Red velvet cake that is incredibly delicious and has outstanding buttercream icing. a favorite as well as a family tradition. fantastic for holidays
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 5 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch layer cake |
Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ounces red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans. In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, chocolate pudding mix, cocoa powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup of butter with 1 1/2 cup of sugar with an electric mixer until creamy; beat the eggs in, one at a time, and beat until the mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, in several additions. Mix in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the red food color until the batter is uniformly colored. In a bowl, stir the baking soda with vinegar, and gently fold the foamy mixture gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean or with moist crumbs, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
- For frosting, place all-purpose flour in a saucepan, and gradually whisk milk into the flour, about 2 tablespoons at a time, until smoothly combined. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, whisking constantly until thickened and smooth; allow to cool completely. Beat 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of butter in a bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 1 minute, and gradually beat in the cooled milk mixture; add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat the frosting until fluffy and spreadable, 1 to 2 more minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 529 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 73 g |
| Cholesterol | 94 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Sodium | 635 mg |
| Sugars | 50 g |
| Fat | 25 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very good cake but prefer cream cheese frosting over the buttercream.
I think if you added chocolate and some black frosting it would look like magma
This was the best red velvet cake!!!! Everyone loves it!! Even the people who said they didn’t like red velvet changes there mind after a piece of this!!!
So first of all, the actual cake is very good. Easy to make. Not the most moist I’ve ever had but it was moist enough and everyone liked. I will make this cake again. The reason I gave this recipe only 3 stars is because the frosting is gross! It tastes like vanilla extract flavored sugar. Out of 11 people only one person liked the frosting. I followed the recipe exactly; did everything exactly. First of all its runny. I had to put it in the fridge for over an hour to get it firm enough to frost the cake. Then I had to put the cake back in the fridge immediately to keep frosting from loosening up again. It’s gritty due to the sugar and tastes like vanilla extract. I will not ever make this frosting again. Cake-most definitely. Frosting-NO! I honestly don’t know how some of these people who commented actually liked the frosting!
Very moist and fluffy, but – perhaps because of the german products I had to use – there was nothing with “red velvet” and the frosting coagulated twice (i tried it again after wasting the first try). Will try it again a bit modificated due to german products.
i found it to be somewhat dry and rubbery around the edges. also too flat. the frosting was very good.
Made this cake 2 times this week. The first time did not turn out very good. I did not have pudding so I added extra cocoa.BIG MISTAKE, it was very dry, then as an afterthought maybe I could have used some mayonaisse to make it moist. second time was MUCH better. I followed the recipe for the cake to the T. and it came out perfect. not as red as I thought a red velvet cake should have been. Next time I will try paste or gel color.
Awesome recipe. First time making a red velvet cake and will keep this recipe for years to come! Be sure to use cake flour if at all possible – you won’t regret it.
I made this for my son’s birthday cake, he specifically requested a Red Velvet cake with a Mario Bros. theme so that’s what we did! I didn’t have buttermilk so I made some sour milk (1 Tbsp. vinegar and the remaining amount of 1 cup filled with regular milk, stirred together and let it sour and thicken for a few minutes) and that worked just fine. I also didn’t have regular chocolate pudding mix, but I did have the no sugar added instant pudding mix and used it. It worked out great for me. I doubled the vanilla, used HEAPING tablespoons of cocoa powder, used parchment paper on the bottom of the pans in addition to the grease and flour on the sides, used little jar of gel type food coloring instead of the liquid, cooked it for only about 25 minutes at 335 degrees and used my own cream cheese frosting recipe. All together it came out WONDERFULLY! Everyone LOVED it and even one of the people that didn’t like red velvet cake commented on how good it was! I tried making 2 different red velvet recipes to have a dense layer for the bottom and lighter top layers, but the other recipe was a flop so I had to make a second batch of this recipe and both times it came out great. This is getting added to my “Tried, Tested and Great” recipe binder!
Excellent and easy red velvet recipe – I had to go with what I had on hand, so I had to use sifted all purpose flour instead of cake flour (you can also use some cornstarch in all purpose as substitute, but I didn’t have any of that either). Used only 1 oz food coloring. As a sub for buttermilk I used 1 cup regular milk mixed w/ 1 tablespoon white vinegar (usually you would use 1 T vinegar w/ enough milk to make a cup, but with cutting out some food coloring I did it this way). I also used nearly 3 tablespoons cocoa. Since I was baking in dark, non-stick pans I reduced oven temp to 340 and they were perfect in 27 minutes. For frosting I stuck with a cream cheese – 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1-3/4 cups confect. sugar – it was perfect – not too sweet! Even with all my subs this is a real hit!
The cake was moist and tasted amazing. The only issue I had was the cake was really dense. I have never made red velvet cake before so maybe this is how it was suppose to be. I can’t judge the icing as I used another one from this site.
Only 4 stars because I used a different frosting instead of the one in the recipe. The cake was perfect.
I had a velvet cake recipe years ago that I truly loved. I lost it and could never find another just like it.This cake is amazing!. I used 2-8inch pans because red velvet cake does not rise very much.I also had to increase my baking time,but DO NOT overbake. But again, it was fantastic.I just returned from a cook out and it was “the hit”.so very moist. I used another recipe for the frosting though. I use a “smooth buttercream” recipe. I am making another tomorrow.Thank you so much for sharing. :}
I am giving this only two stars because the buttercream frosting is decidedly lacking – it is overly sweet and leaves a waxy aftertaste on the tongue.
it tasted fine, but lacked flavour and tasted more like a chocolate pudding cake then the fluffy sweetness one expects from a red velvet cake. I won’t be using this recipe again.
This is the most moist caake very good. made it at Christmas making it again for another family get together
Loved how moist it was!!! Very good buttercream but might use a little less vanilla next time. Otherwise it was all perfect!
i have searched for the recipe for red velvet cake that would accually taste like chocolate, and be moist also. I must say I was plesantly surprised! this is absolutely the best recipe for red velvet cake I have ever tried. As a testiment to this cake, I made it and wrapped a large slice for my husband who drives trucks for a living. he said the cake was so good that he licked the aluminum foil it was wrapped in! very funny when he told it to me. The only thing i did different was, I used cream cheese frosing instead of the buttercream.
I had decided to make this cake before the first review was written. I based my decision mostly on the fact that the cake contained pudding so I knew it wouldn’t be dry. The cake was just ok. I only had 1 ounce of red food coloring but the cake was plenty red. I probably should have added 1 ounce of water to replace the missing food coloring but I didn’t think about it until it was too late. The batter was very thick and when cooked the layers were pretty flat. The icing was not to my liking. My kids thought the buttercream tasted funny and in general the cake lacked flavor. I will not be making this cake again 🙁
This was my first time making red velvet cake (a birthday request from my 14 yr old son). The cake was awesome. It came out perfect! It was so MOIST with great flavor. The entire family loved it. Cake was gone by morning! Will definitely make this one again. The only change I made was I added white chocolate to the frosting. Delicious!