Today I’m sharing a flavorful, moist Red Velvet Cake recipe from scratch that is truly the BEST!
I remember being fascinated by Red Velvet Cakes as a child. My grandmother often had one sitting under a cake dome on her kitchen counter, and those red velvet cake layers slathered in cream cheese frosting just called to me!
I loved the moist and chocolatey, cream cheese-filled layers, but I think that it was the dramatic RED that I loved the most. There’s nothing boring or ordinary about a slice of red velvet cake!
Red Velvet Cakes have long been the dessert of choice for Christmas and Valentine’s Day celebrations, and have been especially popular in the south, but in recent years Red Velvet Cakes have experienced an explosion in popularity!
Everywhere I turn, I see red velvet cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, cookies, brownies, pancakes, and more! I’ve even set up a Pinterest Board for Red Velvet Desserts because I just cannot help myself. I can scroll for hours just looking at cakes, but that’s another story.
We were determined to find the BEST red velvet cake recipe from scratch and I’m happy to say that after lots of experimenting and taste tests (I love a good taste test), we have found THE ONE!
This Red Velvet Cake recipe will give you a luscious cake that is ultra moist without being overly soft or crumbly, it has just the right amount of cocoa, and the sour cream in the recipe makes it stable enough to withstand the weight of fondant, or a thick coat of cream cheese frosting.
Just as with carrot cake or Italian cream cake, red velvet cake is one of those good old fashioned southern cake recipes that pairs amazingly well with cream cheese frosting. I wouldn’t use anything else! Unless of course, you aren’t a fan of cream cheese….but for me, only cream cheese frosting will do!
In the photo above, you can see that we’ve piped a generous amount of Cream Cheese Frosting with a 2D fat star tip. I love this quick and easy technique but really, there’s no wrong way to apply a delicious coat of cream cheese frosting!
Red Velvet Cake is the perfect dessert choice year-round, but if you are making this for a Christmas or winter gathering, you may like to make the lovely white chocolate candy coating trees as in the photo above!
I love the these sweet decorations, and they are so simple to make! You can find out how to make them in our quick step by step cake tutorail here: White Chocolate Candy Coating Trees.
We hope that you love this amazing scratch Red Velvet Cake as much as we do! We have tried many, many scratch Red Velvet Cake recipes in our search for the perfect cake, and for us, THIS is the one! The search is over. This is now our go-to recipe. Hooray!
**This Recipe calls for the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing, which yields a very moist and slightly denser cake. Many of our favorite cake recipes call for this method. We explain the steps in our recipe below, but if you are unfamiliar with the Reverse Creaming Method, please watch our quick, free video tutorial: Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing. If you prefer the fluffier texture of the conventional method of mixing, click over to our Red Velvet Cupcake (and cake) Recipe!
*If you are looking for a fantastic doctored cake mix Red Velvet cake, we have you covered! Scroll on down to the bottom of this post to find a link to our favorite “almost homemade” Red Velvet Cake!
Enjoy!
*We love this recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting. If you are a fan of peppermint, add a little extract (start with 1 tsp. and adjust to your liking from there) for peppermint cream cheese frosting! It’s a great combination.
As we mentioned above, this Red Velvet Cake recipe calls for the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing which creates a slightly denser, velvety texture.
If you prefer the more traditional Conventional Method of Mixing, which yields cakes and cupcakes with a fluffier texture, hop over to our Red Velvet Cupcake (and cake) Recipe linked here!: Red Velvet Cupcakes!
Red Velvet Cake from Scratch
We love this moist and delicious classic red velvet cake recipe! We love to pair it with cream cheese frosting!
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 1 Tablespoon (12 g) vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (24 g) red liquid food coloring
- 1 cup (242 g) sour cream
- 1/4 cup (54g) vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup (73 g) milk
- 2 1/2 cups (285g) cake flour
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- 4 Tablespoons (19 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ( 3g) salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15 g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 T) (170 g) unsalted butter softened (Do not soften in microwave). I cut the butter into 1/4 inch slices onto waxed paper so it will soften quickly
Instructions
- {*This recipe uses the Reverse Creaming Method.}
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch pans.
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, vanilla, red food coloring, sour cream, veg. oil, and milk. Whisk to blend and set bowl aside.
- Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and blend with the mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds until the dry ingredients are well blended.
- Slowly add the slices of butter a few at a time while the mixer is on medium speed. Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened by the butter. It will look like coarse sand, and all the dry ingredients will be moistened by the butter. If you pinch some of the mixture between your fingers, it will stick together. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Method is important when using the Reverse Creaming Method. With the mixer on low speed SLOWLY add approximately 1/2 of the egg mixture increasing the speed to medium and mixing for 1 1/2 minutes - the batter will be thick and fluffy. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, scraping the bowl and beating for 20 seconds after each addition .
