Our Classic Red Velvet Cake Will Never Let You Down
With a rich chocolate flavor, a fluffy texture, and a tangy cream cheese frosting, classic red velvet cake is the Southern dessert that is made to impress.
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00:00 Hey, it's McKenzie in the Delish Kitchen studios, and I'm making a classic red velvet cake.
00:04 It has those iconic deep red layers of cake with a sweet cream cheese frosting.
00:10 First step for our red velvet cake is to mix together our dry ingredients.
00:13 We have flour, cocoa powder, some baking soda, and salt.
00:18 There is cocoa powder in a red velvet cake, but not enough to make it chocolatey, just
00:23 enough to react with the vinegar that we're going to add in later on.
00:27 Vinegar is also probably something you're not used to seeing in cakes, but the two react
00:31 together to make a cake really tender and really fluffy.
00:34 It's a really great combo.
00:36 Now we're on to the wet ingredients for our cake.
00:39 Cream together your butter and sugar, and beat that until it looks pale and fluffy.
00:44 Add your eggs one at a time, beating well after each one, and vanilla.
00:50 Once all the eggs and vanilla are incorporated, add in half of your dry ingredients, and mix
00:55 that just until there's a few dry streaks remaining.
01:00 Red velvet cake is all about acidic ingredients, and buttermilk is another one, and it also
01:04 adds a great little tangy flavor to the cake.
01:07 Then add your buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring.
01:12 Most of the time I like using a gel food coloring, just because it's more concentrated and gives
01:16 you a brighter color, but most people have a liquid-based red food coloring on hand,
01:21 so that's what this recipe is assuming you're using.
01:24 Once your food coloring's mixed in, you can add in the rest of your dry ingredients, and
01:28 mix that until well combined.
01:30 Now that your cake batter is made, you can line and grease your cake pans.
01:34 Cut out your parchment paper however you prefer.
01:36 I like to fold it to make a circle, but you can also trace it out with a pencil.
01:40 Then grease your cake pans with cooking spray on the sides and bottom, and add in your cut-out
01:43 parchment paper.
01:44 Then divide your cake batter evenly between each pan.
01:47 You can use a scale or eyeball it.
01:49 Our cakes are ready to go into the oven at 350 degrees, just for about 25 minutes, until
01:54 a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
01:56 Now it's time for the best part of a red velvet cake, the cream cheese frosting, which is
02:00 why I think most people love a red velvet cake.
02:03 In a large bowl, beat together your cream cheese and butter, just until nice and smooth.
02:08 Add your powdered sugar until there are no lumps.
02:13 Then add your vanilla and salt.
02:15 You're looking for a frosting that is just nice and creamy and smooth.
02:20 After you take your cakes out of the oven, let them cool down to room temperature completely,
02:24 and then you can run an offset spatula around the edge to loosen them and flip them out
02:27 onto a cooling rack.
02:29 Before we frost our cakes, we want to level off the tops of them so that we have nice,
02:33 even, flat layers.
02:35 That might seem, I don't know, a little bit tricky, but I have a very easy way of doing
02:38 it.
02:39 Place your knife on the side of your cake, and then very slowly, while you rotate your
02:43 cake, bring your knife in towards the center, and then the top will come off.
02:48 It's really important to keep your hand level and steady, and avoid sawing back and forth,
02:53 because that will cause uneven layers.
02:56 Don't toss the scraps after you cut off the tops of your cake.
02:59 We'll save them to decorate our cake with.
03:00 If you don't want to use them for decoration, you can always use them to snack on or make
03:03 cake pops with.
03:04 An easy little tip I like to use when frosting my cakes is, if you're frosting the cake on
03:09 top of the platter you want to serve it on, is to put strips of parchment down under your
03:14 cake.
03:15 That way, after you've frosted, you can remove the parchment, and you have a clean platter.
03:18 Place your first layer of cake down on top of your parchment, and then add some frosting
03:23 on top.
03:24 Spread into an even layer.
03:25 I like to use a small offset spatula when I'm frosting cakes.
03:28 I think it's just the easiest way to spread it out and get a smooth layer.
03:32 Then I also like a lot of frosting in the middle of my cake, so don't be shy with the
03:36 frosting on the inside layer.
03:39 Add your second layer of cake, and then frost the tops and sides.
03:42 To finish off our red velvet cake, I like to take the cake layers that we saved and
03:47 just crumble them into pieces and place it around the top border of the cake.
03:51 Kind of lets everyone know immediately, this is a red velvet cake instead of just another
03:55 vanilla or white frosted cake.
03:58 It's a great cake to make any time of the year.
04:01 I've had arguments over my friends, whether it's a Christmas cake or a Valentine's Day
04:04 cake, but obviously you can make it any time.
04:06 It's great for both.
04:09 Let's try our cake.
04:11 Mm.
04:13 Gosh, this cake is so good.
04:16 You have just those tall, fluffy, red layers with that tangy cream cheese frosting and
04:22 lots of it.
04:23 Gosh, it's incredible.
04:24 It's always a showstopper.
04:26 It's just so good.
04:27 It still have those chocolate notes coming through, even though there's just a little
04:30 bit of cocoa powder in it.
04:32 And this crumb topping, it is zero effort to do, and it's so easy, but it makes it look
04:37 so beautiful and like it came from a bakery.
04:39 I really hope you bake this cake at home, and for others just like it, stick around
04:42 here at delish.com.
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