Red Velvet Cake
This Red Velvet Cake is moist, soft, and entirely made from scratch with an irresistible Cream Cheese Frosting. It looks so elegant but is surprisingly easy to make at home.
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake batter
- 120 g Butter softened
- 300 g Sugar
- 2 Eggs room temperature
- 160 g Vegetable oil
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 270 g Buttermilk
- 1 tsp Distilled white Vinegar
- 350 g All-purpose Flour plus more for dusting the cake pans
- 2 tbsp Cocoa powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Red food coloring
Cream cheese frosting
- 340 g Butter not too soft, still cold to the touch
- 230 g Cream cheese
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
- 460 g Powdered sugar
- 1/8 tsp Salt
Decoration
- Red sprinkles
- Red vanilla chocolate wafers
- Heart molds
Instructions
Cake batter
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- Butter two 9-inch cake pans and then dust them with flour.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Add softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and mix with a hand or stand mixer until sugar is moist and well incorporated. Then add the vanilla extract and mix some more.
- Add one egg at a time and mix well before adding the next egg. Beat until there is no egg visible.
- Slowly add the vegetable oil; keep mixing while adding it to the batter.
- Combine the white distilled vinegar with the buttermilk and add it to the batter.
- With a sifter, sift the dry ingredients into the batter and mix it until no more flour mixture is visible.
- Add half a teaspoon of Red food coloring to the batter and mix until you have evenly red cake batter.
- Divide the batter into two cake pans. I use a kitchen scale and add about 650g of batter to each cake pan. If you use a scale, you will have two even cake layers.
- Put them in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Take them out of the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes until you flip them over and take the cakes out of the pan and onto a cooling rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Add the butter to a large mixing bowl, and with a hand or stand mixer, beat butter until it is creamy, smooth, and lighter in color.
- Mix the cream cheese in with the butter. Scrape down the sides to make sure you get it all mixed in.
- Beat in the vanilla extract and salt until incorporated.
- Add one cup of powdered sugar at a time and mix at low speed until incorporated. Once you have added all of the powdered sugar, increase the speed and beat for another 2-3 minutes until smooth and spreadable. Scrape down the sides from time to time to get everything well blended together.
- Place some cream cheese frosting in a pastry piping bag to pipe rosettes on the cake.
Assemble and Decorate the Cake
- Once the cakes are cooled, you can assemble them. Put one cake round on a cake stand and add about a third of the cream cheese frosting. Spread it evenly with an offset spatula.
- Then add the second cake on top of the cream cheese filling and add more of the filling on top & the sides of the cake. Make sure you cover it well and then smoothen out the sides and the top.
- Sprinkle the red sprinkles around the outer part on top of the cake and sprinkle some onto the sides.
- Pipe 12 rosettes on the cake.
Red Chocolate Hearts
- Optionally, add a chocolate heart to each rosette. I made my own chocolate hearts by melting some red vanilla chocolate wafers and piping them in the heart molds. Let them cool to harden; once harden, take them out of the molds and place one heart on each rosette.
- Set the cake in the refrigerator for about half-hour before you cut into it. It will harden the Cream cheese frosting slightly and makes the cutting easier. Enjoy!
Notes
Tips: To store leftover cake, place a piece of plastic or aluminum wrap directly onto the cut part of the cake. This will ensure the layers won’t dry out. Then, place the cake into the refrigerator.
Before serving, bring the cake to room temperature; it will take about 1-2 hours.