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pans 10 minutes then turn out.
Makes 7 cups cake batter
If you love all things red velvet, you’ll LOVE our Red Velvet Marble Pound Cake! This is an easy-to-make, ultra moist pound cake recipe that is sure to bring rave reviews! The slices are so beautiful with their swirls of red, and around the holidays, we love to add a simple peppermint glaze. This one’s a keeper!
Finally, we have even more Red Velvet Cake deliciousness to share with you if you are looking for a great doctored cake mix recipe! This red velvet doctored cake mix recipe has a flavor and texture very similar to scratch red velvet cakes. As far as box cake recipes go, we prefer this recipe to a box red velvet cake mix.
Hop on over to check it out!: Red Velvet Cake (Doctored Cake Mix Recipe)
I love how the sides of the cake were styled, so pretty! I already have my own version of velvet cake but will definitely try this one too.
Hello! I want to try your red velvet cake but here in Greece we don’t get sour cream. Can I use buttermilk or yoghurt instead?
Hi Mihaelia, You can substitute with yogurt, greek full fat yogurt would be my first choice. I hope you will enjoy the recipe.
Thanks a lot!
Hey , Can u tell me how much batter goes in a Wilton Cross cake Pan ?
Hi Judy, I did a google search, click on the link below to a Wilton site
link to wilton.com
It refers to using a cake mix…..cake mixes make approximately 5 cups batter
Hello again! I finally used Greek yoghurt and it was amazing!!! Everyone loved it!!! One last question though… my son is asking for the same cake for his birthday. Can I double the recipe, bake a big rectangular cake and cut it in three layers?
Hi Mihaelia, This recipe makes 7 cups cake batter. For a 9×13 pan you will need at least 7 cups ( up to 10 cups) for that size pan. You can double the size pan. Click on the link below for charts giving the pan sizes and amount of batter you will need. Hope all goes well.
link to fromkarenskitchen.com
link to wilton.com
Thanks again!
Hi BeBe I need to make a 10inch red velvet cake can I double the recipe to achieve 10 inch cake?
Hi Regina, This recipe makes 7 cups batter. It will be fine to double the recipe to get 14 cups batter. One 10 inch round cake pan can old 6 cups batter. I am assuming you are going to make two 10 inch cakes. You will have 2 cups batter left over, but that is fine, you can make a few cupckes, if you want to. Bake the 10 inch layers at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Will your mixing bowl hold 14 cups of batter? Hope all goes well.
Hi BeBe the buttercream technique on the Red Velvet cake is there a video. Also Thank you for getting to me regarding Red Velvet cake
We don’t have cake flour here in the U.K. so what do I use?
Hi Dawn, To make cake flour from all purpose flour (plain in the UK) : for each cup of flour in a recipe, you will remove 2 Tablespoons of the all purpose flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour) . This recipe has 2 1/2 cups cake flour, so you will measure out 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, remove 5 Tablespoons and replace with 5 Tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk to blend.
Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
Hi Christine, I am sorry I missed your question. We always grease and flour the sides of our cake pans so I do the bottom also even when using parchment paper. I have to wash the pan anyway so I just do it. The parchment circle in the bottom of the pan assures you the cake will not stick, especially with cakes that have fruit in the batter.
Hi. I have a question for you. I am making a princess castle cake for my granddaughter’s birthday. We wanted The cake to be pink. Do you recommend doing the red velvet, and if so, can I use cream cheese frosting for it? I need to decorate, so I was wondering if a white butter frosting would go well with the red velvet cake. Which would be better?
One more thing, what quantity of the recipe should I use for a 12×18 sheet cake?
Hi Stephanie- Do you mean adding pink coloring instead of red coloring for the red velvet cake? You could…but the red velvet cake does have cocoa and so it wouldn’t be a true pink. You may rather add pink to one of our white cakes.
As for the frosting, if it were me, I would rather frost something like a castle cake in vanilla buttercream (our classic or fluffy recipe) rather than cream cheese frosting as the cream cheese is so soft. (You could do cream cheese as a filling if you’d really like to have the cream cheese flavor).
For a 12×18 sheet cake, you would need 14 cups of batter for one layer. (1 layer needs about 14 cups batter). So, for example, the red velvet cake makes 7 cups of batter and so you would need to double the recipe. All of our recipes should have the number of cups of batter included. Let us know if you have any more questions!
Hi, my Cake school, the eggs, milk and sour cream, need to be @ room temperature or refrigerated?
Hi Wendy, The eggs are at room temperature. If I forget to take eggs out of the refrigerator, I place them in a bowl of very warm water (not boiling) for 5 minutes or so. The milk and sour cream sit out about an hour, they are not fully at room temperature. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.