Red velvet cake

Red velvet is the celebration cake. You bring it to the table, someone cuts it and there's a little hush when the red appears.

There's more behind the colour than meets the eye. It has a little cocoa, homemade buttermilk and a final reaction of bicarbonate of soda and vinegar that gives it a fine, soft crumb. Hence the name: red velvet.

I make it in the Blaze mould, because its shapes look spectacular in red, but it turns out just as well in any of our 2.5-litre moulds.

Jump to the recipe

Why it has vinegar, twice

In the buttermilk. Milk with cider vinegar, which curdles in a few minutes. Its acidity makes the crumb more tender and helps keep the colour vivid.

At the end, with the bicarbonate of soda. Just before baking, you mix the bicarbonate of soda with a little vinegar. It fizzes instantly, and that foam, added to the batter, lightens it at the last moment. That's why the tin has to go into the oven straight away.

The recipe: Red velvet cake

• Prep: 20 to 25 minutes
• Baking: 45 to 50 minutes
• Rest before turning out: 10 minutes
• Serves: 12 to 16
• Tin: 2.5 litres (Blaze, Clásico or any 2.5 L mould) or two Tetrad moulds

Ingredients

For the homemade buttermilk

• 320 g whole milk
• 60 g cider vinegar (4 tbsp)

For the cake

• 400 g plain flour
• 25 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 g fine salt (½ tsp)
• 420 g caster sugar
• 300 g sunflower or corn oil (330 ml)
• 120 g beaten egg (2 large eggs)
• 8 g red food colouring powder (1 heaped tsp)
• 4 g vanilla bean paste (1 tsp)

For the final reaction

• 10 g bicarbonate of soda (2 tsp)
• 12 g cider vinegar (just under 1 tbsp)

For the tin

• Softened butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

Before you start

1. Oven and tin. Preheat the oven to 170 °C, top and bottom heat, no fan. Brush the whole inside of the tin with softened butter, getting into every groove, dust with the cocoa and tap out the excess upside down. With cocoa instead of flour, the red won't end up with a white film.
2. The buttermilk. Mix the milk with the 60 g of vinegar and leave it at room temperature while you get everything else ready. In about 10 minutes it will be curdled and slightly thick.

The batter

3. Sugar and oil. In a stand mixer, with the whisk or paddle, beat the sugar and oil for 5 minutes on medium speed, until well combined.
4. The egg, a little at a time. Add the beaten egg in three or four goes, waiting for each one to be absorbed before adding the next.
5. Colour and air. Add the food colouring and the vanilla paste. Beat on medium-high for 10 minutes: the mixture takes on air and the colour spreads evenly, with no streaks.
6. Dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternately. Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together. With the mixer on its lowest speed, add the flour in three batches and the buttermilk in two, starting and finishing with flour. Stop as soon as the dry streaks disappear.
7. The final reaction. In a small glass, combine the bicarbonate of soda with the 12 g of vinegar. It will fizz straight away. Add the foam to the batter immediately and fold it in with a spatula, without beating.

Baking

8. Into the oven, now. Pour the batter into the tin, which should be about three-quarters full. Tap it gently on the worktop a few times, with a tea towel underneath, so the batter fills the whole pattern and the bubbles rise. Bake at 170 °C for 45 to 50 minutes, until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
9. Ten minutes, then turn it out. Leave the tin on a wire rack for exactly 10 minutes. Put the rack on top, flip it firmly and lift off the tin. Let it cool completely before decorating.

Notes and tips

With gel food colouring. Use 5 to 7 g (between 1 and 1 ½ teaspoons) and add it at the same point, with the vanilla. It adds hardly any water, so nothing else needs changing.

With supermarket liquid food colouring. You'll need 15 g (1 tablespoon) for a deep red. As it contains a lot of water, take those 15 g off the milk for the buttermilk: use 305 g instead of 320 g.

Cream cheese frosting, optional. Beat 40 g softened butter with 100 g icing sugar. Add 120 g cold cream cheese and beat just until combined. Loosen it with 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk until it falls in a ribbon, and pour it over the cooled cake.

No food colouring. You'll get a soft cocoa cake, more brown than red. It's still delicious, but it's no longer red velvet.

Storage

• Without frosting, it keeps for 4 days at room temperature in an airtight container.
• With cream cheese frosting, always in the fridge and for up to 3 days. Take it out half an hour before serving so the crumb gets its texture back.
• To freeze, unfrosted and in slices wrapped in cling film, for up to 3 months.

Which tin to use

This recipe is designed for a 2.5-litre tin. I make it in the Blaze and the Clásico. It turns out just as well in the rest of our 2.5-litre moulds: Bloom, Flow, Plait, Twist, Gleam, Flare and Vortex.

As mini cakes. The full recipe fills two Tetrad moulds, with four cavities each. Fill them two-thirds full and start checking after 25 minutes.

In a smaller tin, only if you adjust the quantities. Made as written, the recipe would overflow the 2-litre Cascada and Amour and the 1.8-litre Espiral. To use them, multiply every ingredient by 0.8 for the 2-litre moulds and by 0.7 for the 1.8-litre one. Beat the eggs and weigh them: a large egg is about 55 grams out of its shell. And start checking the bake about 10 minutes earlier.

The rule that never fails, whatever the tin, is not to overfill it. In our guide to tin capacities and conversions you'll find the volume of each one and how to convert any recipe.

What I used

• The Blaze mould, 2.5 litres, in cast aluminium with a double non-stick coating.
• The set of baking trays with rack. The rack is where the cake spends its ten minutes before turning out, and where it cools afterwards, with air circulating underneath.
• An olive wood board or a teak board to bring it to the table and slice it in front of everyone.
• A pastry brush. If your tin has a few years behind it, have a look at how to look after the non-stick coating so it keeps releasing like the first day.

Frequently asked questions

Why does red velvet cake have vinegar in it? For two reasons. In the buttermilk, its acidity makes the crumb more tender. At the end, mixed with the bicarbonate of soda, it creates the foam that lightens the batter just before baking.

Can I use shop-bought buttermilk? Yes. Use 380 g buttermilk and skip the step of curdling the milk.

Which food colouring is best for red velvet? Powder or gel, because they give a deep red without adding water. Supermarket liquid colouring works too, but you need more of it and have to take the same amount off the milk.

Can I make mini red velvet cakes? Yes. The full recipe fills two Tetrad moulds two-thirds full. Start checking after 25 minutes.

Will it work in a 2-litre tin? Only if you adjust the quantities: multiply every ingredient by 0.8 and start checking 10 minutes earlier.