The Best Red Velvet Cake

This incredible Red Velvet Cake is so delicious and very addictive, one piece is simply not enough. It is soft, rich and has a buttery and velvety melt-in-your-mouth texture. Red velvet is pretty much the queen of all layer cakes!

Most people assume red velvet is simply a chocolate cake made with red food color, but that is not the case. Though both types of cake contain cocoa, chocolate cake lacks that buttermilk and vinegar combination that is so important to red velvet.

The iconic flavor of red velvet cake is created when the cocoa reacts with the vinegar and buttermilk, and in turn keeps the cake moist, light, and fluffy. The two cakes have a similar cocoa taste, but red velvet is much more fine and delicately rich.

The Best Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups (350g) plain cake flour, sifted(or all purpose/plain flour)
• 1 ½ cups (300g) caster sugar (or fine white granulated sugar)
• ½ cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon (10g) unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon extra for dusting
• ¼ cup cooking oil
• 2largeeggs
• 2 ½ tablespoons(45ml) red food color (liquid, not gel)
• 1 tablespoon (20ml) white vinegar
• 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 14ounces(400g) cream cheese, at room temperature
• ½cup(120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2teaspoonspure vanilla extract
• 4cupsicing sugar

The Best Red Velvet Cake

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
2. Lightly grease two 8-inch cake pans with butter or cooking oil spray and lightly dust with 1 tablespoon of the sifted cocoa powder.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until light in color.
4. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and beating well after each addition to combine well.
5. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, remaining cocoa powder, red food coloring and vanilla until smooth.
6. Stir color mixture and vinegar through the creamed sugar mixture until well combined.
7. In a different bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
8. Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk to the wet ingredients and mix well. Then repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk.
9. Divide the batter evenly into the two prepared baking pans and bake for about 25- 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
10. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pans set on a wire rack. The cakes must be completely cool before frosting and assembling.

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. Beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla for about 4 minutes until smooth and lighter in color.
2. Beat in the icing sugar until frosting is light and fluffy, if frosting is too thin, add more icing sugar and beat again until it reaches your favorable consistency. Frosting should be soft, but not runny.

Assemble Cake:

1. Transfer 1 cake onto a serving dish/plate, flat-side down. Trim the top dome off of the cake to create a flat bottom later. Scoop about 1 ½  – 2 cups of frosting onto cake and spread evenly over the top.
2. Place second cake layer on top and use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
3. Crumble trimmed pieces of cake and sprinkle over to decorate.
4. Serve and Enjoy!