Red Velvet Cake
This red velvet cake is fluffy and moist with a velvety texture and perfect balance of flavors. It's also super easy and topped with cream cheese frosting.
Servings: 12
Calories: 464kcal
Ingredients
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour Measured correctly*
- 2 cups White Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder Natural, Unsweetened
- 1 cup Homemade Buttermilk or Regular Buttermilk
- 3 Large Eggs
- 1 cup Canola Oil Or Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar
- 2 tsp Red Gel Food Color
For the Frosting:
- 1 Recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 9-inch cake pans* with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift the all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Mix together.
- If you're making homemade buttermilk then add 1 Tbsp lemon juice to a measuring jug and add room temperature milk up to the 1 cup line. Let it sit for a few minutes to curdle.
- Add the buttermilk, eggs, oil, vanilla, vinegar and red food coloring in with the dry ingredients and mix into a batter. Mix until it's just mixed. Use a hand whisk briefly to get rid of any lumps but don't overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between your prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Video
Notes
- The flour should be measured correctly using the spoon and level technique for measuring flour (spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don't scoop it and don't pack it into the cup). Alternatively weigh it on a food scale. Click 'metric' below the list of ingredients to get the ingredients weight in grams.
- Both homemade buttermilk and regular buttermilk work great in this cake. We noticed that regular buttermilk tends to produce flatter cake layers that don't need leveling and homemade buttermilk produces a slightly more domed cake that you might prefer to level before frosting. You can use the crumbs from leveling to decorate the cake though.
- If you want to make a dairy-free version of this cake then you can use soy milk or almond milk to make the homemade buttermilk.
- The white vinegar reacts with the baking soda (along with the buttermilk) to cause the cake to rise, and it also strengthens the color.
- Red gel food coloring is stronger than the liquid version and is recommended for this cake.
- This recipe works great in two 9-inch cake pans or three 8-inch cake pans.
- If you frost the cake with cream cheese frosting then it's best stored in the fridge (covered) for up to 5 days.
- Nutritional information is for the cake only. The cream cheese frosting nutritional information can be found on that separate recipe page.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Slice | Calories: 464kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 325mg | Potassium: 85mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 41g | Vitamin A: 101IU | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 2mg