This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Get ready to devour the Best Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting! After testing this recipe countless times for family birthdays, I’ve perfected a fluffy, buttery, and incredibly moist cake with a texture that truly lives up to the name “velvet.”
Made entirely from scratch, this recipe is packed with tips I’ve learned over the years to guarantee it takes centre stage. The secret isn’t just one thing—it’s the combination of butter and oil for moisture, plus the chemical magic between buttermilk and vinegar that creates its signature tender crumb as the carbon dioxide gas gets trapped in the cake batter causing the cake to rise. It’s no wonder this is the most requested of all the cake recipes on Cafe Delites. Of all Cake Recipes on my blog, this one has to be my favourite.
Why This Recipe Is Better
This red velvet cake has been adapted from The New York Times, with slight adjustments to the ingredients and the addition of oil for an even softer, richer and buttery melt-in-your-mouth cake. I tested a few versions with just butter, some with only oil, and some with half a dozen eggs!
Just like my Best Fudgy Chocolate Cake and these Drunken Strawberries, this Red Velvet Cake is so addictive, it’s hard to stop at one piece! It’s not overly sweet, but still perfectly rich at the same time. You’ll see what I mean when you try it!
The batter is then split into two separate 8-inch baking pans to create two layers. We tried it with 9-inch pans and while the texture was good, the layers were a little too thin for our liking. Trim the dome on top away so the top layer sits better on the bottom layer. When trimming, you will feel how moist this cake really is! Try to save these pieces to decorate the cake with later! (Good luck not sneaking some pieces to eat! If you start, you won’t be able to stop.)
What Goes In Red Velvet Cake
- Butter + oil: This combo guarantees a moist sponge.
- Cake flour: For the softest, velvety delicious cake- I was actually fooling everyone into thinking we had purchased it from an expensive baker!
- Buttermilk + vinegar: For the perfect rich and moist texture. I tried one version using buttermilk plus vinegar and one version making my own buttermilk- both worked INCREDIBLY well!
- Cream cheese: Full fat cream cheese works best here. Make sure it is at room temperature before you use it to make the frosting.
- Lemon juice: This one’s optional, but lends a beautiful tangy, citrusy flavor.
Note: please see recipe card at the bottom for list of full ingredients and measurements
How To Make Red Velvet Cake
- Prepare pans & preheat oven. grease two 8-inch (≈20 cm) baking pans. Dust lightly with cocoa powder. Preheat oven to 175 °C (350 °F).
- Cream butter and sugar. Beat the room-temperature butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs. add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Mix colour + cocoa + oil. In a small bowl, mix oil, cocoa powder, red food colouring, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in vinegar.
- Combine dry and wet. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add half the dry mix and half the buttermilk to the butter mixture, mix. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and remaining buttermilk. Mix just until combined.
- Bake. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Make frosting. Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Add icing sugar gradually and beat until light and fluffy.
- Assemble & decorate. Trim domed tops to level. Place one layer, spread frosting, top with second layer. Frost the top and sides. Use any trimmed cake bits to crumble over the top.
Serve this best red velvet cake as a dessert for a party or a get-together you’re hosting. I love making it whenever I’m hosting a house party- usually teamed up with snacks and appetizers like Sausage Rolls, Chili Garlic Butter Shrimp and some Homemade Truffle Fries.
Red Velvet Cake FAQ’s
Yes, you absolutely can. Your cake will still turn out incredibly delicious. I love using cake flour though- the soft texture is just unmatched.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can easily make it from scratch, on your own. All you need to do is combine 1 cup of full cream milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. That’s it!
Red velvet cakes usually do have some holes. This happens because of the reaction between the buttermilk and baking soda. It’s completely okay, and once you frost the cake, the holes won’t be visible at all.
Red Velvet Cake on Video
Looking for more red velvet recipes
Red Velvet French Toast | The Best Red Velvet Churros | Red Velvet Marble Waffles
Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups caster sugar or fine white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon extra for dusting
- 2 1/2 tablespoons red food colouring liquid, not gel
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 1/2 cups plain cake flour sifted, or all purpose/plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda bi-carb soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 14 ounces cream cheese not spreadable, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups icing sugar or confectioners
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice optional – adds subtle hint of lemon
Instructions
For Cake:
- Heat oven to 350°F | 175°C. Lightly grease two 8-inch cake pans with butter or nonstick oil spray and lightly dust with 1 tablespoon of the sifted cocoa powder.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition to combine well.
- In a smaller bowl, mix together oil, remaining cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla until smooth. Stir colour mixture and vinegar through the creamed sugar mixture to combine.
- Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk to the wet ingredients; mix well. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk.
- Divide batter among the 2 prepared pans and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack completely.
For Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth lighter in colour (about 3-4 minutes). Beat in icing sugar until frosting is light and fluffy (if frosting is too thin, add more icing sugar and beat again until reaching your desired consistency).Optional if using: mix in the lemon juice.
Assemble Cake:
- Transfer 1 cake onto a serving dish/plate, flat-side down. Trim the top dome off of the cake to create a flat bottom later. Scoop about 1 1/2 – 2 cups of frosting onto cake and spread evenly over the top.
- Place second cake layer on top and use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
- Crumble trimmed pieces of cake to decorate.Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
You might also like
Get a free eBook!
Subscribe to Cafe Delites FOR FREE and receive recipes straight into your inbox!
This looks amazing and would love to make soon. Just 1 question, if you use home-made buttermilk (milk + vinegar), do you still need to add in the 1 tbsp vinegar separately, or leave this out?
Steph, if you’re already making buttermilk with milk + vinegar, you can skip the extra vinegar in the recipe. Hope that helps. Happy baking! Xx
This recipe is my to go Red Velvet cake, it’s easy to make and delicious. I have been making this recipe for years 🙂
Thanks cafedelites.com
Hi Liv! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed and keep enjoying this recipe. Happy cooking!
This recipe was BRILLIANT! My first time making a Red Velvet cake, and it was for my daughter’s 18th birthday. So fluffy and soft, wonderful taste, daughter and friends loved it. I could even make it one-handed so gets a disability tick of approval from me (I’m the ‘OneHandedBaker!’). Thank you x
This cake came out really well for me! I am impressed.
Hello. I’m from Portugal and I was trying to find a red velvet recipe that was easy and flavorfull. After trying different recipes, I came across this one and I have to say that is my favourite. I already made this cake twice (as birthcakes) and everyone loved it.
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
I loved the redvelvet cake alot love NATHANIEL NAREL JOHNSON.
Hello Karina
Can we make the recipe as cupcakes?
How long to bake?
Thank you.
Beautifully soft and moist cake! So good I decided to scroll aaaallll to the end to post this comment. I only wish I could add a photo as my cake came out a little different visually – I have young children so only had natural food colouring in the house, used loads extra but couldn’t get the batter red. It actually turned out a lovely rose gold colour though so I coloured my frosting pale pink. This was a birthday cake I made for my mother so all worked out!
Totally AWESOME!!! My first ever successful RV cake!! Bye bye brown rubbish failures. Hello luxurious RED, moist, delicious! I can’t thank you enough. I was commissioned to make a RV for a wedding and was freaked out because I had never been successful! I looked on this site for a recipe because I have used it for the awesome Chocolate Fudge Cake! Thank goodness for your blogs. You are a life saver ! Did a test run yesterday on a 10” round using x 1.3 multiplier to get a single layer for a three layered cake. Perfect!
Can’t believe I forgot the baking soda, what a scruff. Very very delicious though.