Basic Crimson Velvet Cake! Tender pink cake layers with a touch of chocolate paired with a tangy cream cheese frosting and a pink velvet crumble.
Crimson Velvet Cake is a kind of basic recipes that get requested again and again. That wealthy pink colour is gorgeous and paired with a cream cheese frosting, you may’t actually go unsuitable.
I really like studying the historical past behind timeless recipes like this, to learn the way they originated, how they turned common, and the way they’ve modified over time.
After all, I really feel the necessity to share that with you, so sit again for an additional fast historical past lesson — or skip forward to How To Make Crimson Velvet Cake.
What’s Crimson Velvet Cake?
Initially, again within the 1800’s, the colour of the cake was on account of non-Dutched anthocyanin-rich cocoa, which reacted with the vinegar and buttermilk within the recipe to create a wealthy pink/maroon colour.
As of late, even commonplace cocoa powder from the grocery retailer has gone by way of some degree of Dutch processing, which strips a few of the acid and prevents the colour change from occurring (at the least to the extent that it used to).
To compensate, recipes today use a LOT of pink coloring (normally in liquid type) to get that brilliant or wealthy pink colour.
The cake’s rise to reputation really happened through the Nice Despair. An organization known as Adams Extract created the Crimson Velvet Cake recipe we all know right now as a advertising and marketing tactic, in hopes of boosting gross sales in a tough time.
Their recipe makes use of shortening (which is cheaper than butter), Adams butter flavoring, Adams vanilla, and naturally, Adams pink meals coloring. Adams gave out the recipe without cost on recipe playing cards at grocery shops, and it shortly turned successful in households all throughout the nation.
Fellow Canadians will admire this: apparently the pink velvet cake was a staple at Eaton’s department shops within the 40’s and 50’s. Besides that they claimed the recipe to be their very own. Poor type, Eaton’s!
In case you’ve been following Liv for Cake for some time now, you realize that I desire to stay with pure flavors and colours as a lot as attainable.
I’ve the occasional brilliant cake the place the flavors simply name for a pop of colour, however I attempt to make the most of pure colorants like freeze-dried powder to present a few of the coloring. Making a Crimson Velvet Cake was by no means excessive on my radar due to this.
I’ve tweaked and improved that recipe in hopes of darkening the cake extra with cocoa powder than with coloring. I succeeded… considerably.
The truth is, in order for you a deep pink colour you simply want so as to add synthetic coloring to it. I do know some folks have used beets to attempt to obtain the pink colour, however that simply didn’t attraction to me (although I really like beets).
The best way to Make Crimson Velvet Cake
Making this pink velvet cake is pretty easy — besides in my kitchen, the place issues are likely to go unsuitable 90% of the time.
I used to be in a little bit of a rush (frequent today) and my butter wasn’t fairly room temperature but. I made a decision to dice it and attempt to beat it anyhow, in hopes that the friction would heat it up. Effectively, what it really did was completely break my KitchenAid paddle.
That is really the second time this has occurred, for this very same purpose. Apparently I don’t study from my errors. It’s as a result of I’ve the reminiscence of a goldfish, and I simply didn’t keep in mind till it occurred once more.
The paddle I take advantage of mechanically scrapes the bowl for me (which is a HUGE time saver), however it’s plastic and clearly fragile. KitchenAid makes a steel one with a scraper, however it’s not accessible for my mannequin. Why this isn’t accessible for all fashions is past me, and why on earth is it not commonplace?
Who desires to scrape the bowl? Ever??
I had no selection now. I tossed out the butter I had within the bowl in case there have been any plastic fragments in it, and resorted to utilizing my inventory paddle and scraping the bowl by hand.
My plastic scraper paddle has made me so lazy. I did a horrible job of manually scraping the bowl, although I did it like 4-5 instances all through the method (big ache within the butt). W
hen I used to be pouring the cake batter into the tins, there have been seen sections of unincorporated butter and sugar (lol). Evidently, this confirmed in my baked layers, and one in every of them sagged a bit on one aspect.
Do higher than I do, folks!
Anyhow, as I used to be saying, making this Crimson Velvet Cake is fairly easy — cream your butter and sugar, add eggs one after the other, and so forth. The important thing factor is that you simply need to add your cocoa powder and pink coloring earlier than you begin including your flour.
In case you try to paint your batter on the very finish, as soon as all of the elements are added, you’ll almost definitely overmix your batter, leading to a less-than-perfect dense (and generally fragile) cake.
That is true for all desserts that use the creaming technique, so I at all times advocate coloring earlier than including the flour and milk.
Cake Tip!
Add coloring to your cake batter earlier than you add the flour and milk. In case you add oclor on the finish it’s simple to overmix the cake batter. I at all times add some with the butter and sugar after which add a bit extra on the finish if wanted.
You need to add the coloring in proper after your eggs and maintain including it till it’s a deep shade of pink. This took about 1/2 to 2/3rds of a 0.75oz bottle of Americolor Tremendous Crimson colour gel. I didn’t measure it, I simply saved including till I had what seemed like the best colour.
You should utilize liquid pink meals coloring in case you desire — you’ll want wherever from 1-2oz of this. However I like that the colour gels are extra concentrated and you utilize much less of them.
The Americolor ones are also higher at not leaving an odd after-taste like some meals coloring does.
