Red Velvet Cake is more than a vanilla or chocolate cake. It is lighter than a chocolate cake. Soft and fluffy like a vanilla cake. But it has a tangy edge, that comes from buttermilk, vinegar and cream cheese.
This recipe is easy to make, incredibly moist, soft and tender. The red beauties are layered and covered with buttery rich cream cheese frosting, folded in whipped cream. Not just that, this is baked on stovetop. You heard me right, no oven is needed to bake this irresistible cake.
It is hard to find someone who dislikes Red Velvet Cake. It is so popular that almost every restaurants or bakeries around the world offers items that were red velvet inspired. No doubt, the red hues between white frosting is of course a pleasure for our sight. However, the flavor of red velvet cake is remarkable. Even though it has a mild chocolate cake flavor, it is buttery, tangy and sweet.
Why is it called Red Velvet?
Compared to sponge cakes and pound cakes, the texture of Red Velvet Cakes are soft, fluffy and velvety, which explains the term ‘velvet’.
What about red color? In the Victorian era, cooks discovered that if you combined acidic ingredients, like vinegar, with non-Dutch processed cocoa (natural cocoa powder), a cake would develop a faintly red hue.
Red Velvet Cake becomes popular in the Southern United States during the Great Depression. From there it picks up an iconic Southern ingredient, buttermilk, which amplifies the red hue and natural tanginess of the cake.
Later ingredients like vanilla extract and butter were included in the recipe. Whatever the history behind it, the popularity of the cake remained consistent. It’s definitely worth the effort to make this cake from scratch than using any box mix.
What Do You Need For This Recipe?
Flour – Cake flour or all-purpose flour can be used. Cake flour is much lighter than all-purpose and it makes the cake more soft. If using all-purpose flour, sift the flour once or twice with a mesh sieve. This makes the flour lighter and airier and easier to mix with other ingredients. I have used sifted all-purpose flour for this recipe.
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 2 to 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder is enough for this recipe. This doesn’t overpower the butter and vanilla flavor of the cake. Make sure you are using natural cocoa powder and not Dutch processed cocoa powder. Natural cocoa powder enhance the red color once mixed with acidic substance like vinegar and buttermilk.
Buttermilk – it gives moisture and tanginess to the cake. As an acidic substance it reacts with cocoa powder and turns it red. Additionally, buttermilk activates the baking soda to leaven the cake and give it its light, fluffy crumbs.
Vinegar – In this recipe, I have mixed the baking soda with vinegar in a separate bowl rather than adding them directly to the cake batter. Mixing baking soda (base) with Vinegar (acid) immediately starts the chemical reaction which in turn creates carbon dioxide and allows the cake to rise (same as buttermilk). Also, vinegar helps to enhance the red hue.
Red Food Color – Use either liquid or gel red food color for better results. This gives the bright red tones to our cake. For natural coloring, use beet powder. You can leave out the food coloring if you don’t want to use it. The cake still tastes the same with a reddish-brown (maroon) shade.
Butter and Oil – Butter has to be unsalted and should be softened at room temperature. Without oil, we will end up in a dry cake. The buttery soft red velvet cake is the result of creaming butter and sugar together. So for a buttery flavored, moist, soft cake we need both butter and oil.
Vanilla Extract/ Essence – This cake also has the flavor of vanilla. So it is an essential ingredient in red velvet cake recipe. Try to use best quality vanilla extract to get the amazing flavor.
Cream Cheese – Cream cheese frosting pairs well with red velvet cake. Try to use the best quality cream cheese available. Make sure it is full-fat cream cheese. Otherwise, you will end up to a runny frosting.
Powdered Sugar – It is crucial to use powdered sugar while making the frosting, since it dissolves quickly. If you only have regular sugar, take 3/4 cup full of regular sugar. Blend or grind this in to a fine powder. This makes about 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar, which is enough for this recipe.
Heavy Cream – This recipe calls for an additional ingredient, heavy cream. I have whipped the heavy cream in a separate bowl and then folds it with cream cheese frosting. This gives an extra creaminess and buttery smooth texture to our frosting.
Chill the prepared Cream cheese frosting in the fridge for 30 minutes before layering or decorating the cake. This helps the frosting to hold its shape. Also refrigerating the finished cake for an hour helps the frosting to set and to stay intact while cutting.
If you liked this recipe, try out our Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting
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Red Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting – Stovetop & Oven Method
Equipment
- 2 9" Cake Pans
- 2 Small Mixing Bowls
- 2 Medium Mixing bowls
- 1 Large mixing bowl
- 1 Hand Mixer
Ingredients
For Red Velvet Cake :
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter + 2 tbsp for greasing (room temp.)
