Red velvet: acid, bicarbonate and a frosting that holds
The word velvet refers not to the colour but to the texture: acidic buttermilk and vinegar weaken the gluten and, together with the bicarbonate, give an exceptionally tender, velvety crumb. Natural cocoa in an acidic batter gives at most a russet tinge — the vivid red comes from colouring. The frosting is cream cheese rather than buttercream — and there lies the one trap in this recipe: the cheese must be cold and thick, since warm or thin cheese turns the frosting into a running puddle.
Your own work in that: 2 h 20 min.
- Layers 60 min
- Cooling 60 min
- Frosting and assembly 80 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMix the batter
Heat the oven to 175 °C and line two tins with paper. In a large bowl whisk the oil, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla sugar and colouring until uniformly red. Separately combine the flour, cocoa and salt, then add them to the wet ingredients, mixing only until combined.
Ingredients: 320 g plain flour · 2 tbsp cocoa · 300 g sugar · 240 ml rapeseed oil · 240 ml buttermilk · 2 pcs eggs · 2 tbsp red food colouring · 2 tbsp vanilla sugar · 1 tsp salt
TipUse <b>gel</b> colouring, not liquid. Liquid needs three times as much for the same colour, and that quantity thins the batter and noticeably damages its structure.
Gel colouring, a uniformly red batterActivate the bicarbonate with vinegar
In a small bowl pour a tablespoon of vinegar onto the bicarbonate — it foams violently. Immediately tip the foaming mixture into the batter and fold five strokes. Don't wait: go straight on to baking.
Ingredients: 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tbsp cider vinegar
TipDon't mix the batter beyond what is necessary after this step. You would be knocking out the carbon dioxide you have just created, and that gas is what lifts the layers.
Bicarbonate and vinegar straight in, five strokesBake two layers
Divide the batter between two 20–22 cm tins and bake 30–35 minutes at 175 °C. A skewer should come out with moist crumbs. Cool in the tins 10 minutes, then on a rack until completely cold, ideally overnight.
Thirty minutes, then cooled fullyBeat the frosting from cold cheese
Beat the soft butter with the sifted icing sugar 3 minutes, until pale. Add the cold cream cheese straight from the fridge and beat only 60 seconds, at low speed, until combined. Season with lemon juice and a pinch of salt.
Ingredients: 500 g cream cheese · 150 g butter · 300 g icing sugar · 1 tsp lemon juice · 1 pinch salt
TipCream cheese <b>overbeaten turns runny and is hard to rescue</b>. So once the cheese is in, beat briefly and at low speed.
Cold cheese, sixty seconds, low speedSplit the layers and assemble
Slice the domed tops off the cakes and cut each horizontally in half — you get four layers. Sandwich them with 4 heaped tablespoons of frosting per layer. Crumble the trimmed tops: they go around the sides at the end, the classic red velvet finish.
Four thin layers, four spoons of frostingCoat and chill
Cover the cake with the remaining frosting, smoothing with a palette knife, and press red crumbs onto the sides. Refrigerate an hour for the frosting to set. Take it out 20 minutes before serving — cold cream cheese frosting is firm and muted.
Red crumbs on the sides, then an hour chilling
Before you start
Where the red came from
Non-alkalised cocoa in an acidic batter with bicarbonate takes on a russet, reddish tinge — probably the origin of the name and the association with red. Alkalised cocoa turns brown, and the intense red we know today comes from colouring.
Without colouring
Increase the cocoa to 4 tablespoons and leave the colouring out. The cake will be brown, but the velvety texture and faint tang remain unchanged — and those, not the colour, are what this cake actually is.
Frosting too thin
Three causes: the cheese was warm, too soft (a spreadable type), or overbeaten. The rescue: chill the frosting 30 minutes and beat 20 seconds more. If that fails, add 100 g of icing sugar.
How long it keeps
Three days in the fridge, covered. Cream cheese frosting is dairy, so the cake should not stand at room temperature for more than two hours.
