Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

🧂 Ingredients

• 3 cups cake flour
• 2 tablespoon cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter

  (1 stick, room temperature)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs

  (room temperature)
• red food coloring

  (liquid or gel)
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 16 oz cream cheese

  (room temperature)
• ½ cup butter

  (1 stick, room temperature)
• 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2-4 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

Instructions

• 1 Preheat your oven to 350°F (175 °C) and grease and flour your cake pans. I used
  3 8-inch cake pans.
• 2 In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, sift or whisk together
  the dry ingredients (cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) to combine
  so that the cocoa is evenly distributed throughout the flour.
• 3 In a separate large mixing bowl beat the softened butter until creamy, smooth,
  and light in color. Add the sugar and cream together with your butter until you
  have a crumbled texture and the butter and sugar are evenly distributed.
• 4 Add vegetable oil to the creamed butter and sugar and combine until fairly
  smooth (with a few small lumps is OK). Next, add the vanilla extract and eggs,
  then combine until smooth again.
• 5 Once the wet ingredients are fully combined, add the red food coloring and
  distilled white vinegar, then blend again until smooth. *Use as much food
  coloring as needed to achieve your desired depth of red color in the cake - I
  used 2 tablespoons of liquid food coloring in the video demonstration. Gel food
  coloring works best.
• 6 Mix in the buttermilk until smooth then make a well in the mixing bowl of dry
  ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and mix to combine until
  your red velvet cake batter is smooth.
• 7 Transfer the batter to your prepared cake pans and bake at 350°F (175 °C) for
  25-30 minutes. Remove the cakes from your oven when an inserted toothpick or
  cake tester comes out clean from the center of the cakes. *They should spring
  back to the touch as well.
• 8 Place your baked cakes on a wire cooling rack and allow them to cool slightly in
  the pans for 5 minutes before removing them to cool completely.
• 9 Cream together the 2 bricks of softened cream cheese with the 1 stick of
  softened butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and mix until well
  distributed.
• 10 Next, mix in the confectioners' sugar, then start adding heavy cream, a drizzle
  at a time, until you reach your desired frosting consistency. Your frosting can
  be a bit softer if you plan on simply spreading it on your cake, or make it a
  bit more firm if you would like to pipe your frosting.
• 11 Level your cake layers out before assembling your layer cake. Reserve the
  trimmed cake pieces for decorating.
• 12 Layer the cake with cream cheese frosting filling, then frost the sides and top
  of the cake. Pipe a border and decorate with red velvet crumbs reserved from
  trimming your cakes if desired.

Nutrition Info