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!
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Thanks for stopping by!
Do you have adjustments for a 3 layer cake? As opposed to two layer?
Hi Heather, I’m sorry but I have not tested increasing the ingredients to get a 3 layer cake. You can put the cake batter into 3 pans, each pan having 2 cups batter, reducing the baking time to 20-25 min. The layers will be thin but will look fine and you will have more filling. You could also bake in 2 eight inch pans, cut the 2 baked layers in half horizontally to have 4 layers.
Has everyone gotten the 6 1/2 cups of batter this is suppose to give you? I just made it and barely got 4 cups. I’m crossing my fingers that it’s enough for the 6″ cake I’m doing …
HELLO
I wanted to know if this cake can be made in 3 layers instead of two lawyers. If so what are the measurements for the recipe
HELLO
I wanted to know if this cake can be made in 3 layers instead of two layers. If so what are the measurements for the recipe
Hi Shire, The doctored Red Velvet cake recipe can be used as is and baked in three 8 inch pans. The layers will not be as high but that is not a problem. Once filled and frosted your cake will be 4 inches high. The plus of 3 layers is more filling for each slice. Bake at the same temperature as for 2 pans and for 25 to 30 minutes. Check for doneness at 25 minutes with a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake. The cake is done with the toothpick is clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
Curious what I can replace the milk and sour cream with? My son has dairy allergies. Coconut milk yogurt for sour cream an? And silk coconut milk ?
Hi Melissa and Bebe,
Do you have a recipe for cream cheese icing that could be stay out overnight on the cupcakes?
I’m trying to make a semi naked cake for a wedding and found that this cake has a lot of crumbs, any suggestions for more caramelization along the sides?
HIi Brianne, I am sorry your question was overlooked, always repost if you think this has happened. I am sorry you had this problem with your cake layers. The problem could be the cake pans used. We find that cake pans that are heavier such as Magic Line or Fat Daddio’s are thicker and heavier and the outside of cakes do not bake quite as quickly and are less crumbly than cakes baked in thinner pans. Also, make sure that the pan is well greased and floured. Another thing, make sure you are using large eggs so you won’t be decreasing the amount of moisture in the cake. Hope all goes well for your next cake.
Hi Melissa and Bebe,
I️ would like to give cake pops a try and was wondering if this recipe can be used for that?? If so, might you know how many I️t would make in one batch? I’d like to try I️t with the cream cheese frosting recipe on the site. Thank you in advance 🙂
Hi Jessica, Yes, the doctored Red Velvet and also the Red Velvet (scratch) can be used for cake pops. I would go with the doctored cake recipe just because it is quicker. You should get 48 cake pops, maybe a few more. As for our Cream Cheese frosting recipe, I would make one change in the recipe. Use only 1 stick of butter instead of two. This will make it less soft and that will be helpful in making cake pops. If the cream cheese frosting becomes too soft, just refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes. Hope all goes well
Wow, thank you so much Bebe 😊 I️ love that you and Melissa respond so quickly. It’s so helpful. Just one more thing, would all doctored cake mixes work then? And if so, which buttercream would work best? Classic or fluffy?
Hi Jessica, Yes, you could use any doctored cake mix. We just used plain boxed cake mix (undoctored) because after mixing in frosting to form the balls and dipping in candy coating the taste is altered. Using either the Classic or Fluffy frosting recipe will be fine. Since the Classic recipe is all butter the cake balls would firm up faster when chilled, but either is fine. You will only be using a small amount of frosting so leftover frosting can be refrigerated for 1 to 2 weeks depending on date of ingredients used or frozen for later use. If frozen, thaw and let come to room temperature and re-mix as needed. Cake pops can be tricky and time consuming. Here is a link to a Craftsy post you might find helpful:
link to craftsy.com
Thank you Bebe, really appreciate I️t. Have a great day!
Has anyone made this into a Blue Velvet Cake? If so, what were the conversions. ALSO – if using gel coloring what is the substitution. Thank you.
Hi there,
I just tried the doctored red velvet. I used Americolor gel paste super red. have you ever tried paste colors or do you recommend liquid? I didn’t have the liquid red handy.
Hi Cheri, We have always used liquid red food coloring for the red velvet cake. I think it would be fine to use gel paste. Did you like the outcome when you used it?
Hello! Is it better to use Dutched or natural cocoa powder for this? Thank you!
Hi Sarah, We do not use dutch cocoa powder. We use Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder. You can use your favorite brand.
Hello —
Can I ask why the added flour to the mix? I did use King Arthur AP flour (higher protien than regular AP flour)
I wonder if it added to my issue : My cake tasted great, but the bottom was a littly crumbly, but the middle and top were smooth and silky — getting rave compliments.
FYI I used gel food coloring –about 4-6 drops and made sure I added 2Tbsp of water to make up the liquid difference.
Thanks
Mary
Hi Mary, Originally the cake mix used was a 18.25 ounce box. Adding 6 Tablespoons flour was a tip I read from The Cake Mix Doctor book to supplement some of the missing weight. We don’t do this for all of our cake mix recipes. Lower protein flour will give you a more tender cake so I typically would not use King Arthur high Protein flour. I don’t know that the small amount of 6 Tablespoons used would affect your cake. I not sure why the bottom was a bit crumbly. I’m happy that did not affect the taste. Thanks for the tip on the gel food coloring, very good to know.
Thanks for your response. I didn’t use the acutal high protien flour, it just that the KA All purpose has more protien than the standard AP flour. Next time I will use just regular AP flour — or possibly skip it in this recipe. I know that when I make bread with KA flours, I usually have to have more liquid than if I use other flours.
Thanks again. Like I said, it was a hit, just the bottom was the issue.
(oh, I made it in a 13×9 pan since I was sending it in to my husbands work)