Once upon a time, I made a crazy, crazy good Red Velvet cake. It was totally unintentional. I was actually writing my column, The Cakeologist, for American Cake Decorating Magazine and had tasked myself with a project that I was kinda dreading. Not that the topic wasn’t something I wanted to write about, because it was. It was what I had planned to illustrate the topic.
Lots. Of. Cake. I had to bake at least 4 with frosting/filling/buttercream/fondant. I don’t do production style caking anymore and there’s a very good reason. And truth be told, I’ve become lazy about making cakes (see my Facebook Live about making my mother’s birthday cake the day after her birthday). Yes, I know my own recipe like the back of my hand, but I needed a variation in types of cakes and I was just plain bored by having to make my Perfect Vanilla Cake that many times. So I decided to enter the waters of tweaking it yet again.
I just can’t leave things alone. However, I have been asked for a Red Velvet cake recipe too many times to ignore and the idea of adding emulsion to my vanilla cake just felt cheaty to me. It’s totally fine if you do that. But I pride myself on working new recipes out in ore classic or innovative ways. So I couldn’t just use emulsion - though it would have saved me some time and ingredients in testing.
My Perfect Vanilla Cake already had the exact crumb structure and texture that I would want in any cake I ever eat, so it had to be based off my tried and true. But what makes a Red Velvet “red velvet”? Cocoa and buttermilk, and sometimes vinegar, but not for mine.
Now I struggled with frosting. Originally the paired frosting was Ermine (more recently known as boiled frosting), a.k.a. flour frosting. Yes, I know what you may be thinking if you’ve never had Ermine: “Boiled FLOUR?!?” I agree. That was my first response when a friend insisted that I make this frosting for her wedding cake. I was shaking my head silently on the other side of the keyboard. But I tried it and it wasn’t that bad. In fact it was a neat alternative to typical frosting or buttercream.
Oh, but the current favorite: cream cheese!!! This is what we now expect to have paired with red velvet anything, and my-oh-my does it pair beautifully. But it can be a very unstable frosting. It’s not heat friendly (even a typical cool room temp can make them slip and slide, and it definitely won’t hold up in warm weather at an event. I highly recommend not using cream cheese frosting (unless you’re using a flavor paste to flavor you standard SMBC or ABC) for any special event where it won’t be consumed quickly out of refrigeration. Yep. Avoid it for wedding, peeps.
But this is for me. And for the article I am writing and because I want new recipes in my arsenal of awesome cake recipes. So let’s get creative, shall we? How about a Cream Cheese Ermine? Oh, why not! Gotta say, it needs more tweaking, but perhaps we’ll do that on a Facebook Live broadcast, yeah? As you can see above, the Ermine frosting is much softer than my bright white frosting so I used the frosting to create a dam around the middle layer where I would be including the second filling. And it was so worth it 🙂 That little extra bite of the cream cheese made this cake shine!
And since I don’t yet have a special recipe for the buttercream, most of what you see here is my Bright White Frosting, but my SMBC will pair beautifully, too!
WAIT! I totally forgot to mention the color!
Sometimes more is too much. Such was the case with the red in this recipe. The top image is 4 Tbsp or Red Red Americolor Gel Paste food coloring, the bottom is 3 Tbsp. The top is also a 7 inch round so it baked a few minutes longer than the bottom 8 inch round. But it’s the amount of food color that made the difference here. Also, the top one was torted while room temp (you can see a lighter, more textured crumb) and the bottom was torted while cold. I prefer torting cold. It’s easier to keep a straight cut and it’s always cleaner.
Ok. Now that I’ve got those outta my noggin…
I gotta say, this cake just kills me. I was so good through the holidays (actually lost a few pounds!) and then this cake. *sigh* I said it was sinful, did I not? So there’s my warning to you. Be. Ware. Evil (delicious) cake recipe below.
- 14 oz all purpose flour
- 22 oz granulated sugar
- 2 oz cocoa powder natural, unsweetend
- 2.5 tsp Baking powder
- .75 tsp salt
- 8 oz Butter, Unsalted room temp
- 1.5 Tbsp bourbon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 7 Egg whites, large about 1 cup, room temp
- 12 oz whole fat buttermilk room temp
- 1 oz Vegetable oil
- 3 Tbsp Red Red Americolor Gel Food color This is the specific color I used to get this red
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease sides and bottom of 2 – 8” round pans. My goop recipe is perfect for pan release.
