Life is too short to eat bad cake. And yet people keep insisting that they want red velvet.
The recipe
Yield: one 9×13 or 2-layer cake, about 16 servings
Time: 2 hours
Ingredients
Cake:
2 ¼ c (280 g) flour
1 ½ c (300 g) sugar
2 Tbsp (16 g) cocoa powder
1 tsp (8 g) salt
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 ¼ c (142 g) buttermilk
1 tsp white vinegar
4 large eggs
½ c (80 g) vegetable oil
4 Tbsp (57 g) salted butter
4 Tbsp (60 g) red liquid food coloring
Frosting:
8 oz (227 g) cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick (8 Tbsp or 113 g) salted butter, room temperature
3 c (276 g) powdered sugar
2 tsp (10 g) vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake:
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 13 cake pan and set aside.
2. Stir the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl until combined.
3. Add the buttermilk, vinegar, eggs, and vegetable oil. Stir until combined.
4. Melt the butter in the microwave. Add it to the cake batter and stir until combined. Stir in the red food coloring.
5. Mix vigorously for about a minute. The cake batter should be silky smooth and there should be no streaks remaining.
6. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few cooked crumbs clinging to it (or clean) and when you lightly press the center it springs back, 28-32 minutes.
7. If you haven’t taken your butter and cream cheese for the frosting out of the fridge, do it now.
8. Remove the cake from the oven and set on a pot holder or wire rack to cool.
Frosting:
1. When the cake is cooled fully and your butter and cream cheese are at very soft room temperature, make the frosting.
2. Stir the butter and cream cheese together vigorously until there are absolutely no lumps remaining and they are silky smooth.
3. Add the powdered sugar and stir briskly until it’s fully incorporated.
4. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Spread the frosting over the cake and enjoy! It will keep, covered, in the fridge for a few days. Let each slice come to room temperature before eating.
Notes and tips
For cake basics like knowing when it’s done and how to line a cake pan, check out my Guide to Better Cakes.
Red velvet goes from perfectly done to overbaked more quickly than other cakes, so keep a close eye on it and start checking early.
You need your butter and your cream cheese to be very soft when making the frosting or it will have lumps.
You can make this cake and frosting in the mixer. Use the paddle attachment and mix things on medium-low instead of stirring.
If you want to make a layer cake, use 1½ or double the amount of frosting so you have enough to put in the middle. For two 9-inch cakes, bake 23-28 minutes.
The story
People shouldn’t like red velvet so much. Most store-bought versions are bland, and even my beloved Duncan Hines box mix let me down. I baked it and it tasted like nothing. Why would anyone keep eating this stuff?
Maybe it’s just the idea of red velvet. It sounds fancy. It’s named after a fabric that brings to mind old movie theaters and Gilded Age decadence. Or maybe that red color just looks delicious. Psychological research actually suggests that we perceive red foods as tastier. It makes sense if you think about it—strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and cherries turn bright red when they’re sweet and ripe.
But I think it’s all about the cream cheese frosting. When I ask people about their favorite cake, the ones who don’t say chocolate get all starry-eyed about carrot cake. If someone serves carrot cake or red velvet at a wedding, the guests get so excited they leave room for dessert instead of loading up on bacon-wrapped dates. I don’t have this obsessive relationship to cream cheese frosting, but I would if I had been raised on grocery store stuff that tastes like thick, greasy shortening and too much powdered sugar. Compared to that, cream cheese frosting will win every time. Both because it’s legitimately good (sweet, tangy dairy paired with butter is a perfect combination) and it’s a reliable choice. Even if the bakery is a bad one, their cream cheese frosting usually turns out well.
But people should like red velvet cake for the cake. Red velvet was never meant to be boring; the original tasted a little buttery and a little chocolatey, with a shining note of tanginess from the buttermilk and vinegar cutting through. The cake should be so moist and so complex that the cream cheese frosting cannot steal the spotlight. Which is why I developed this recipe that delivers on it all. It’s not even difficult to bake; I’ve done it in a tiny New York apartment kitchen and my in-laws’ (who don’t own any baking equipment) with just a bowl, a spoon, and a pan. Which means you have no excuses. From now on, good cake should be the only cake you eat.
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