Easy Red Velvet Cake

This easy red velvet cake is fluffy, moist, topped with cream cheese frosting, and has the most beautiful red color. It has the perfect red velvet flavor that’s slightly tangy with a milk chocolate taste. Easy to make & oh so delicious – it’s the perfect red velvet cake recipe.

Red velvet cake has been on my baking to-do list for a long time. I wanted a red velvet cake recipe that’s moist with a soft cake crumb, the perfect red color, a delicious hint of cocoa, and the fluffiest cream cheese frosting. It’s a classic for good reason.

As much as I absolutely love red velvet – I didn’t want the hassle of making a layer cake though. Sometimes I can’t handle the potential stress of toppling cake layers. And sometimes I need enough cake that can serve a small army.

So for today’s easy red velvet cake recipe – we’re making a red velvet sheet cake. All the deliciousness with way less work. Ok – so now that I’ve admitted my aversion to layer cakes, let’s talk about this easy red velvet cake.

You know how much I love sharing my kitchen adventures on Instagram stories, and after sharing my homemade red velvet cake that I made last week, I got so many requests for the recipe, that my inbox almost exploded. I love to see you get excited about a cake like that! I can totally relate. So of course, I had to share the recipe.

I’m not even gonna tell you how many red velvet cake recipes I’ve tried in the past few months to get to the very best one, because then you’ll know how many cakes I ate, which is quite embarrassing.

This is my absolute favorite red velvet cake recipe!

This is a classic, old-fashioned 2-layer red velvet cake. It is so moist, it will melt in your mouth! And it’s frosted with the ultimate rich and creamy cream cheese frosting. It’s not just me who’s in love with this cake. Every single person I brought a piece to, said wow on the first bite.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (300g) caster sugar (or fine white granulated sugar)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon (10g) unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon extra for dusting
• 2 1/2 tablespoons (45ml) red food colouring (liquid, not gel)
• 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon (20ml) white vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups (350g) plain cake flour, sifted (or all purpose/plain flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (bi-carb soda)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk*

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 14 ounces (400g) cream cheese (not spreadable), at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners (or icing) sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional -- adds subtle hint of lemon)

Instructions

For Cake:

1. Heat oven to 350°F | 175°C. Lightly grease two 8-inch cake pans with butter or nonstick oil spray and lightly dust with 1 tablespoon of the sifted cocoa powder.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition to combine well.
3. In a smaller bowl, mix together oil, remaining cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla until smooth. Stir colour mixture and vinegar through the creamed sugar mixture to combine.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk to the wet ingredients; mix well. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk. 
5. Divide batter among the 2 prepared pans and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack completely.

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth lighter in colour (about 3-4 minutes). Beat in icing sugar until frosting is light and fluffy (if frosting is too thin, add more icing sugar and beat again until reaching your desired consistency).
2. Optional if using: mix in the lemon juice.

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 1/2 - 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 to decorate.
4. Enjoy!

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