- Add all dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, sugar, and salt) to a stand mixer bowl and mix with a paddle to combine well. This replaces sifting.
- In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients (vanilla bean paste, egg whites, buttermilk, food color, and vegetable oil) and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Turn mixer to low and add chunks of butter slowly to the dry mix. Continue to beat on slow until there are no chunks of butter remaining and the mixture becomes crumbly.
- On low speed, add 1/3 of the liquid ingredients to the dry/butter ingredients and then turn to medium. Mix until a light paste forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add half of the remaining wet ingredients and beat on medium high speed for 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes.
- Divide evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and sides have begun to pull away from the side of the pan. (This will depend on the size of your pan, how full you make it, and on proper oven temp.)
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Place on a rack to finish cooling.
Enjoy!
Kara I wanna know can I use this under fondant?and what about colour because here gel colour is not available?Tell substitute of this and no icing recipe with this recipe oh why
Yep! This is a great under fondant. It’s based on my Perfect Vanilla Cake recipe which is meant for tiered and carved cakes. As for color you can try beet juice, but I haven’t tested it so I can’t offer any suggestions on alterations. And there are a couple links in the post for two of my buttercreams that would be great with this recipe 🙂
I am LOVING your new background boards and I can’t wait to try this. I am a red velvet addict 🙂
Your awesome
Love everything you do and how unselfish you are!!! I am your fan. Thank you for everything you do.
? love this.
Ahh!! Can’t wait to give this a try! Just like all your other recipes, I have no doubt that this will be amazing too! Thanks for sharing!
Kara, my daughter loves red velvet and I’m looking for a carvable recipe. Would this hold up. I’m making her a pusheen cake for her 23rd next month.
Thanks
Tammy
Absolutely! This is based on my Perfect Vanilla Cake which carves like a gem!
You used your new backdrop -yay! Looks awesome. The cake, the site, the backdrop …everything!
genia total!!! la voy hacer a ver si me sale tan bella como la tuya!!
Gorgeous new website! Love all the info and the crisp look!
Hey Kara! It’s Yesi from Facebook! I’m currently baking this cake right now!! ? I’m so excited! I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hi Kara, I am new to baking I don’t know what is 14 oz into cup for all purpose flour and 22 oz in cups of sugar. I love your videos on how to do cakes and cookies, frosting have learn a lot from you.
Thank you.
I want to do the red velvet cake for friends for New Years.
Hi Brenda! 3 cups of sugar, 3 cups of AP flour, and .25 cups of Cocoa 🙂
Plz share eggless receipe of red velvet cake
Hi! I don’t have one currently. You can try substituting whatever ingredients you usually use in place of eggs, though. And let me know how it goes!
Kara, I do love your videos and blog-you have such a great personality! Question-in recipes using egg whites is it ok to use the carton or are fresh better?
Fresh are always better, but the difference will be negligible. 🙂
OMG!!!! If I didn’t love you so much I would have to hate you!! Red Velvet is my all time favorite cake!!! This one looks AMAZING!! I can see with my eyes how moist it is and I want to eat my computer screen! My question is, what cream cheese flavoring would you recommend using if doing a layered cake?
I’ve got to be honest, I don’t have an emulsion or flavoring that I can recommend. The one I used to use is only available to commercial (high end or huge production) type businesses. I can’t get my hands on them anymore myself. My first instinct would be to see if LorAnn has something. They have a huge line of flavoring products!
Hi Kara -
Just a little side note re flavours. When I make red velvet and *don’t* use cream cheese frosting, I make my signature vanilla frosting and add some L’Oran Oil •cheesecake• flavour. It tastes just like cream cheese frosting but is obviously much more stable and suitable for room temperatures.
Hope that helps.
Much love and thanks for the recipes ❤️️
Fee xx
Yay! I’m so glad LorAnn has it! I mentioned it in my live broadcast 🙂 Good to know it has a good review from someone who uses it! Thank you Fee!
I can’t wait to try this!!! Thank you for your self sacrifices to bring us amazing, fool-proof cake recipes. As a cookier, cakes elude me…perfect cake used to be unattainable, so I was forced to resort to Duncan Hines. Now you have given me the cake happiness to boast that ‘my cakes are homemade!!’ Thank you so much!!
