30 Decadent Red Velvet Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What makes red velvet cake taste so good? ›

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. Its uniqueness is a harmonious blend that sets it apart from other cakes.

The Best Cocoa for Red Velvet Cake Is Natural Cocoa

The results are an almost melt-in-your-mouth tender cake. Natural cocoa is also lighter in color, making the red velvet cake more vibrant. Natural cocoa also has the most chocolate flavor a cocoa powder can have because it is less processed.

When bakers added vinegar, baking soda, or buttermilk to their recipes to tenderize the cakes, the acid in those ingredients reacted with the cocoa, which was not Dutch-processed, to give the cakes a red tint. That color became a signature of velvet cakes.

To enhance a store-bought red velvet cake mix, replace the oil with melted butter, add an additional egg, and substitute milk for water. Introduce a box of chocolate instant pudding mix for increased moisture and flavor, and don't forget to add a splash of red food coloring for that classic red velvet look.

Unhealthiest: Carrot Cake

Carrot cake does contain healthy ingredients, such as carrots and nuts, but it is also loaded with fat and sugar. Depending on the size of the cake, your piece could be anywhere between 300-600 calories.

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 tastes wow if made at home without using any premix.

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

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.

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.

If you don't want to use vinegar, you can substitute an equal amount of lemon juice. If you want to skip the acidic liquid altogether, you can substitute a tablespoon of baking powder for each teaspoon of baking soda. Then add water equal to the amount of vinegar you omitted.

What's the difference between red velvet and devil's food cake? ›

The difference in these two cakes comes from the liquids that are used. Devil's food cake typically has coffee, sour cream, or water in the batter. While red velvet cake has tangier flavored liquids like buttermilk or vinegar.

Key Components. Bicarbonate of soda works by reacting to acid in the recipe – the rising comes from the mix of bicarbonate, buttermilk and vinegar. I always use a white vinegar for my red velvet cupcakes, but others can work such as apple cider vinegar.

Your cake is too dense A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought).

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.

Oil: As mentioned earlier, the use of vegetable oil in red velvet cake recipes helps to keep the cake moist. Unlike butter, which can solidify at normal room temperature, oil remains in liquid form, ensuring that the cake stays tender and moist even after baking.

Red velvet's distinctive flavor is not merely a trick of the senses that comes from dying chocolate red. No, in fact, red velvet batter contains a mixture of vanilla and a dash of cocoa, plus more vinegary tartness than you might find in a typical cake.

Red velvet cake may also have roots in black foodways and is sometimes considered to be soul food in the South. The color red is often used in Juneteenth celebrations to symbolize bloodshed in the fight against slavery.

Red Velvet Cake is flavored with non-Dutch processed cocoa, buttermilk, and vinegar. What makes this unique is that its red color is the result of a natural chemical reaction. The buttermilk and vinegar cause a reaction that brings out cocoa's anthocyanin. Anthocyanin ia a pigment found in cocoa beans and other plants.

The flavor of blue velvet cake is the same as a red velvet cake—fluffy vanilla cake with a hint of chocolate slathered in tangy cream cheese frosting. It is easy to make a blue velvet cake from scratch with a blend of cocoa powder, vinegar, buttermilk, and bright blue food coloring.