Red Velvet Cake

Updated June 4, 2024

Red Velvet Cake
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Total Time
1 hour 30 minutes
Rating
5(1,281)
Notes
Read community notes

This is a cake to stop traffic. The layers are an improbable red that can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color, often enhanced by a full bottle of food coloring, becomes even more eye-catching set against clouds of snowy cream cheese-mascarpone frosting or ermine (also known as boiled-milk) frosting, like a slash of glossy lipstick framed by platinum blond curls. Even the name has a vampy allure: red velvet. These days this Southern favorite is found in just about every bakery, but perhaps for a special occasion (like the very red and white Valentine’s Day) you could try your hand at baking it. —Florence Fabricant

Featured in: So Naughty, So Nice

Learn: How to Frost a Cake

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Ingredients

Yield:One 3-layer cake
  • 1tablespoon unsalted butter
  • cups cake flour
  • ½cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
  • teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
  • 2cups canola oil
  • cups granulated sugar
  • 3large eggs
  • 6tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring
  • teaspoons vanilla extract
  • cup buttermilk
  • 2teaspoons baking soda
  • teaspoons white vinegar
  • Cream cheese-mascarpone frosting; or ermine, or boiled-milk, frosting
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

657 calories; 40 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 24 grams monounsaturated fat; 11 grams polyunsaturated fat; 72 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 39 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 386 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.

  2. Step 2

    Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

  3. Step 3

    Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: It may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.

  4. Step 4

    Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

  5. Step 5

    Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.

Ratings

5 out of 5
1,281 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

I've made this recipe before and it is delicious. However, the 3oz of red food coloring are WAY overcool. 1oz is already a ton of food coloring and turns the cake dark red. The extra two ounces are a waste of money...and will make you panic momentarily when you go to the bathroom the next day.

I know people love the cream cheese icing, but I have been making and enjoying RVC since I was a child, and the ONLY frosting that works for me, rarely seen, is this: Combine 1 C. milk ¼ C. flour, dash of salt. Cook over low heat until pudding stage. Set aside to cool thoroughly (best to cover surface with plastic wrap or waxed paper to prevent skin from forming). Cream ½ C. Crisco, 1 stick butter, 1 C. sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla. Add pudding mixture and beat until creamy smooth.

I chose a classic cream cheese frosting instead. This flavor lacked a richness I've become accustomed to with red velvet and the cake itself was a little bit dense (though that might be chef error) Anyone have any tips?

Turned to this cake because I made one by Alton Brown that didn't rise very well. Love the way that this batter performs - very even cake and great rise. But the flavor isn't as fabulous as the Brown one - maybe a little more vanilla? Am interested to see if it improves with the frosting.

40 minutes for 3 9” pans is too long. I made mine 23 mins and it’s perfect.

Everything about this cake is fantastic, I’m not one for food coloring but omg buy the three bottles the cake turns out so decadent and a true red velvet! The taste is sublime and the frosting is perfect! I served this cake to 50 people and they all went crazy over it! Even the people who don’t like cake (like me) couldn’t get enough!! I would not change a thing! I’m making it for the 2nd time this week! It’s a favorite request for birthdays!! Thank u so much!

I was so disappointed by this cake. I am an experienced baker and because this was my first try with this recipe, I followed it carefully. The cake turned out far too dry (could probably cut back the minimum baking time by at least 10 mins). The frosting recommended had so much whipped cream in it that it came out far too soft to work with effectively, and the overall taste was just okay. Big fail in my opinion, so going back to my old Southern Living version.

This review doesn't seem to match the video posted on Fbook that links here, Starting with the pan prep, and including number of layers and ingredients.

This is the worst recipe. I am a very experienced baker and everything was bad about it. The batter is too dark red from a wasteful excess of food coloring. It looked perfectly mixed but wasn’t resulting in brown streaks and swirls ruining the effect of the red cake. The baking time was too long and even pulling it out early early it burnt. And it doesn’t even taste good. What a waste of ingredients.

This cake is stunning. I made it for my sister‘s wedding and had to practice it several times before that. I just made it again and it still delivers. Commenters are right about the baking time and the red food coloring. I only baked the cakes about half as much as these directions say. 40 minutes is way too long and will give you a dry cake. I checked at 22 minutes and kept one pan in as long as 27 minutes and it came out perfectly tender! One oz red food color is plenty.

Just made this cake today for my sister-in-law’s birthday cake request. Made it exactly as written except for adding a little more vanilla. I went with making two layers and some cupcakes. Instead of full on cream cheese frosting I made a combo of the recipe for cooked icing using Crisco and to that added cream cheese and a little powdered sugar. The cake was delicious.

Delicious. I replaced half of the oil with unsweetened applesauce and it was still very moist and fluffy.

Wow this was so disappointing, and I’m an experienced baker. Usually the 5 star recipes on NYT Cooking are always great. Not this one. Way too dry, way too dense and the flavor was entirely lacking. I will not be making again.

Could someone please explain what is the point of the food coloring? Wouldn’t the cake taste just the same without the coloring? I just don’t understand the fascination with dyeing a chocolate cake red.

The internet is full of articles explaining that the original cake had a very slight reddish tint because of a chemical reaction between the un-Dutched cocoa and other acidic ingredients. Over time, I think many bakers simply wanted to produce a bright red cake just for the fun of it. With what we know about food coloring, some of us might want to stick to the un-colored version. Here is an interesting article: https://www.southernliving.com/food/desserts/cakes/southern-red-velvet-cake

Has anybody made this without the red food coloring? Or with beets or something else? I love red velvet cake but would hesitate to make it with red food coloring.

I made a Green Velvet Layer Cake last year for St. Patrick's Day, a real wow too!

With frosting, 3 cups of fat. Wow!

The "dutch process" vs "NON dutch process" business confuses me. In supermarkets I see no mention on the labels of which is which. One grocery store clerk told me "they are ALL "dutch process", which only confused me further. Can someone please tell me where to buy cocoa powder and/or does it really matter if I use either one or the other?

You dissolve baking soda in vinegar. Doesn't it fizz and lose all ability to make the cake rise before it even gets into the batter?

Any recommendations on how much beetroot powder to use as a substitute for red coloring?

What will stop traffic are the 2 cups of canola oil! Why? Substitute olive oil and avoid that fishy ultra processed nightmare in this delicious recipe!

It says 12 servings

why does it specify not Dutch processed? And what happens if thats wfat you use?

How many people does this serve?

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Credits

Adapted from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss (Little, Brown, to be published in May)

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