🙂 Would this cake be strong enough to be stackable as a 3 tier 9 inch cake with a 2 tier 4 inch cake on top?
Hi Lizzie, I recently made this cake as an 8” 5 layer middle cake tier for a three tier wedding cake and it held up perfectly. It sat out for 7 hours during the ceremony and reception and didn’t move at all. As long as your top cake is supported, I don’t expect you’ll have any issues.
I made this yesterday and really didn’t like it much. I couldn’t get buttermilk so had to use the milk and lemon juice substitute (I know Nagi says to use the real stuff)
I used red gel colouring and the U.K. recommendation for the cream cheese frosting but it was quite a flavourless cake and disappointing.
I hate when Nagi’s recipes aren’t as expected!
Hi Nagi. I’m a massive fan of you so when I wanted to find a recipe for red velvet cake, I came straight to your website. My intention is to make this in some loaf tins to eventually make a fire truck shape for my 2yo’s bday party. My questions are: 1) do you foresee any problems with making this in loaf tins? And 2) could I colour the icing bright red with food coloring without repercussions? Many thanks!
My daughter requested red velvet for her 7th birthday and I’d never made one before. Found this one and it was perfect. Went down a treat with all party goers and I’m very happy to have left overs! I actually froze it to stack and decorate as it was so soft out of the oven. It was still soft and so moist once defrosted. Delicious thank you!
This red velvet cheesecake recipe is really amazing! We made supersize versions of this cake for my daugther’s baptism and my family and I could not get enough! It freezes well too, just bring to room temperature and enjoy!
Hi Nagi! I am obsessed with red velvet cake. It is my absolute favorite. I have tried so many recipes over the years. Yours is hands down the best and the only one I will make. I believe adding butter is what makes it taste so much better than recipes that use only oil. I do stray sometimes and use an Ermine frosting. Your cake with Ermine frosting is amazing.
This recipe is deviously perfect! Thank you for posting.
I’ve made this recipe sooo many times and it always comes out amazing.
Made it lactose-free last night, and tasted just as good! For the cake – substituted the butter with nuttlex and the butter milk with lactose free yogurt and water (whisked till I had a buttermilk like consistency). For the frosting – skipped the butter and used 3 blocks of Philadelphia lactose free cream cheese with icing sugar (much less than 4 cups just tasting as I went – around 1.5 cups)
Sooo good! Thanks Nagi for such an amazing recipe!
Hi there, I have made this twice and find the recipe VERY oily. After a day or so it starts to leak out. Is 250ml oil correct?
Help! I left out the pinch of salt – will this matter?
The finished cake had a distinct oil taste for me unfortunately when finished. I wonder if this amount of oil is a bit much for such a delicately flavoured cake? The texture was very nice though.
Loved this cake. Can I just check if you use an Australian tablespoon 20g or overseas 15g?
Hi Nagi, I always have apple cider vinegar on hand. Do you think it would be ok to use that, instead of white vinegar? Will it make a difference in the taste?
i use lemon juice instead of vinegar and it always works a treat 🙂
Delicious cake with a nice soft sponge. I used Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose baking flour to make it gluten free and it worked perfectly! I substituted home made milk kefir for buttermilk. And 1 block of Philly cheese made plenty of icing.
Thank you Nagi! Another fail proof recipe and delicious as always! I made three heart cakes from your red velvet cake recipe, all to express my love for my beautiful children on Valentines Day. I made one with cream cheese frosting for my daughter and one without for my son and a special one for my friend who had a funeral on Valentine’s Day unfortunately. I had a bit of batter left so I cook it for the crumb decoration. How can I post a photo for you to see?
This is an absolutely amazing recipe. I’m pretty slow, so this took a while, but the result was definitely worth it! Only issue I had is a bit of oil splitting despite thorough(?) mixing. I might mix a little more on adding the dry ingredients, since I mixed very well all other steps. Oh, and the frosting was a bit too sweet for my family, but no fault of the cake! I’ll be sure to make this again!
This is our go to family special events cake recipe. My 12 y.o has made it on an number of occasions as its a popular request. She made this cake 2 days ago for my sisters wedding it was beyond good. The guests loved it. She tweaked the recipe and reduced sugar on cake and used 1 cup of sugar for the frosting instead of 4 cups and wow, wow wow. It was so yumlicious and looked amazing. Thank you Nagi for sharing this recipe. 🙏