HOORAY FOR THE COOKIE COUSINS!!!! I love that you’re confident about your cakes now 🙂 And that Duncan Hines is a thing of the past. I had to make a box mix for an article I just wrote and I tasted it. Haven’t had cake like that in a long time and MAN could I taste all the fake stuff in it.
I love ALL you recipes…..I most certainly will be trying the boiled frosting!
What is your goop recipe. Thanks.
Hi Bon! You can go here to get it at the bottom of the page: http://karascouturecakes.com/cake 🙂
This cake is amazing and so delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Hi, i’ve just tried this out as my first red velvet cake, which means i have no comparison. It tastes yummy but mine has a really dense, darker coloured layer at the bottom which normally I would think meant under cooked. Also it collapsed a bit when cooling. Any ideas where i’m going wrong? TIA, nicola x
You nailed it. Under baked. But the dense darkr layer (which I will assume was kind of gummy) is from ingredients that are too cool. Be sure you butter is room temp, let you eggs soak in some warm water for 5 minutes before cracking, and warm you milk on the stove (gently) or in the microwave. It helps 🙂
Can you use this recipe for cupcakes?
This recipe isn’t a great cupcake recipe. It’s based on my Perfect Vanilla Cake Recipe and it doesn’t translate to cuppies.
Can this recipe be made into cupcakes?
Hi Jessica! This recipe is based on my Perfect Vanilla Cake and it isn’t a good cupcake recipe. It bakes up flat, no doming like most cuppies and it’s denser than most people expect for a cupcake.
Can u Pl tell me instead of egg wat I will have to use a I m purely vegetarian
Hi! I don’t have an egg substitution for this recipe at this time. Try experimenting with your typical substitutions and if it works, come on back and share with us 🙂
Hi Kara, I am trying to understand how to adjust the ingredients measurements for 3 ten inch pans? Thanks
Hi Rosemary - I would double the recipe and split accordingly.
Hey Kara, my name is Salma, I live in Texas. I am big fan of your work. Today I tried your red velvet cake and it looks awesome!! I haven’t tried it but I couldn’t wait to thank you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!! Love you!!
Yay for Red Velvet 🙂 How did you like it?
Hi Kara, I feel like you’ve probably been asked this already, but would this batter recipe be ok to use for cupcakes? thx! ~ Carolyn
Hi Carolyn, and nope. This is based on my Perrfect Vanilla Cake which is not a good cupcake recipe. It bakes very flat and does not dome.
Hi Kara! I was gonna try your red velvet cake but I only have alkalized cocoa powder..will that do in place of the natural cocoa powder? What will be the effect? I’m afraid it might make the cake dark, thus making it not really red?
I’m not sure, but no matter what it will be darker. Flavor-wise I think it would be delicious!
Thanks??
Hi Kara,
Could you use this recipe for cupcakes as well?
This recipe isn’t a great cupcake recipe. It’s based on my Perfect Vanilla Cake Recipe and it doesn’t translate to cuppies.
How does this work for cupcakes?
This recipe isn’t a great cupcake recipe. It’s based on my Perfect Vanilla Cake Recipe and it doesn’t translate to cuppies.
Can you share your Ermine icing recipe?
Hi Connie! I don’t have a formula that I like enough to share yet. As soon as I settle on one I’ll be posting it straight away 🙂
While frosting red velvet cake is it necessary to add simple sugar syrup or can we skip it? Or is it like the red velvet cake usually dont have sugar syrup in it?
Simple syrup isn’t required for any cake. It should be something added for extra flavor. 🙂
Hi Kara, just made the red velvet cake . It was wet batter going into the 8 inch cake pans . I baked at the correct temp for 55 minutes. Clean stick, came away from the sides. When I layered it it seems like little spots on the cake are dark almost like a mud cake in places. Is this normal. It tastes yum and red colour is brilliant though.
Thanks a million
Louxx
Hi Louise! It could be from the ingredients being too cold or from under-mixing or not scraping the bowl during the mixing process. I’m glad you like the taste!
Just made this cake and I’m in love. My expectations were high as I already have a red velvet recipe I love, but it doesn’t stand up well to stacking and fondant. This one is perfection. Oh, and torting a cold cake! Why did I not know this before??? Amazeballs! Thanks for another great recipe Kara!!!
