The Most Delicious Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet cake... I don't know what it is about it that makes me want to make it and eat it all the time.Maybe the color,maybe the taste or maybe the fact that I just love baking.Combining the unique flavour of this cake with this amazing cream cheese frosting takes it to the next level.I baked this cake for New Year's Eve and now for a special occasion and I am telling you - both times everyone loved it (even people who don't really like cake)!

In this Instructable I will be telling you all my tips and tricks to bake the most delicious Red Velvet cake.

For the cake:

355 g all purpose flour

25 g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

150 ml buttermilk

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

365 g soft unsalted butter

400 g sugar

6 large eggs

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp baking soda

Red food coloring

For the frosting:

130 g soft unsalted butter

250 g cream cheese

750 g powdered sugar

Start by sifting your flour,cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.It's important to do this because there are clumps of flour and cocoa powder that will not go inside your cake.Do NOT skip this step - you would be surprized how much excess flour and cocoa there is.

After you have sifted them,go ahead and whisk them so that they are nicely combined.

Set your dry ingredients aside.

If you have buttermilk,go ahead and use that directly,but if you don't - here is how you make it.

For this recipe you need 150 ml of buttermilk.Take a cup where you can measure everything and add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.Go ahead and fill up the remaining with milk until you have 150 ml. Mix well and set aside for 5 minutes.I made my buttermilk at the very beginning.

Add the vanilla extract to the buttermilk and mix well.

If you are using gel food coloring add that to the vanilla buttermilk mixture.

Set the buttermilk aside.

Add your butter and sugar to a large bowl and mix very well for about 5-6 minutes.

If you don't have a stand mixer - that's totally fine.I used a hand mixer.

Next,add your eggs one at a time and beat for about 30-40 sec in between.

This allows the eggs to mix very nicely.

That's the order you should be following.Since the butter-sugar-egg mixture is basically fat,adding the dry ingredients first allows for the wet ingredients to mix better.If you add the wet ingredients first they won't absorb to the fat and your cake will end up being heavy and dense.

Take 1/3 of your dry mixture and add it to the butter.Start beating at a slow speed and increase later.Add half of the wet ingredients and repeat the beating process.

At this point I added my powdered food coloring and mixed it in.

I think the ingredient that gives Red Velvet cake its unique flavour is vinegar.

Take your vinegar and add in the baking soda.You have to do this step very quickly.

As soon as you start seeing the reaction,mix nicely and pour the mixture into the cake. Mix everything well and start preparing to bake.

I took some parchment paper and cut it to fit the bottom of my pan.I buttered the whole pan then put the paper at the bottom.

This recipe makes 3 cake layers each 9 inches in diameter.

To make my layers as even as possible.I first measured the weight of my bowl.Then I measured the batter with the bowl.Afterwards I extracted the weight of the bowl and got the weight of the cake batter.I divided it into three and baked each layer for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick came out clean.

To get even cakes and avoid the dome shape I used cake strips.It's basically a strip of fabric that I wet with cold water and put along the outside of my pans.

The reason you get dome shaped cakes is because the outside of your cakes bake faster than the center.That's also why we check out the center with a toothpick to know when the cake is ready.Putting the wet cake strips prevents the sides from baking faster and you get even layers.

While your cakes are baking prepare the frosting.

Start by beating the butter and add the cream cheese.Beat at a high speed for about 2 minutes.

Sift your powdered sugar and add half of it to the bowl.Beat slowly at first and then increase the speed.Add the remaining sugar and repeat.

In this recipe I used a bit more sugar since i will be stacking my cakes.Usually cream cheese frosting is quite thin and not that great for stacking.If you want to reduce the sugar - go ahead and do so,but you should know that the less sugar it has the thinner your frosting will be and therefore you won't be able to stack your cake.

I used a bread knife to level out any imperfections.I stacked the cakes on top of each other and cut a little bit from the sides as well.

Save your excess cakes for decorating.

I started stacking the cakes by putting a bit of frosting to the bottom so the first cake wouldn't move.

I put some frosting and spread it as evenly as possible with a pallete knife.If you have a cake turntable this process would be a lot easier.If not - just use the edge of your table and turn your base with your hand.

I smoothed out the sides with a pallete knife.If you have a bench scraper you can use that. I smoothed out the top by gently pulling the frosting inwards. I put the cake to chill in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes.

Remember when I told you to save your cake scraps? Well this is where we are going to use them.

Take a grate and crumble your cake scraps. Set aside and take out the chilled cake from the fridge.

Frost your cake with the remaining frosting and smooth out everything.

Take your crumbled cake and sprinkle it on top of your cake. I covered mine completely and added some to the bottom edges as well.

Clean up the cake board and you are good to go.I am sure everyone will be impressed by this cake if you end up making it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Instructable! I hope you give this recipe a try and if you do - feel free to share it here.