50 of the Best Red Velvet Recipes! (2024)

FAQs

What is the best cocoa powder for red velvet cake? ›

The Best Cocoa for Red Velvet Cake Is Natural Cocoa

Natural cocoa is the best cocoa for red velvet cake for two reasons. With a higher acidity, natural cocoa works with the cake's baking soda and buttermilk to leaven the cake to a tight, tender crumb. The results are an almost melt-in-your-mouth tender cake.

We recommend gel food colouring, such as Sugarflair and Wilton, having tested both of these brands out in our kitchens with great results.

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!

This tang is commonly complemented in modern day red velvet cakes with a cream cheese frosting. However, if you're not a fan, I recommend trying red velvet with an ermine frosting! (New York Times was the only recipe I tested that uses ermine frosting.)

White Vinegar: It sounds like a strange ingredient in a cake, but it is essential in a red velvet cake. This recipe calls for baking soda to leaven the cake (make the cake rise). The small amount of added vinegar allows the soda to do its best work.

Since you added cocoa powder to the cake mix, the cake could turn out dry unless you add some extra moisture.

The trick to using our Red Velvet Color when baking cakes and cupcakes is to lower the pH. Some ways to do this is by substituting baking powder in place of baking soda, using a natural non-alkalized cocoa powder, adding more white vinegar or buttermilk to your red velvet recipe, to achieve a bright red color.

The red food colouring makes the cake batter prone to splitting, and turns everything it touches red; a couple of grams over on the cocoa powder and the cake goes brown instead of a rich red; the cream cheese frosting has a tendency to turn to gloop at the very last minute for no apparent reason; and the list goes on.

Chocolate cake is flavored with cocoa powder, chocolate chips, or melted chocolate. On the other hand, though red velvet cake has cocoa powder that gives it a slightly chocolatey flavor, the buttermilk and vinegar add a tart edge making it different between the two.

Many years ago, the red color came from the presence of vinegar and buttermilk reacting with the anthocyanins in traditional cocoa powder. But for most of the last few decades, the red color has been supplied by Red #40 dye, in part because cocoa powder used now is alkalized to neutralize its acidity.

What filling goes well with red velvet cake? ›

But the cocoa powder makes red velvet cake slightly chocolatey while still remaining light and fluffy. Because red velvet isn't quite as rich as chocolate cake, I would still pair it with a red wine, but something lighter than a merlot. Instead, I would pair red velvet cake with gamay or pinot noir.

The buttermilk and vinegar give the cake that tender, light, and fluffy texture. Red velvet cake is also usually paired with white cream-cheese frosting. The white contrast highlights the lush red color, while the tanginess of the cream cheese plays off the buttermilk so well.

My cake is very dense.

This could be because a/ the cake mixture hasn't had enough air beaten into it, b/ the eggs were added too quickly and curdled or c/ there's not enough raising agent.

Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder

It makes amazingly rich, dark, and tender cakes, fudgy, moist brownies and cookies, and incredibly luscious frosting.

While red velvet cake is technically a cocoa cake, there is a key difference between standard chocolate cake and red velvet cake. Chocolate cake recipes traditionally use Dutch-processed cocoa, while red velvet cake uses unprocessed cocoa, a more acidic ingredient that produces a deeper, more intense chocolate flavor.

Red Velvet Cake is a popular dish in the Southern United States. Although traditional recipes vary from modern ones, it's now typically made with a small amount of cocoa powder, buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring as staple ingredients.

Today, red velvet cake is made by combining cocoa powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and flour as well as buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring that gives the cake its iconic red tint. In a classic red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting is paired but the cake can be really be frosted with anything.