“Easy, moist red velvet cake recipe full of Southern charm with a secret ingredient! Frosted with Cream Cheese frosting!”
Watch me make this Easy, Moist Red Velvet Cake from start to finish!
There is something so elegant about a red velvet cake. Maybe it’s the name or that beautiful, bold red color. Or maybe it’s the delicate crumb and lightly chocolatey sweet taste mellow with a tad bit of tang from the buttermilk.
Whatever it is, I’m totally present for all this RED VELVET!!!
I’ve been getting a lot of requests for red velvet cake. Being from the south my recipe options were endless. I swear everybody in my family has their way of making red velvet cake and to them, it is the best!!
Hooooowever, I still knew that the perfect red velvet cake was still out there somewhere.
I have been on the search for the best homemade red velvet cake recipe for a while now actually. I wanted one that was easy, super moist, melt-in-your mouth soft with that signature light chocolatey buttermilk red velvet flavor.
I’ve tried a few recipes that were…OK. Nothing that really blew my heels off though. Until I played around with merging three recipes (God I love chemistry when it cooperates) and out came THE MASTERPIECE!!! Or at least we think so in my house!
This red velvet cake recipe is SUPERB!!!! And it passes the stick to the back of the fork test like a champ!
Adding a bit of coffee to the batter isn’t “traditional” for red velvet cakes but it adds another layer of flavor and really hypes up the chocolatey taste to perfection. Not to mention the extra liquid makes this cake do doggone soft so don’t skip it!
Even if you have to run to Mickey D’s or the gas station to get a cup of coffee! I prefer a flavored coffee. When I make this cake for people I always use vanilla biscotti or chocolate flavored coffee. But plain will do just fine too.
Oh and don’t worry, you can’t taste the coffee.
Helpful Red Velvet Cake Supplies
LOOKING FOR RED VELVET CUPCAKES? Check them out here!
The cream cheese frosting that goes with this red velvet cake is….how can I say this…. THE BOMB!!! It’s silky smooth, light, and sweet but not so sweet that it overpowers the cake like some cream cheese frosting tend to do, you know what I’m saying?
I hope that you guys enjoy this red velvet cake as much as I do. Lord knows I didn’t want to make this cake AGAIN this week…but I have to give my readers what they demand…..and now I have all this cake…. that I have to eat all by myself…..*sigh* oh well….life is tough like that sometimes.
Watch me make this Best Red Velvet Cake Recipe from start to finish!
The Recipe
The BEST Red Velvet Cake Recipe. Easy. Moist. Homemade
By Divas Can Cook
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened, cocoa powder
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil or canola
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-2 oz. red food coloring, more or less depending on how deep you want the color
- ½ cup plain hot coffee, prepared (don't skip this ingredient)
- 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F.
- Generously grease and flour (2) 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the sugar and vegetable oil.
- Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla
and red food coloring until combined. - Stir in the coffee and white vinegar.
- Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing after each addition, just until combined. (Batter will be thin)
- Pour the batter evenly into each pan.
- Bake in the middle rack for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Do not over bake as the cake will continue to cook as it cools.
- Let pans cool on a cooling rack until the pans are warm to the touch.
- Slide a knife or offset spatula around the inside of the pans to loosen the cake from the pan.
- Gently remove the cakes from the pan and let them finish cooling. (The warm cake will be very delicate)
- Frost the cake with cream cheese frosting when the cakes have cooled completely.
Notes
~TIPS~
Be sure to not overbake! Check the cake at 30 minutes as some ovens run really hot.
Cakes are really moist and you may need to refrigerate them to firm them up before stacking and frosting.
To bake cupcakes, bake for 18-20 minutes, checking at the 18-minute mark.
I have been making this cake for several years now and it is the best cake I have ever had. When I share it with friends, they can’t believe how good it is. Best tip is Do No Overbake. It is so moist that I cook it the day before, cool, wrap in plastic wrap and then frost the next day. The cream cheese frosting is terrific, I won’t use any other recipe. I have been baking since I was 12 years old and am now 67 so I had my share of pies and cakes and believe me, this cake is stellar.
The cupcakes turned out brown and they didn’t come out of the cupcake wrapper easily at all. The batter was far too wet! They taste great, but they sunk in the middle and look hideous.
I was looking for a different red velvet cake to match ingredients I had at home and found this. My regular recipe is more dense. This was fluffy and extremely moist. Delicious! Now I’m torn! Saving recipe so I can have a choice when I’m baking my favorite cake. I did not make cream cheese icing – I prefer a cooked icing for my red velvet cakes.
Omg made this cake at the weekend and its simply amazing!!! Melts, moist, delicious… eat me more type of cake! Thank you
On this midwestern snow day, decided to make your recipe after many online fails, and not to mention paying for a baking book with a RVC recipe that needed tweaks. Anyway, the texture, feels like I am biting into a cloud, the moisture level is off the charts! Thank you for sharing your delicious expertise.