- 1 + ½ cup Sugar
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 – 2 tbsp Liquid Red Food Color
- 2 – 3 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 cup Buttermilk / Whole milk Yogurt
- 1 tsp Salt
- ¾ cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 ⅔ cups All Purpose Flour / Cake Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp White Vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting :
- 16 oz. Cream cheese (453 gms, room temperature)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 ¼ cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 ⅓ cup Heavy Cream (300 gms)
Instructions
Red Velvet Cake – Oven Method :
- Preheat the oven @ 350° F / 180°C. Grease two 9” round cake pans with melted butter. Line each pan with parchment paper and brush the paper and sides of the pan with butter. Set this aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add softened (Refer Note: 1) unsalted butter and 1 cup sugar. Set the hand mixer on high speed and beat until the sugar dissolves.
- Crack 2 eggs in to a small bowl. Add one egg to the sugar-butter mix and beat well. Then beat in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Once the sugar dissolves, add the second egg and beat until the mix gets fluffy. Add and combine vanilla extract and liquid red food color (Refer Note: 2). Then, beat in cocoa powder on medium-low.
- In a separate mixing bowl, take 1 cup of buttermilk and mix it with 1 teaspoon of salt. Pour this mixture over the prepared wet ingredients, and combine everything together on a medium speed. Once it is incorporated, beat in the vegetable oil.
- Sieve in half of the All-Purpose flour over the wet ingredient and beat on low just until the flour combines. Sieve the other half and beat again on low speed.
- In a small bowl, mix baking soda and white vinegar. Whisk this mixture into the cake batter. (Refer Note: 3)
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and gently fold the batter a few times, just enough to combine the flour. Equally divide the batter among the prepared pan. Gently smooth the top using the spatula and tap the pan to release air bubbles.
- Bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Red Velvet Cake – Stovetop Method :
- Place a tawa or pan over a burner, and preheat on high heat for couple of minutes. Then place a heavy bottom pan/ pot with lid and heat for a minute or two. Reduce the heat to low. Take the lid off and place a steamer rack into the pan.
- Place one pan of cake batter over the steamer rack, cover with the lid and bake on low heat for an hour/ 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Once the cake is baked, remove the lid and turn off the heat. Allow the cake to cool off for 5 – 10 minutes before taking it out from the pan. Bake the second cake the same way as the first one.
- Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes. Slightly scrap the sides of the pan using a knife and flip them out to a wire rack. The cakes must be completely cool before assembling.
Cream Cheese Frosting :
- In a large bowl, using a handheld or stand mixer attached with a whisk, beat the cream cheese, vanilla extract and powdered sugar on medium-high until everything is completely combined and becomes smooth and creamy.
- In a medium bowl beat heavy cream until it is thick and soft peaks appear. Fold this using a rubber spatula to the cream cheese frosting in small batches. Make sure not to over mix or fold the frosting. The frosting should be soft, but not runny. (Refer Note: 4)
Assembling Red Velvet Cake :
- Using a serrated knife, cut a thin layer of the cake’s surface to make it even (Refer Note: 5). Dust off any crumbs from the surface.
- Place the cake over a cake board. Cover the sides of the board using parchment paper (Optional Step). This keeps the board clean while assembling the cake.
- Evenly spread 5 to 6 tablespoons full of cream cheese frosting over the cake. Then place the second cake and spread the remaining frosting (optional – leave 1/4 portion of frosting for piping) all over the top and sides of the cake. Use a icing spatula or bench scraper to smooth the top and sides of the cake. Pipe a decorative border or flowers on top of the cake. I used an open star icing nozzle tip #19.
- Refrigerate the cake for an hour or until the frosting is set. This helps the cake to hold its shape while cutting.
- Cover the leftover cake tightly. This can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 week.
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Notes
- It is best to use everything (butter, eggs, buttermilk, cream cheese, etc.) in room temperature. This way the batter will mix together easily and evenly. It helps the cake to have a uniform texture. So remember to take everything out from the fridge 1 or 2 hours beforehand.
- You can use gel or liquid food coloring. The more you use the brighter the color when baked. Use more or less accordingly.
- Mixing baking soda (base) with Vinegar (acid) immediately starts the chemical reaction which in turn creates carbon dioxide and allows the cake to rise.
- Keep the frosting in the fridge if you are not assembling the cake immediately. Otherwise the outside temperature can soften the frosting, which causes difficulty in assembling/decorating the cake.
- Crumble the leftover cake pieces and use this to decorate the frosted cake by sticking them to the top/sides.
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