Red Velvet Cake

Looking for a show-stopping dessert recipe that’ll never let you down? You can’t go wrong with a decadent red velvet cake. This layered cake is a staple recipe to keep in your back pocket for birthday parties, holidays (it’s perfect from Valentine's 'til Christmas), or for ending a romantic date night. With a rich chocolate flavor, a fluffy texture, and a tangy cream cheese frosting, this Southern dessert was made to impress.

What People Are Saying:
“Perfect for any celebration or really for any day you just need a delicious slice of cake. Can't go wrong with cream cheese frosting!” - lovedesserts

How To Make Red Velvet Cake

INGREDIENTS

• Unsalted Butter: I always use unsalted butter in baked goods. It provides flavor, texture, and moisture, without adding any extra salt. Since we are using a little bit of salt later—to bring out the other flavors of the cake—we don’t want to risk adding even more and letting the salty flavor come through.
• Granulated Sugar: All baked goods need at least a little bit of sweetness! The granulated sugar here will help to add sweetness to the unsweetened cocoa powder which brings out that rich chocolatey flavor that we all know and love.
• Eggs: The eggs here provide moisture and flavor to the cake that help result in a nice moist crumb with plenty of flavor.
• Pure Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract won’t give this cake an overly vanilla-heavy flavor, but it will add a nice, slightly floral, sweet base that gives depth to the rich chocolate flavor.
• All-Purpose Flour & Baking Soda: This combination provides the base of this, and many other, cake recipes. The flour provides structure to the cake while the baking soda, combined with the acids like vinegar and buttermilk, provides the lift. When combined, these two ingredients create the perfect environment for a fluffy, airy cake with the right amount of moisture and hold.
• Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder: Dutch-processed cocoa powder is alkaline- washed (meaning the acid has been removed), meaning it is slightly darker and smoother than classic cocoa powder. Since we are adding extra acid in with the buttermilk and vinegar, we don’t need any extra acid in the cocoa powder.
• Buttermilk & Distilled White Vinegar: These two ingredients are in large part what makes red velvet cake red velvet. Compounds in the cocoa powder—called anthocyanins—are pH-sensitive and therefore react with the acids in the buttermilk and vinegar, resulting in an especially light and fluffy cake with a slightly reddish-brown hue.
• Red Food Coloring: The more concentrated your food coloring, the better for this cake. You want to generously color the chocolate batter so that, after baking, it’s a beautiful bright red. The 2 tablespoons called for in this recipe is assuming you're using a classic water-based dye like McCormick. If you have a gel-based dye, which are usually more pigmented, you will be able to use less food coloring (possibly around half as much, so start small).
• Cream Cheese Frosting: Personally, I think the classic red velvet and cream cheese combo is unbeatable—the tanginess of the cream cheese paired with the chocolate and slight tang of the buttermilk is why this duo is a classic pair. But if cream cheese just really isn't your favorite, feel free to go with a classic buttercream instead.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Start by preheating your oven and preparing 2 round cake pans by greasing them with cooking spray and lining them with parchment paper. Then begin beating together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until aerated. You’ll know the mixture is mixed properly when the butter becomes light and fluffy. Then, one at a time, add in the eggs and continue beating to combine. Once both eggs are thoroughly mixed together, beat in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix together. Then add half of the contents into the wet ingredients and beat on medium-low speed until just combined. Add in your buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring, and beat again until combined and the coloring is mixed equally. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients and beat until no streaks remain, then divide the batter equally between both cake pans.

Place both rounds into the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until cooked through and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer the cakes out of the oven to cool for 15 minutes before inverting each onto a wire rack to cool completely.

The final steps to our red velvet cake involve decorating. Start by leveling out each round by using a serrated knife to cut off the tops. Set them aside and reserve them for crumbling atop the frosting as decoration (see below). Once both layers are evened out, place one layer on a platter and spread over a thick layer of cream cheese frosting. Place the second layer on top and frost both the top and the sides of the cake. Take care to spread the frosting as evenly as possible. To finish off the decorating, crumbling the reserved cake tops onto the top edges of the cake, gently pushing the crumbs into the frosting to adhere.

The full list of ingredients and instructions can be found in the recipe below.

Storage

Your finished and frosted cakes will last for up to 4 days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge and, when wrapped with plastic wrap, for up to 4 months in the freezer.

If you do want to freeze the cake there are a few things to consider. If you made the cake ahead of time and haven’t cut into it, feel free to wrap the whole thing, but if you have already cut into the cake and are wanting to freeze the leftovers, you will be better off pre-slicing the cake and wrapping each slice individually before freezing.

If you want to save yourself some time, the cream cheese frosting can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, and in the freezer for up to 6 months.