Best Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream

This is probably the best red velvet cake you will ever taste. Moist, light and fluffy with just the right amount of acidity and hint of chocolate. A simple butter-based recipe that’s surprisingly easy to mix in less than 10 minutes. Frost it with cream cheese for a classic red velvet affair or try my exotic homemade Italian meringue buttercream that takes this cake to a whole new level. 

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

This week I had three red velvet cake orders. Was weird because they were all from different people and not very common for me. I mean I don’t do so many orders in a week and I’ve not had a red velvet cake order in over a year and then suddenly three in the same week. That is weird, right?  Is there a red velvet cake week? 

Ah well, one cake was a 30th birthday celebration and she asked to add a touch more of chocolate so I actually frosted that with chocolate ganache. Yeah, never did that before red velvet with chocolate. But she said she loved it.  The second was a grandmother and said she wanted not to add the vinegar so I made her the other moist red velvet cake which is oil based without any vinegar. The third said she wanted the classic red velvet with no adjustments made. So I thought I’ll share the recipe with you. So I made a little one to share the recipe with you.  I also made a few of my red velvet cupcakes this week for the kids.

About this cake

This is a deliciously light and airy cake. Not to be mistaken for classic chocolate or vanilla cake dyed in red. The vinegar added just before baking combines with the leavening in the cake batter bubbling to make a lighter and fluffy cake texture. The resulting cake ends up being so light you can enjoy it on its own without frosting. 

Frost it with cream cheese frosting for a light and indulgent dessert or dress it as I have with meringue buttercream. I have used Italian meringue buttercream today but Swiss meringue would work just as well. 

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Useful Tips and Tools

• If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because often we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this cake go ahead and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet.You don’t have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer works great too.
• Having said that, a simple Bowl, whisk and Spatula with a little extra effort will do the trick too.
• Personally, I believe in weighing ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scaleone of the most valuable items when baking.
• The same goes for mymeasuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
• I think one set of baking pans is a must for anyone a home baker. Personally, I like to bake three layers rather than torte my cakes and it bakes faster too. For most of my layer cake recipes on this blog I use 3 x 6-inch round pans or 2 x 8-inch round pans.
• Once baked always invert your cakes on a cooling rack. This encourages air circulation and prevents the steam from pooling at the bottom of the pan.
• Every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In the case of cakes, a skewer inserted in the center is a great indication. If the cake bakes too quick or too slow compared to the time given it might be a good idea to check if your oven needs calibration. An oven thermometer is a great little gadget to help keep the oven temperature in check. All you need to do then is adjust the temperature accordingly

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Recipe – Best Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream Recipe (Save/Pin)

Ingredients

For the cake

• 90 grams Unsalted Butter
• 190 grams All-purpose flour
• 2 tsp Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Vinegar
• 2 large Eggs
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 200 grams White Sugar
• 120 ml Milk 
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 30 ml water
• 2 tsp red food color or few 1/2 tsp red gel food color 

For the filling and frosting

• 4 cups Italian Meringue Buttercream
• 30 ml Sugar Syrup

Method

Prepare

• Preheat the oven to 160 °C/ 320 °F 
• Grease and line two 6-inch baking pans with parchment paper
• Melt butter – aside to cool.
• Mix yogurt into the milk and mix thoroughly to ensure no lumps – set aside
• To prepare red food color –  combine the gel color with the water – set aside
• Sift together – flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt – set aside

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Whip eggs

• Whip the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Slowly add melted and cooled butter into the eggs.
• Next, add the yogurt/milk mixture. 
• Followed by the prepared red food color and vanilla 
• Lastly, add the flour mixture. 
• Mix until just combine – but do not overmix.

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Bake

• Make sure the oven is hot and the baking pans are ready
• Add vinegar to the batter.  
• Once you add the vinegar the mixture will start to bubble. 
• Divide batter evenly between the prepared baking pans.
• Place in the middle rack in the oven. 
• Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes invert onto a baking rack.
• Let cool completely before you decorate.

