50 of the Best Red Velvet Recipes! (2024)

FAQs

What makes red velvet taste better? ›

Just like in my Best Chocolate Cake recipe, this Red Velvet Cake uses hot coffee as a staple ingredient. If you don't have coffee, you can just use hot water. The coffee does help to enhance that hint of chocolate flavor, and the heat of the liquid helps to 'bloom' the cocoa, bringing out its full flavor.

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.

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 flavor is red velvet? While there are cocoa undertones, red velvet is not chocolate cake because it balances both chocolate and vanilla flavors. It contains cocoa but not the same quantity as traditional chocolate cake, resulting in a more subtle cocoa flavor and tanginess due to the buttermilk and vinegar.

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.

Many (including myself) have never known red velvet cake to go with anything other than cream cheese frosting — but discover this: ermine icing, aka "boiled frosting," is in fact the original pairing for the crimson cake. It's a cross between buttercream and whipped cream frosting, subtly sweet, and very, very buttery.

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

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.

What kind of chocolate is used for red velvet? ›

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.

The difference between Red Velvet Cake and other cakes are its ingredients and colors. No other layer cake uses buttermilk and vinegar in the recipe. When mixed with cocoa powder, the buttermilk and vinegar cause the chemical reaction that turns the cake red. The vinegar also helps preserve the cake's iconic color.

So oftentimes you'll see people use buttermilk or vinegar to lower the pH of red velvet cake. Acid also inhibits browning so if you have a batter with a lower pH and you add a little natural cocoa powder, you'll end up with a very tender, slightly reddish brown cake that melts in your mouth. THAT is red velvet.

Furthermore, the appeal of the Sachertorte, called the king of chocolate cake, is expressed through a striking modern design resembling a crown. This jewel of a dessert unique to Henri Charpentier is nostalgic yet innovative all at once, with its rich chocolate taste and refreshing apricot aroma.

The cocoa powder is used in less quantity and the taste develops by the mixing of vinegar and buttermilk with the cocoa powder. The recipe involves many ingredients in small quantity. The frosting- if used cream cheese is an expensive element in itself.

It's basically a rich, “velvety” (hence the name), dark-chocolate cake, and it tastes that way because it's made with cocoa powder and buttermilk. It's my favorite cake because it's rich and chocolatey, and very buttery and moist compared to plain chocolate cake. It just happens to look pretty, too!

While Chocolate Cake is made primarily with cocoa powder and sometimes melted chocolate, Red Velvet Cake is made with a small amount of cocoa powder, but is also known for its signature bright red color, which is usually achieved by adding red food coloring to the batter.

Red Velvet Cake also has a slightly tart and has a mild cocoa flavor, while Chocolate cake is creamy, buttery, and has a rich cocoa taste. Red Velvet Cake is smooth, light, soft, with a velvety crumb (hence, the “velvet” in Red Velvet Cake). Chocolate cake is soft and fluffy and has a solid crumb.

Red velvet cake tastes like very mild cocoa with a slightly tart edge. The cream cheese frosting is the most forward flavor. Perhaps even more important than the taste is the texture: smooth, soft, tender and light with creamy icing.