Red Velvet Cake
The red velvet texture is tender and moist, yet dense enough to give it a "velvet" texture. Not too much cocoa, with a slightly tangy buttermilk taste brings it back to the 50's and 60's popular era, with an elegant modern touch. A cream cheese buttercream frosting pulls it all together like a happy yummy velvet cake dream come true.
Servings: 12 Servings
Calories:
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 2-¼ cups all purpose flour or cake flour will give a higher rise what I used
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Butter/Sugar/Eggs Mixture
- ½ cup butter softened
- 1-¼ cups sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring 1 ounce or red paste gel use as much as you like
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons oil of choice I used canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 2 Tablespoons marascino cherry juice
Lastly:
- 1 cup buttermilk
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 2 8 oz packages cream cheese room temperature and softened
- ¾ cup or 12 Tablespoons butter softened
- 4 & ½ cups powdered sugar
- Or 5 tubs Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
Dry Ingredients:
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
Butter/Sugar/Eggs
- Cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Wet Ingredients
- Add in food coloring, vinegar, oil and vanilla/or cherry juice and beat together. (do not add in the buttermilk at this stage)
- Add dry ingredients to creamed Eggs/Sugar/Eggs mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
- Pour into two lightly greased and floured 8-in.or 9-in round baking pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.
- Cool layers 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
- After cakes have cooled, you can cut off the top of the cakes, to make both cakes level and not appear curved on top. I did it to one for the bottom of the cake and left the top as it was to get that old fashioned vintage curved look.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add in vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time until frosting is smooth.
- Assemble and frost the completely cooled cake.
- For the crumbles on the sides, I used the top of the cake I sliced off to make my level bottom layer and made cake crumbles and applied some to the bottom on the cake. You can sprinkle them on top if you want as well.
- For more frosting, if you don't have enough for the top swirls, depending how thick, repeat the Cream Cheese Buttercream Recipe except divide it to make a half batch.