Our Classic Red Velvet Cake Will Never Let You Down

Delish

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.

Transcript

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.

04:44 [music]

04:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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