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Red Velvet Cake

This red velvet cake is super moist and delicious! It makes for the perfect birthday cake or party cake! It’s delicious with cream cheese frosting or buttercream frosting like my kids love to eat it.

My daughter requested this cake for her birthday and she keeps the recipe in her own personal recipe book. I made this cake a few years ago for a neighborhood cooking class but then I got sick and had to cancel teaching the group that week so all the cakes I had made went into my freezer and my kids loved having cake on hand!

This cake is pretty simple to make. The key to keeping it moist and delicious are two things, homemade buttermilk and pudding mix. the pudding has thickeners in it that help hold in the moisture and the homemade buttermilk is super easy to make. We do this by adding vinegar to the milk. It will thicken and curdle slightly and that helps keep the cake extra moist. It also helps with the chemical reaction that gave red velvet it’s name in the first place.

No dyes were used when this cake was first created but instead the “red” color was made from the vinegar, cocoa and baking powder making a chemical reaction that created a “red” color. Today almost everyone uses red food coloring to get that signature color but you don’t actually have to add the dye. If you don’t add it you will get a slightly brownish red tinged cake.

What you need to make red velvet cake:

makes 1 – 3 layer 8 inch cake

  • 1/2 cup salted butter – room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 package vanilla pudding
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon red food coloring – Add less if you don’t love red food coloring taste or more if a deeper red color is desired

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Grease and line your baking pans bottoms with parchment paper.
  3. In a small bowl, add milk and vinegar, stir together and set aside.
  4. In a mixing bowl, add butter, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and sugar until pale yellow.
  5. Add eggs and mix.
  6. In another bowl, add vanilla pudding, salt, baking powder and flour and stir together.
  7. Alternate the flour and milk mixture into the butter mixture until all ingredients are added then blend batter well.
  8. Add food coloring and add until it’s your desired red color.
  9. Pour into cake tins and bake for ~26-28 minutes, keep in mind that elevation will play a role in cook time. The higher the elevation the longer the time.
  10. When a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean, it’s done.
  11. Let cakes cool for about 5 minutes then run a knife around the sides of the cake then flip onto a plate then onto a cooking rack so the cake is right side up. If you flip the cake upside down it would crack because of the mound that forms on top.
  12. Trim the cake before stacking with the other layers.

Here are a few frosting recipes that will taste amazing with this cake:

Print Recipe
4.67 from 3 votes

Red Velvet Cake

Delicious and super moist red velvet cake that everyone will love!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time28 minutes
Course: cake, Dessert, treat
Cuisine: cake, Dessert, treat
Keyword: birthday, Cake, desserr, valentines
Servings: 1 3 tier; 8-9 inch round cake

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup salted butter – room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 package vanilla pudding
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon red food coloring – Add less if you don’t love red food coloring taste or more if a deeper red color is desired

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 F.
  • Grease and line your baking pans bottoms with parchment paper.
  • In a small bowl, add milk and vinegar, stir together and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, add butter, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and sugar until pale yellow.
  • Add eggs and mix.
  • In another bowl, add vanilla pudding, salt, baking powder and flour and stir together.
  • Alternate the flour and milk mixture into the butter mixture until all ingredients are added then blend batter well.
  • Add food coloring and add until it’s your desired red color.
  • Pour into cake tins and bake for ~26-28 minutes, keep in mind that elevation will play a role in cook time. The higher the elevation the longer the time.
  • When a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean, it’s done.
  • Let cakes cool for about 5 minutes then run a knife around the sides of the cake then flip onto a plate then onto a cooking rack so the cake is right side up. If you flip the cake upside down it would crack because of the mound that forms on top.
  • Trim the cake before stacking with the other layers.