Red velvet has two versions and they are genuinely different cakes. One is a mildly cocoa-flavoured buttermilk cake whose colour came from a chemical reaction and a modest amount of dye. The other is a vanilla cake carrying two tablespoons of red gel colouring and just enough cocoa to justify the name. Most recipes online are the second one while telling the story of the first.
The recipe below is the second one, honestly labelled, and I’ll explain why I use it. But you should know what you’re choosing between.
The traditional route versus the modern one
The original cake leaned on a real reaction. Natural, non-alkalized cocoa is acidic and contains anthocyanins, which turn reddish in acid. Combine that with buttermilk and a teaspoon of vinegar and you get a cake with a genuine reddish-brown cast. Older recipes then added a little beet juice or a spoon of dye to push it further.
The catch is that most cocoa sold today is Dutch-process, meaning it’s been treated with alkali to mellow the flavour and darken the colour. Dutch-process cocoa cannot do the reaction at all. If you want the traditional cake you need natural cocoa specifically, and even then the result is a russet brown with a red hint, not the fire-engine red people expect from a photo.
The modern version stops pretending. It uses a small amount of cocoa for flavour, keeps the buttermilk and vinegar because they make a genuinely tender crumb, and gets the colour from gel food colouring. It’s less romantic and more reliable.
| Traditional (natural cocoa reaction) | Modern (colour-led) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cocoa | Natural, non-alkalized, 3–4 tbsp | Dutch or natural, 1 tbsp |
| Colour source | Acid reaction plus a little dye or beet | 2 tbsp red gel colouring |
| Actual colour | Russet brown, red under strong light | Bright, consistent red |
| Chocolate flavour | Noticeable, closer to a light chocolate cake | Faint, a background note |
| Reliability | Varies with cocoa brand and buttermilk acidity | Same result every time |
| Crumb | Slightly firmer, more cocoa solids | Very soft, oil-based, keeps 3 days |
I make the modern version, and here’s the honest reason: I’ve baked the traditional one four times with three brands of natural cocoa and got four different colours, one of them a sort of disappointed mauve. If the cake is going on a table for someone’s birthday, I want to know what colour it’ll be. If you’re baking for yourself and care more about cocoa flavour, the traditional route is the better cake to eat and the worse cake to photograph.
Either way, use gel colouring rather than the liquid supermarket kind. Two tablespoons of liquid dye adds enough water to slacken the batter and still gives a weaker colour than a teaspoon of gel. The recipe below lists 2 tablespoons because that’s what the standard liquid bottles need; with concentrated gel, start at 2 teaspoons and add until the batter looks a shade darker than you want the finished cake, since it lightens slightly in the oven.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour – spooned and leveled, not packed.
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar – for a balanced sweetness.
- 1 teaspoon baking soda – your main lift.
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder – just enough for that hint of chocolate.
- 1 teaspoon salt – to keep the flavors sharp.
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil – the secret to a tender, lasting crumb.
- 1 cup buttermilk – at room temperature for the best rise.
- 2 large eggs – room temperature.
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring – gel works best for a vivid shade.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract – pure if you have it.
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar – it reacts with the baking soda for extra lift.
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened – the heart of the frosting.
- 4 cups powdered sugar – sifted for a smooth finish.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F (175C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper so the layers release cleanly.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt until evenly combined and free of lumps.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, buttermilk, eggs, red food coloring, and vanilla until smooth and deeply colored.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir gently until just combined. Add the vinegar last and fold it in – you’ll see the batter lighten slightly.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Tap them on the counter a couple of times to release any large air bubbles.
- Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Avoid opening the oven too early.
- Cool the cakes in their pans for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then gradually add powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla until fluffy and spreadable.
- Frost the first layer, stack the second on top, and cover the whole cake. Smooth the sides or leave them rustic – both look gorgeous.
Cream cheese or ermine: the frosting argument
Cream cheese frosting is what nearly everyone expects on red velvet. Ermine, also called boiled milk or flour frosting, is what the cake was originally served with, and it has a small but loud group of defenders. I’ve made both on the same cake, cut into quarters, and the argument is more interesting than most people admit.
What each one actually is
Cream cheese frosting is 8 oz of softened cream cheese beaten smooth, then 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar worked in gradually with a splash of vanilla. About six minutes of work. The tang is what keeps a very sweet cake from turning cloying.
Ermine starts on the stove. You cook 1/4 cup of flour with 1 cup of milk into a thick paste, about the consistency of wallpaper paste, then cool it completely and beat it into 1 cup of softened butter with 1 cup of granulated sugar until the sugar dissolves and the whole thing turns silky. It’s noticeably less sweet, closer to whipped cream than to buttercream, and it holds a piped edge better in warm weather.
Which I’d actually make
Cream cheese, and it isn’t close for me. The cake itself is sweet and only faintly chocolatey, and it needs the acidity of cream cheese to give it a second flavour note. Ermine is smoother and more elegant, but on this particular cake it makes the whole slice taste like sweetened texture. On a cake with more going on, a proper chocolate layer for instance, ermine wins easily.
The one situation where I’d switch: a summer party, outdoors, above 30C. Cream cheese frosting starts weeping at about that point, and ermine holds. That’s a real difference, not a preference.
Two practical notes on cream cheese frosting, since it’s what most people will make. Use full-fat block cream cheese, never the spreadable tub kind, which contains extra water and produces a frosting that won’t thicken no matter how much sugar you add. And beat the cream cheese alone first, before any sugar goes in; sugar added to lumpy cream cheese sets the lumps permanently, and no amount of later beating removes them.
What red velvet actually tastes of
Vanilla, mostly. A whisper of cocoa. A slight tang from the buttermilk. That’s the honest answer, and it disappoints people who expect a chocolate cake.
What it really has going for it is texture, which is where the name earns itself. The oil, the buttermilk acidity and the baking soda give a crumb that’s genuinely velvety, fine and soft and slightly damp, quite different from the springier crumb of a butter cake. Slice it cold and you can see how tight the crumb is compared with a sponge.
If somebody at your table says it tastes like a vanilla cake wearing a costume, they’re not wrong, and I’d rather admit that than pretend otherwise. The cream cheese frosting is doing a lot of the work. That’s fine. Plenty of good cakes are frosting delivery systems.
Worth knowing before you commit two hours: this cake improves overnight. The colour deepens, the crumb settles, and the frosting firms into something that slices cleanly instead of smearing. I bake the layers one day, wrap them in cling film once cool, and frost the next morning. It’s also the only cake in my rotation that’s better cold from the fridge than at room temperature, which puts it in the same camp as New York cheesecake.
If you’ve got cream cheese frosting left over, and you will, it goes on carrot cake without any adjustment, and it keeps for five days in the fridge. For a layer cake with more actual chocolate to it, black forest cake is the better bake, and if you want something plain and buttery to serve alongside a rich slice, buttery shortbread cookies do the job with three ingredients.