| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 50 min |
| Prep: | 1 hr 10 min |
| Cook: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 8 to 10 servings |
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 50 min |
| Prep: | 1 hr 10 min |
| Cook: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 8 to 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pans
- 3 cups cake flour (sift before measuring)
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon red food coloring
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 pounds (about 8 cups) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-inch-round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper; butter the parchment. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
- Beat the granulated sugar, 12 tablespoons butter and the vegetable oil in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour, until just combined.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes on racks, then turn the cakes out onto the racks to cool completely. Using a long serrated knife, carefully slice each cake in half horizontally to make 2 even layers.
- Make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt; beat until smooth.
- Put 1 cake layer on a platter; spread 1 1/4 cups frosting on top. Repeat to make 4 layers, ending with the cake. Cover the top and sides with a thin layer of frosting (this is the “crumb coat”; it doesn’t have to be perfect). Chill 15 minutes, then cover with the remaining frosting.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 1335 |
| Total Fat | 73 g |
| Saturated Fat | 39 g |
| Carbohydrates | 164 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 128 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 242 mg |
| Sodium | 678 mg |
| Serving Size | 1 of 10 servings |
| Calories | 1335 |
| Total Fat | 73 g |
| Saturated Fat | 39 g |
| Carbohydrates | 164 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 128 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 242 mg |
| Sodium | 678 mg |
Reviews
Great Recipe!
This cake is amazing I recommend it to anyone even beginners! I didn’t have buttermilk so I mixed one cup of milk with one tablespoon of lemon juice and it turned out awesome!!! I ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ it!
I have made this two years in a row for my mom’s birthday. It is VERY easy to over bake, resulting in a dry cake. Set a timer for 20 minutes and then check it every 5 minutes. Take it out of the oven as soon as a tooth pick comes out clean. If it is still a little wet, no worries as the cake will continue to bake once out of the oven.
dry, no flavor
I made the cake – mostly as written. Used heaping TBL of cocoa – and skipped the RED color. Here’s what I think is the big deal… I baked the cake till done – which for me was 32 minutes. The cake was pulling apart from the sides, a toothpick inserted came out clean – and the cake rose fully. My cake too had a divot in the middle while baking – but when done was nicely rounded at the top of each cake. I think it may be dry for many reviewers as you may be over baking. I bet the minutes on this recipe should be reduced… Also – I didn’t like the frosting. It didn’t stand up and get somewhat firm it was way too creamy. I think this is because of the ratio’s of cream cheese to butter should be about 1 pckg cream cheese to 1 stick butter. Skip the lemon (!?!?) and use vanilla – same as ever…. Doing these things should result in a cake you are proud to serve.
My first red velvet cake. Was a surprise birthday cake for a friend. Rave reviews by all. Gave me thumbs up cause mouths were full. Thank you food network
I followed your directions step by step and you never indicated when to put in cocoa powder mixture. Then you start the recipe directing that we butter 2 pans and end the recipe stating we should have four layer. I came to this site because I don’t know how to bake and I wanted to bake a cake from scratch for my girlfriends birthday. Needless to say, I have to much frosting, not enough cakes and because I was not instructed to add in powder, it doesn’t taste or look right.
I thought this was an excellent recipe. My husband is very picky and even he loved it! We turned this into a green velvet Christmas tree cake and used Rick’s Buttercream frosting from all recipes. So delicious!
Excellent recipe. It is moist and very tasty. I added about one more spoon of cocoa powder, it worked very well. It has a nice chocolate flavor (not much and a subtle taste of milk… it is excellent. For the frosting I decided to use less butter, cream cheese, but I used white chocolate… very tasty.
I had no problems with this cake at all. It was moist and delicious!