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Decorate

• Prepare Italian meringue buttercream as shown in this recipe with step by step 
• Once cooled – cut off any dome on the cake to level them

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

• Torte/cut each layer of cake into two horizontally so you have four layers.
• Spread buttercream and sandwich the three layers

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

• Stack the layers
• Crumb coats or spread a little buttercream around the cake. (this helps seal the crumbs) 
• Chill the cake if necessary for 10 to 15 minutes so the layers won’t move.
• Add pink gel food color to the half of the remaining buttercream
• Put both colors of buttercream in a piping bag with a star piping tip nozzle
• Pipe swirls around the cake. These swirls are exactly what you would do on a cupcake just smaller and on the side and top of the cake.

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Progress Pictures – Red Velvet Cake 

Here are some old progress pictures of the cake recipe. As you can see it’s a fairly simple process. 

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

I am baking a bigger cake – two 9 inch round cake which I used to make my brush embroidery cake. 

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Storage 

• The cake will stay fresh for up to four days at cool room temperature, longer if kept in the fridge. 
• It can be frozen for a month or more. 

Do you remember this cake tutorial with the Brush embroidery lace? This was also my Red velvet cake recipe. 

Best Red Velvet Cake, Moist Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, Easy Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Best Red Velvet Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream

This is probably the best red velvet cake you will ever taste. Moist, light and fluffy with just the right amount of acidity and hint of chocolate. A simple butter-based recipe that's surprisingly easy to mix in less than 10 minutes. Frost it with cream cheese for a classic red velvet affair or try my exotic homemade Italian meringue buttercream that takes this cake to a whole new level. 

5 from 18 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baking, cake, recipes, Red Velvet

Adjust Servings Here: 12 servings

Calories: 512kcal

Author: Veena Azmanov

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

For the cake

• 90 grams Unsalted Butter
• 190 grams All-purpose flour
• 2 tsp  Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp  Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp  Vinegar
• 2 large Eggs
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 200 grams White Sugar
• 120 ml Milk
• 2 tsp  Vanilla Extract
• 30 ml water
• 2 tsp  red food color or few 1/2 tsp red gel food color

For the filling and frosting

• 4 cups Italian Meringue Buttercream
• 30 ml Sugar Syrup

Metric - US customary

Instructions

Prepare

• Preheat the oven to 160 °C/ 320 °F
• Grease and line two 6-inch baking pans with parchment paper
• Melt butter - aside to cool.
• Mix yogurt into the milk and mix thoroughly to ensure no lumps - set aside
• To prepare red food color -  combine the gel color with the water - set aside
• Sift together - flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt - set aside

Whip eggs

• Whip the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Slowly add melted and cooled butter into the eggs.
• Next, add the yogurt/milk mixture.
• Followed by the prepared red food color and vanilla
• Lastly, add the flour mixture.
• Mix until just combine - but do not overmix.

Bake

• Make sure the oven is hot and the baking pans are ready
• Add vinegar to the batter.
• Once you add the vinegar the mixture will start to bubble.
• Divide batter evenly between the prepared baking pans.
• Place in the middle rack in the oven.
• Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes invert onto a baking rack.
• Let cool completely before you decorate.

Decorate

• Prepare Italian meringue buttercream as shown in this recipe with step by step
• Once cooled - cut off any dome on the cake to level them
• Torte/cut each layer of cake into two horizontally so you have four layers.
• Spread buttercream and sandwich the three layers
• Stack the layers
• Crumb coats or spread a little buttercream around the cake. (this helps seal the crumbs)
• Chill the cake if necessary for 10 to 15 minutes so the layers won't move.
• Add pink gel food color to the half of the remaining buttercream
• Put both colors of buttercream in a piping bag with a star piping tip nozzle
• Pipe swirls around the cake. These swirls are exactly what you would do on a cupcake just smaller and on the side and top of the cake.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 512kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 44mg | Sodium: 256mg | Potassium: 125mg | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 64g | Vitamin A: 4.9% | Calcium: 4.1% | Iron: 6.3%

The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you

Tried this recipe?Mention @veenaazmanov or tag #veenaazmanov!

More Cake Recipes? 

Take a look at my selection of layered cakes as well as coffee cakes including bundt cakes and more.