This Red Velvet Cake Doctored Cake Mix Recipe belongs in your recipe file of favorites! It is amazingly moist, delicious, and has just the right amount of chocolate flavor.
Add a little cream cheese frosting, and it is pure heaven! It’s no wonder that Red Velvet Cake has long been a beloved classic southern dessert!
We have a Scratch Red Velvet Cake recipe that we love, but we were determined to find a doctored cake mix version that we loved just as much. This is it!
When I brought this leftover doctored cake mix version of Red Velvet Cake home to my family, they absolutely loved it, and couldn’t believe that it wasn’t a scratch recipe. This cake disappeared in record time!
We have experimented with using actual Red Velvet Cake Mix in doctored mix recipes in the past and were never happy with the flavor. This is why we chose to use Yellow Cake Mix as the base, and simply add red coloring.
**A note about the color: this Red Velvet Cake is not a vibrant red…it is more of a “chocolate red”. The lighting in the photo above makes it look a bit more red. Red Velvet cakes come in all shades of red depending on how much cocoa the recipe calls for, and of course the amount of red coloring used.
We loved the chocolate flavor of this cake so much that we didn’t want to remove any of the cocoa. However, if you’d prefer a deeper red, you can remove some of the cocoa and add more coloring. It’s up to you! (But we love it just as it is!)
We loved the chocolate flavor of this cake so much that we didn’t want to remove any of the cocoa. However, if you’d prefer a deeper red, you can remove some of the cocoa and add more coloring. It’s up to you! (But we love it just as it is!)
Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting go hand in hand. You can find our favorite Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe here!: Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting.
Red Velvet Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix, sifted (15.25 box mix) plus 6 Tablespoons (45g) flour ( I used Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Mix)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 5 Tablespoons (24g) unsweetened cocoa powder ( I sift the cocoa , then measure or weight
- 1/2 cup (107g) vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (121g) milk
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- 2 Tablespoons (24g) red food coloring ( if you want a brighter red color to your cake, add 3 Tablespoons)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and flour 2 eight inch round pans
- In the bowl of your mixer, place the cake mix plus flour, sugar, sifted cocoa. Whisk to blend these ingredients together. Then add all the remaining ingredients. Begin mixing on low speed, increasing to medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat at medium speed for 1 more minute (longer if using a hand mixer.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30 - 35 minutes (check at 30 minutes). The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean or with a just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out.
- Makes 6 1/4 cups batter
- Works well for cupcakes
- We frosted with our Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
*You may like to try our fantastic Red Velvet Cake recipe from scratch as we mentioned above! Print this one out for later: Delicious Red Velvet Cake from Scratch
Don’t forget to check out our full collection of favorite cake and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section! Or, for free, fun, and simple cake decorating tutorials, don’t miss our Free Cake Tutorials Section!
Finally, if you’re interested in accessing our entire cake video tutorial library, we would love to have you as a member of My Cake School! You can find all of the joining details here: Join My Cake School!
Thanks for stopping by!
To be sure I’m understanding, the directions are to sift the cake mix?
Hi there! Could you please tell me if you used liquid or gel food coloring? Thank you!
Hi Bek, we use liquid for red velvet I’m sure that you could work with gels if you’d rather!
Thank you kindly! :)
Can I use a bunt pan?
Hi Flossie, Yes, you can use a bundt pan. Fill the pan about 2/3’s full. If you are using a bundt pan that has a dark interior bake at 325 degrees. The baking time will be different than the time stated in the recipe so keep an eye on it.
Hi there! How Can I double the recipe? TIA
Hi Rocio, To double the recipe, every ingredient twice. This recipe makes 6 1/4 cups batter, 12 1/2 cups if you double it. If your mixing bowl is large enough, double everything in one bowl. If it is not large enough to hold 12 1/2 cups of batter, make the recipe twice. Keeping one bowl of batter in the refrigerator while making the second bowl of cake batter. You may need to add a minute or two the the baking time for the refrigerated cake batter.
Do you have the frosting recipe on this sight? I can’t seem to find it.
Hi Emma, A link to the cream cheese recipe we used is in the text, just above the recipe. I have linked 2 recipes below, the first is easier to pipe if you plan to do decorative piping on the cake. The second is softer, after making you may need to refrigerate 15 minutes or so until it is the spreading consistency you like. Over mixing will make the frosting soft. Also, be sure to use full fat cream cheese. Reduced fat or cream cheese in containers do not work well. I hope you will enjoy the recipe.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/cheese-frosting-pipeable/
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/cream-cheese-frosting/#mv-creation-37-jtr
Hello. I am a bit perplexed when making this recipe. I have been a baker for over 20 years, and I came upon this recipe about a year ago and gave it a try. The cake is absolutely delicious! However, each time I have made it (a total of about 6 times now), the cakes always fall. I never have this issue when baking, and I can’t figure out what is happening. Have you experienced this issue at all? Thank you for your time.
Hi any substitute for sour cream like yoghurt?
Hi Brianne, I am sorry you are having this problem. Using an oven thermometer check to see if your oven is heating to the temperature you have set.
Hi Lea, You can use yogurt as a substitute. My first choice is greek yogurt, otherwise regular plain yogurt (not reduced fat).
I’m wondering if a white cake mix made with whole eggs (not egg whites) would take the color better. What are your thoughts?
im soo glad for this recipe …SOME of us need a good set of training wheels for THIS scientific (well to me it is ) CAKE!!! anyways
someone commented about the cake falling …i honestly think its the sifting that does it ..so maybe they can JUST go for the bowl and not the sifter ..why? do i say its the sifting because i have sifted cake mixes and all that…and it fell also
Hi Diane, It may take the color better, we haven’t tried using a white cake mix. You could use one additional tablespoon of red food coloring for a deeper color.