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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, 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
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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.
Hi Karina,
I would like to try this in a 10 cup Bundt Pan.. Can you suggest baking time and temperature if I do this? Thank you!
I am not a professional cake baking i baked this red velvet cake followed the instructions as you say. It came out so good that when i tasted it i could not believe it was me that baked the cake, i baked with cake flour, like you said it taste like what a professional Baker baked. Please Karina I want to bake the red velvet cake in a heart shape 10 x 3.7 inches bake pan can you give me the measurements ingredients recipes. Am so glad i found your page thanks so much.
Loved the recipe but my cake came out green/grey!!! Still tastes amazing but followed the recipe and cannot figure it out…….has this happened to anyone else?
You used colouring which wasn’t suitable for baking (only icing) , happened to me first time too . Need to read the label.
Hi, I was wondering why red food coloring instead of gel coloring? I only have gel on hand and was wondering if I can substitute before I go buy food coloring? thanks
I did it with gel and it worked great!
This is literally the best cake i have ever made! Everything about this recipe was so useful – all the explanations and substitute information is something you don’t normally get and really does make a difference. Everyone who tasted loved it so much they even said it was the best red velvet cake they’d ever eaten, high praise indeed. I will definitely make it again and again
I just made this for Valentines day and it is AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for a great recipe!
Hi Karina ! I baked this cake for Valentines this year and it was just too good. Turned out to be the most amazing cake. I was always very sceptical about the Red velvet cakes because of the amount of colour that is used. However in this cake the quantity of colour used was quite less had still it had a beautiful red colour. Thanks for the lovely recipe.
I made this cake today and also this was my first time even making red velvet cake … the result was phenomenal … perfect !!! Everyone loved it !!! The cream cheese frosting was just as divine !!! Thanks so much for this recipe.
Karina,
I have made many cakes but never really found the perfect Red Velvet! All I can say is this cake is Amazeballs. It didn’t crumble and was so full of flavor and dense. It definitely won my guests over. I used regular flour and it worked just fine. I also made it onto cupcakes. For me becuase I love decorating I would modify the cream cheese frosting. The one you included was very good but I life stiffer frosting to do more flowers etc.
Thanks again and Happy Baking.
I’m so happy to hear that Bridget!
Well ,as for me, I’ve never thought of ever baking a cake until I encountered this phenominal cake .thanks for sharing your recipe.
Hi! How long did you bake the cupcakes for? Thanks!!
Kindly share your recipe for stiff cream cheese frosting as I always struggle with the frosting being too runny
Hi Karina
This recipe sounds perfect. I’ll try it soon. I want to ask that can I use the same recipe for the red velvet cupcakes? If yes then how many cupcakes will this recipe yield?
Thank you.