You are most welcome, April! Thanks for giving it a try despite having a tried and true recipe �?�
Hi Kara,
I am from Maldives .. we don’t get vanilla paste or extract anyways I used vanilla flavoring, it still turned really delicious.. I can’t wait to get hand on vanilla extract and try this again.. thank you for sharing the recipe ?
Oh my… Maldives is a bucket list destination for me 🙂 I even made a cake to celebrate teh islands’ natural and immense beauty! And of course I’m thrilled that you liked the recipe!
Hi Kara!!
You are so amazing and helpful. Love your live feeds on Facebook. I’ve tried and succeeded with your homemade sequins too. Xx
In relation to this recipe any reason why you didn’t use/part use cake flour in the reverse cream method? Please advice
Cake flour isn’t needed to achieve the tenderness you still get with the High Ratio mixing method. And since Cake Flour isn’t widely available (for good reason) outside of the uNited States, I wanted to write this recipe so anyone the world over could make it and get the same results I do. Cake flour is often used in the US for it’s bright white color and tenderness. This cake is tender, and the bright white is a non-issue to me. My baked goods need to taste great and be satisfying when they are eaten. The difference in white/brightness doesn’t matter to me 🙂
I simply have not been able to find whole-fat buttermilk locally-anywhere!
Would using whole milk with vinegar added work the same or could you substitute some whipping cream for a couple tbl. of the buttermilk to increase the fat ratio?
Hi Beverly! Great question! I always make my own buttermilk, I never buy it because I need it so rarely. So yes, I either use vinegar (1 Tablespoon in a one cup measure, then fill the rest with milk) or lime/lemon juice.
Hi Kara:
To make your own buttermilk do you used white vinager or apple vinager?
I use distilled white 🙂
Greetings
What Icing should I use for this recipe? When I make Red Velvet I always use cream cheese icing. The cake I’m making will be covered in Fondant. Thanks again.
I would use and SMBC (get my recipe here: http://www.karascouturecakes.com/recipe/swiss-meringue-buttercream/) and add natural cream cheese flavoring: http://amzn.to/2pC0xun
Hi Kara!
Would water base food coloring the ones from grocery store affected the recipe results? I am just wondering that because is so liquidity but is what I have right now.
Thank you!
It absolutely will. Those colors are very diluted compared to gel colors. You’ll need more which will alter the recipe.
Hi! Is there a reason this cake and the vanilla cake recipe don’t call for any whole eggs? Also, could I use egg whites from a carton so I don’t waste any yolks?
Whole eggs make the cake yellow in color and more dense and tough. And yes, you can use carton whites, or you could make some delicious curds with the yolks 🙂
Recipe looks great, want to try but not use to baking all ounces. Is there anywhere on line to change to cups?
Thanks
Hi Dee, nope. LOL I’m sorry, but that’s the long and short of it. You can read about why direct conversions don’t work here: http://www.karascouturecakes.com/how-to-convert-recipes-from-cups-to-ounces-or-grams/ You need to know the recipe. It should be a recipe you’v made and have a good result with over time to be able to convert it. I know there are conversion calculators online, but it doesn’t really work. You’re not likely to get the same results as intended.
Would like to try but use to cup measurement
I highly recommend getting a scale. They aren’t expensive and they ensure great baked goods when you get your measurements perfectly every time. You can check out scales here: http://amzn.to/2qA2BlQ
I’ve made this cake twice and it’s sooooo good. It’s a keeper.!I just passed the recipe on to my sister. Thank you for sharing this with us.
You are most welcome Tre! 🙂 I’m glad you like it!
Though not tried this out , I strongly believe it’l b worth a trial. You so real & unselfish. Love u loads Kara
Thank you! Try it and let me know how it turns out! Also, would love a picture 🙂
Hi.
Just wondering if this recipe is suitable for cupcakes and if you would recommend freezing?
Freezing will work just fine. I haven’t tried this with cupcakes, but if you do, please let me know what you think!
Hi. Just wondering if i can bake it in one 8″ x 4″ high pan or does it need to be baked separately in 2 cake tins? �?�
I would bake in two pans. That deep of a cake will require a longer bake time and may dry out.