How to Make Red Velvet Cake
Bake a red velvet cake whenever you want to serve a dessert that’s as beautiful as it is delicious.
Up next in Cake Baking, Frosting, & Icing (35 videos)
Your next cake will be tasty AND beautiful if you follow the baking, frosting, and icing tips and tricks in this Howcast video series.
You Will Need
- 2.25 c all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1.0 tsp salt
- 2.0 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 1-ounce bottles of red food coloring
- 2 sticks of softened unsalted butter, divided
- 1.5 c sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1.0 c buttermilk
- 3.0 tsp vanilla extract, divided
- 1.0 tsp baking soda
- 1.0 tsp white vinegar
- 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
- 2.0 c powdered sugar
- 3 9-inch round cake pans
- Bowls
- A whisk
- A wooden spoon
- Cooling rack
- Cake plate
- A spatula
- 15-ounce can of beets (optional)
- Electric mixer (optional)
- Pecan halves (optional)
Steps
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Step 1
Preheat oven
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the cake pans.
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Step 2
Combine flour
Combine the sifted flour and salt in a bowl.
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Step 3
Color the cocoa
Pour the cocoa powder into a small bowl, add the red food coloring, and whisk until smooth.
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You can use the juice from one 15-oz. can of beets in place of the food coloring.
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Step 4
Cream the butter and sugar
In a large bowl, beat one stick of butter and sugar by hand or with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
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Step 5
Add the flour
Switch your mixer speed to low and add the flour a few tablespoons at a time. Alternate mixing flour with adding the buttermilk, vanilla extract, and dyed cocoa paste. Mix the ingredients until all the batter is the same red color, but do not overbeat.
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Step 6
Mix in the vinegar
In a small bowl, stir the baking soda into the vinegar, and then fold it into the batter with a wooden spoon.
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Step 7
Bake the cake
Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes; then invert the layers onto a rack to cool completely.
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Step 8
Make the frosting
Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese with one stick of butter until creamy. Beat in 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
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Step 9
Apply a crumb coating
When the cake has cooled, place the first layer on your cake plate or stand, spread frosting on top with a spatula, add the next layer, frost the top of that, and so on. Once you’ve added the final cake layer, spread a thin coating of frosting over the entire cake to contain crumbs, and then refrigerate it for 15 minutes.
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Step 10
Finish frosting
Finish frosting the cake by spreading the frosting on top and on the sides. Decorate the top with pecan halves if you like.
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Tradition has it that a chef at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel invented red velvet cake in the 1950s. But it is also rumored to be a southern, Civil War-era invention.
