This easy red velvet cake is fluffy, moist, topped with cream cheese frosting, and has the most beautiful red color. It has the perfect red velvet flavor that’s slightly tangy with a milk chocolate taste. Easy to make & oh so delicious – it’s the perfect red velvet cake recipe. 
Red velvet cake has been on my baking to-do list for a long time. I wanted a red velvet cake recipe that’s moist with a soft cake crumb, the perfect red color, a delicious hint of cocoa, and the fluffiest cream cheese frosting. It’s a classic for good reason.
As much as I absolutely love red velvet – I didn’t want the hassle of making a layer cake though. Sometimes I can’t handle the potential stress of toppling cake layers. And sometimes I need enough cake that can serve a small army.
So for today’s easy red velvet cake recipe – we’re making a red velvet sheet cake. All the deliciousness with way less work. Ok – so now that I’ve admitted my aversion to layer cakes, let’s talk about this easy red velvet cake.
The Perfect, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe
First, there’s a few key ingredients:
- Butter & oil. Butter adds flavor and oil makes the crumb extra moist.
- Cake flour. It gives the lightest, most delicate cake crumb. If you don’t have cake flour you can use a combination of cornstarch & all-purpose flour (see recipe notes), but I find cake flour works the best.
- Buttermilk. It creates a soft, deliciously moist cake that’s synonymous with red velvet. It also adds a slight tanginess to the flavor that’s key.
- Finally, vinegar. At the very end, we mix vinegar into the cake batter. Vinegar reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise. It also helps to bring out the red color of the cake when it reacts with the cocoa powder, and it adds just enough acidity to give the cake it’s classic red velvet flavor.
Make sure your butter, eggs and buttermilk are at room temperature before getting started so you don’t have to over mix your cake batter. Over mixing cake batter can cause your cake to get tough and dry instead of moist and tender. 
The amount of red food coloring you use in this recipe is a little up to you. For these photos I used 2 ½ tablespoons for the perfect color. But you can play around with the amount if you prefer a little less or a little more. Gel or liquid food coloring will both work too.
Cream Cheese Frosting for Red Velvet Cake
After the cake is done baking, it’s time for our cream cheese frosting. Seriously – could there be anything better?
For today’s cream cheese frosting, you only need a few simple ingredients: butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, salt, powdered sugar, and maybe a little whipping cream. Make sure you use full-fat brick cream cheese instead of lite cream cheese or spreadable. Both of those kinds of cream cheese are too thin for making frosting with. You can also play around a little with the amount of powdered sugar depending on how sweet you like it too.
Then frost your cooled cake, and optionally decorate with sprinkles. If you want to learn even more tips about making cream cheese frosting – you can also check out my full guide to making it here.
Make Ahead Tips for Red Velvet Cake
The red velvet cake can be made the day before. Cool fully, then cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 day. Then I recommend making the frosting the day you plan to serve the cake.
Unfrosted cake can be frozen. Simply cool the cake after baking, wrap tightly and freeze. Then thaw overnight in the fridge, and forst it when you’re ready to serve.
This easy red velvet cake has the perfect red velvet flavor, deliciously moist and tender cake crumb, and tangy cream cheese frosting. You’ll love how simple the recipe is – and will quickly become your favorite red velvet recipe.
More red velvet desserts:
Easy Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cake
- 2 ⅔ cups cake flour*
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 2 ½ tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese** softened
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1-2 tablespoons cream as needed
Instructions
Red Velvet Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- Grease and lightly flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Whisk gently to combine
- In a separate large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in the oil, followed by the eggs, vanilla extract & red food coloring.
- Beat in the flour mixture into the butter mixture about ⅓ at a time, alternating with about ⅓ of the buttermilk. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Beat in the vinegar.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl beat the butter until soft.
- Beat in the cream cheese.
- Add in the vanilla extract and salt.
- Mix in the powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time until the desired sweetness is reached. If the frosting seems too thick or sweet, mix in a little cream 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Frost the cooled cake, and optionally decorate with sprinkles.
Can I add chocolate chips?
Definitely. I’d use 1 cup of chocolate chips for a 9×13 inch pan.
I’ve made this cake twice now and 30 minutes is not nearly enough time for it to get done. I’m going to keep experimenting adding 5 minutes at a time to the baking time. The icing was delicious. The recipe calls for three cups of sugar but I used two. Next time I’m considering doubling the frosting. I think it will make a good ratio of frosting to cake
Can I add chocolate chips?
Hi Fiona, please what can I use as substitute for buttermilk, it’s hard to get it here in Nigeria. Thank you
For 1 cup buttermilk, you can mix together 1 tablespoon of white vinegar with 1 cup of milk (I usually use 1 or 2%). Give it a stir and let it sit for about 5 minutes before adding it to the batter. Instead of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice works too.
Very pleased with this recipe! Delicious cake. I followed your recipe exactly except for the good coloring so mine was brown 🙂 I’ll grab some natural food dye the next time I make it
My husband wanted red velvet cake for his birthday this week. I had never made red velvet cake before so I searched online and I made your recipe. It was easy and both cake and frosting are very yummy!! He said it was the best cake I ever made!
Made it with the 1-1 gluten free flour. No other changes to the recipe. Came out divine! No one can tell it’s gluten free.
thank you for this great recipe! I made it as tonight’s dessert at the private lodge where I am pastry chef. I upped the amounts to provide 80 servings. I just had to bake a few cupcakes from the batter so I could do a test taste first 🙂
Excellent!
I’m making the red velvet cake using all purpose flour. How much cornstarch should I add? Thank you
Hi Revonda, If you don’t have cake flour, measure 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour. Remove ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, then add in ½ cornstarch. Sift the mixture together 3 times.
I want to try this but am confused on how to alter the flour (I must use all purpose gluten free flour). The recipe note reads:
*If you don’t have cake flour, measure 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour. Remove ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, then add in ½ cornstarch. Sift the mixture together 3 times.
What is the measurement on the corn starch? Is it 1/2 of a cup, or half of the 1/3 that was removed. Or does it mean remove 1/3 c of flour, then mix in enough cornstarch to get it back to 1/2 cup….Sorry, just not sure what to do. Thanks CP
Hi Cathy,
Thank you for bringing that error to my attention. It should be 1/2 cup cornstarch. I’ve updated the recipe now. Apologies for the confusion!