Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This classic Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is the cake to make for all your celebratory or weekend baking needs! Four soft, sweet, extra chocolate-y, bright red cake layers. Each generously frosted with the most delicious no-fail cream cheese frosting. Decorate simply like I did, take a more traditional route, or go all out! No matter what you do, this cake will always stand out and be sure to impress.
About The Recipe
Talk about classic! This cake has been in my family for generations. It may not be a southern cake per-say, but it might as well have been. This was one of the most popular cakes to order during my mom’s catering business. I remember almost every wedding/celebration, they ordered THIS red velvet cake!
We have even used this cake for Halloween because – hey, it’s blood red and perfect for little skull cakes!
And it was always a major success. Everyone wanted the recipe whether it was dressed up or dressed down. The cake is delicious!
But, I never really knew what made a red velvet cake a – well, red velvet cake. Not until now! Turns out, what makes this cake different from your standard chocolate cake (besides the food dye, of course) is actually the vinegar added to the cake. Sounds silly, I know, but trust me! Waaaaay back when, they didn’t have food dye. So, they used the vinegar to bring out a red color in the cocoa powder.
Kinda cool, right?
Nowadays, the vinegar isn’t necessarily needed but it’s what makes this cake a red velvet cake.
So, we married classic with modern and have this amazingly soft, delicious cake to share with all of you!
Equipment Needed
- Four 8 inch cake pans
- Bake-Even Strips
- Baking Spray
- Cake Tester
- Offset Spatula
- Cake Boards
- Wire Cooling Rack
- Turning Cake Stand
- Red Food Coloring
Ingredients
For the cake:
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Cocoa Powder
- Unsalted Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla
- Red Food Coloring
- Vinegar
For the frosting:
- Heavy Cream
- Vanila
- Cream Cheese
- Salt
- Powdered Sugar
Instructions
In a large glass bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
Beat butter and sugar in a mixer for about 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time into the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition.
Now, add the flour mixture from earlier alternately with the buttermilk. Make sure to always begin and end with the flour mixture! The photos below are not of every addition. Just a few to give you a general idea of the texture.
Stir the vanilla into the cake batter.
Then, stir in the red food coloring and vinegar.
Now that the cake batter is done, here comes the trickiest part of any cake recipe! Dividing the batter. If you have a scale, place your greased cake pan onto it and spoon out roughly about 13 ounces of batter. If you don’t have a scale, this is roughly 1 5/8 cups. Just try and and get the layers as even as you can for guaranteed even baking!
Place the four layers into a 350 degree oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the layers test done. Make sure to check each layer individually! when they’re done, take them out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack and let the layers finish cooling.
While the cake layers finish cooling, go ahead and get the ingredients out for the frosting!
In a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. After that, add the sliced cream cheese one pad at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then stir in the salt and powdered sugar, and you’re done! If you want more info on how to make this/tips, head over to our No-Fail Cream Cheese Frosting recipe for all the details!
Once the cake layers are cooled, if needed, level them. Use a serrated knife and slowly cut through the domed top. You can use the excess cake as crumbs for decoration, if you’d like!
So, now it’s time to build! Place a cake layer on a cake board and place that on the turning cake stand. Add about roughly 1/2 cup of cream cheese frosting. Spread along the top until smooth and level. Repeat these steps with the rest of the layers. Spread a thin layer of frosting around the sides. This is the crumb coat. Place the cake into the fridge for a few minutes.
After the frosting has had time to chill, take the frosting and the cake back out of the fridge. Spread remaining frosting onto cake and decorate as you see fit!
How To Store
In addition to being delicious, the wonderful thing about this cake is its simplicity with storing. You can easily leave the cake covered on a cake plate on the counter for about 5-7 days, or you can actually freeze it!
But, I will admit that freezing is a little more difficult. You can freeze the whole cake after it’s finished, freeze individual slices for later snacking, or you can even freeze the individual cake layers and build the cake at a later time. It’s truly up to you!
Other Recipes You Might Like…
- Semi Naked Italian Cream Cake
- The Ultimate Dark Chocolate Cake with Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache
- Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Chocolate Marble Pound Cake
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Expert Tips
- If you have a scale, I strongly recommend using it to get the cake layers as even as possible! However, if you don’t, try using a measuring cup to ensure evenly distributed batter.
- When making the frosting, make sure the heavy cream and cream cheese are cold!
- Don’t have baking spray? Don’t worry! You can grease the pans and then dust lightly with flour.
- If you choose to freeze this cake, make sure to set it out on the counter for a few hours to let it thaw.
- The butter and the eggs should be at room temperature. So, make sure to get them out a few hours before baking.
- And, in addition to getting the butter and eggs out early, go ahead and check the expiration dates on your baking soda and baking powder!
- Despite the recipe amounts provided, the actual amount of frosting to use in-between layers and around the cake is up to you. If you like more frosting, feel free to use all the frosting. Like less, just store the excess in the fridge for later use!
- If you’re using grocery store bought food coloring, you may need to add extra dye. I recommend using the food coloring we linked to at the top and bottom of this post.
When you make this Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup cocoa powder sifted
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ Tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 Tablespoon vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3 cups heavy cream cold
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 24 ounces cream cheese
- ⅜ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray 4 8-inch round pans with baking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
- In a mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
- Stir in vanilla.
- Mix in red food coloring and vinegar.
- Divide batter into pans.
- Bake until cake tests done, about 20 minutes.
For the Frosting:
- Cut cream cheese into 1 ounce portions. Set aside.
- Beat heavy cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
- With mixer running, add cream cheese, one portion at a time.
- Stir in salt and powdered sugar.
Notes
- If you have a scale, I strongly recommend using it to get the cake layers as even as possible! However, if you don't, try using a measuring cup to ensure evenly distributed batter.
- When making the frosting, make sure the heavy cream and cream cheese are cold!
- Don't have baking spray? Don't worry! You can grease the pans and then dust lightly with flour.
- If you choose to freeze this cake, make sure to set it out on the counter for a few hours to let it thaw.
- The butter and the eggs should be at room temperature. So, make sure to get them out a few hours before baking.
- And, in addition to getting the butter and eggs out early, go ahead and check the expiration dates on your baking soda and baking powder!
- Despite the recipe amounts provided, the actual amount of frosting to use in-between layers and around the cake is up to you. If you like more frosting, feel free to use all the frosting. Like less, just store the excess in the fridge for later use!
- If you're using grocery store bought food coloring, you may need to add extra dye. I recommend using the food coloring we linked to at the top and bottom of this post.
EQUIPMENT
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Thank You for sharing this with us today.
Will try this recipe. What kind of mixer are you using?
Hi Tiffany! It’s an Ankarsrum, but you can use a KitchenAid or whatever you have. You could even do it with a handheld mixer. I hope you like the recipe!
Is soo good thanks for sharing this recipe