by Jennifer Appel
from The Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook
(Simon & Schuster, 2001)
Serves 10 to 12
“What is a red velvet cake?” is the question. The answer: “A yellow cake with a hint of cocoa, dyed a deep beautiful red.” Some of you may know red velvet cake as the armadillo cake from the movie Steel Magnolias; others may know it as the best cake they’ve ever tasted! Buttercup staffers describe the icing as somewhere between buttercream and whipped cream. Long beating makes it light and fluffy, and its not-too-sweet flavor makes it a perfect mate for red velvet cake. Read about the search for the origins of red velvet cake.—Jennifer Appel
convert Ingredients
For the red velvet cake
1/4 cup red food coloring
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Red Velvet Icing (recipe below)
For the red velvet icing
2 cups milk
3/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 pound unsalted butter, cold
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
Make the red velvet cake
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and lightly flour three 9- x 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together until well combined the food coloring, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Add in the salt. Beat in the cocoa mixture until thoroughly incorporated. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter at the end, making sure to mix well.
4. Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Let cake cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
Make the red velvet icing icing
1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk to combine the milk and flour. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until smooth and thick (anywhere from 12 to 18 minutes). Let the mixture cool for at least 50 minutes. When cool, remove the “skin” that has formed at the top and discard.
2. While mixture is cooling, on the medium-high speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until quite fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add in the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly. Incorporate the cooled milk mixture in thirds, beating well after each addition.
3. When cake has cooled, ice between the layers, then ice top and sides of cake with red velvet icing.
Recipe © 2001 Jennifer Appel. All rights reserved.


This cake is so good and it always impresses people when the white frosted cake is cut to reveal the bright red color inside.
Thanks, Erin!
Delicious. Even my son-in-law loved it, and he is so picky.
Kudos for you, LM, for making a believer out of your son-in-law.
The best! This has become the most requested cake in our house, especially for birthdays. It’s very special and never fails, even at our high altitude.
S.H. that’s wonderful to hear. Thanks for the high-altitude nod.
I haven’t tried this yet, but it is most like the recipe my aunt used to make. It has the right frosting recipe. Most recipes I see have a cream cheese frosting recipe–not right.
Rhonda, I hope you make it, and when you so, please let us know how it turns out.
My mother has faithfully made this cake for me every year, since my first birthday. I am now 46 years old and she has never missed a year! She also makes it for my children’s birthdays—they are 22 and 24. Her recipe is a clipping from a news paper prior to 1964 and it is called Waldorf-Astoria Cake. The recipe tells the story of purchasing the recipe from the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The recipe is similar to this one, but it calls for the icing to be made with crisco—sounds gross, I know, but it is delicious and perfectly white. The other difference is that mom cools the milk and flour mixture in the freezer. When she makes the icing she always makes 1 1/2 recipe, so she has plenty for the cake and plenty for “licking the bowl.”
The cake is our families favorite.
Hollie, such a tradition. Well, I don’t know when your birthday is, but here’s to red velvet wishes.
What a wonderful recipe! As SH remarked, it works GREAT at high altitude! I used 1 1/4 cups sugar because my family prefers desserts that are less sweet than required in recipes and this cake still turned out beautifully. I started to bake early this morning and was dismayed to discover that I didn’t have enough cake flour! I found a substitute that produced the same results: for every cup of cake flour, use 3/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch. THANKS for such a great recipe!
Thanks for such an enthusiastic response, Christine! Always lovely to hear that recipes can withstand a little Macgyvering…
Make this cake last night and some of us already tried bits and pieces of it as we sculpted it into an Eeyore. The taste was fantastic, not too sweet, very moist. We used a different icing so that the fondant would stick well to it. Tonight we will be enjoying it for my daughter’s birthday!
Yum, Sofia. Can I come over? Red Velvet is my absolute favorite cake of all time. Pretty please?
Beth
Beth, I wish I would have seen your comment earlier, but we still have Eeyore’s butt to finish off! So feel free to come over, plus we have an open-door policy anyways.
Thanks for your wonderful site and articles!
Can Dutch process cocoa be used for this recipe?
And how about regular white vinegar?
Thanks!
Hi Sara, it’s fine to use Dutch process cocoa in this recipe. The apple cider or red wine vinegar will be a bit sweeter than regular white vinegar but I’m curious to see if you can really tell the difference in the finished product. Please report back and let us know.