Crimson Velvet Crumble
A fast word concerning the crumble on prime. I made this as a result of I needed one thing to embellish the highest with, and I didn’t simply need to use cake crumbs. Plus I by no means have any since my cake layers bake up flat each time.
The crumble was a HUGE ache within the butt to make. I tried to make it from scratch, however after 5 whole fails, I gave up and opted for cake combine. After 5 extra makes an attempt I lastly had one thing near what I had envisioned.
I had deliberate to make use of this between the cake layers for some crunch, however I didn’t love the flavour of it, so I simply used it on the highest as an ornamental component. It’s fully non-compulsory!
Crimson velvet cake has a refined chocolate taste and a slight tang from the buttermilk. Mine has a bit extra of that chocolate coming by way of, as a result of I assumed it was foolish to have solely a tablespoon or two in a recipe.
What really makes the pink velvet cake, I feel, is the mix of the cake with the cream cheese frosting. It’s really a novel and scrumptious taste pairing. A bit or two of this cake could have shortly disappeared shortly after I took the images.
In case you’re a Crimson Velvet fan, I hope you’ll love my tweaked model of this basic cake recipe!
On the lookout for extra Basic Cake Recipes?
Steadily Requested Questions
How can I convert this recipe?
- The recipe as-is will work in both two 8″ or three 6″ pans. The layers can be thicker than within the recipe above (three 8″ pans) although, so that you’ll want to extend the baking time.
- To make cupcakes, all it’s essential to do is cut back the baking time — begin checking at 15mins or so. The recipe will make 18-24 cupcakes relying on dimension.
- For different conversions go right here. Bake time could differ relying on pan dimension.
- Baking time will differ in case you change the pan dimension. Each oven is completely different so I can’t say for sure what you’ll want to regulate it to. Make sure to examine on the desserts whereas they’re baking.
Can I make it upfront?
- The cooled cake layers may be baked forward of time, double wrapped in plastic wrap, and frozen for as much as 3 months. Take out 2-3 hours earlier than meeting.
- The frosting may be positioned in an hermetic container and refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 3 months. Deliver to room temp and rewhip earlier than utilizing.
- The cooled crumble may be saved in an hermetic container for as much as every week. It’s also possible to freeze it for as much as 3 months.
- The completed cake (complete or sliced, saved hermetic) may be frozen for as much as 3 months.
Can I get the measurements by weight/grams?
- There’s a Metric possibility within the recipe card. In case you click on it it should convert all the things to grams.
- This conversion is completed mechanically and I can’t assure the accuracy however many readers have had success utilizing the metric possibility on my recipes.
Can I take advantage of Dutch Course of Cocoa Powder?
- Usually sure however for the pink velvet cake particularly it is best to use common. See publish for extra particulars.
What if I don’t have buttermilk?
- Buttermilk is just not non-compulsory and can’t be swapped for milk as it should have an effect on the general consequence.
- For greatest outcomes, use precise buttermilk, however in case you don’t have any you may make your personal at house by combining 1 cup of milk (complete milk ideally, however I usually simply use 1%) with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar and letting it sit for 10mins.
Ideas for making this Crimson Velvet Cake Recipe
- Apr 14, 2022 – Cream Cheese Frosting recipe revised to make a extra secure frosting.
- I used Americolor Tremendous pink to paint the cake layers as a result of it’s concentrated and doesn’t go away an after-taste. If you wish to use liquid coloring, you’ll want to make use of about 1-2 oz.
- The crumble is non-compulsory, see publish for particulars. I did it solely for aesthetics.
- The frosting recipe under makes sufficient to totally frost the cake. In case you solely need sufficient to do a unadorned cake like I did, use 2/3rds of the recipe.
- I put together my cake pans utilizing Do-it-yourself Cake Launch and line with parchment paper.
- Learn to maintain your desserts moist utilizing Easy Syrup.
- To assist guarantee your cake layers bake up good and flat, try my The best way to Bake Flat Truffles publish!
Crimson Velvet Cake
Basic Crimson Velvet Cake! Tender pink cake layers with a touch of chocolate paired with a tangy cream cheese frosting and a pink velvet crumble.
Servings 16
Energy 669kcal
Components
Crimson Velvet Crumble (non-compulsory):
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1 1/2 cups cream cheese 12 ozchilled, full fats, block, cubed
- 2 tsp vanilla
- cornstarch or meringue powder non-compulsory
Directions
Crimson Velvet Cake:
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Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three 8″ cake rounds and line with parchment.
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In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt till properly mixed. Put aside.
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Utilizing a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on med-high till properly mixed (about 3mins). Add oil and beat one other 2 minutes till pale and fluffy.
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Cut back pace and add eggs one after the other totally incorporating after every addition.
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Add vanilla, vinegar, cocoa powder, and sufficient pink colour gel to achieve your required colour. I used just a little greater than half of a 0.75oz bottle of Americolor Tremendous Crimson.
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Alternate including flour combination and buttermilk, starting and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and a couple of of milk). Totally incorporating after every addition.
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Bake for 25-30mins or till a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out principally clear.
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Place desserts on wire rack to chill for 10mins then end up onto wire rack.
Crimson Velvet Crumble (non-compulsory):
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Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Add sufficient colour gel to the melted butter in order that it’s a deep pink colour.
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Place cake combine right into a medium bowl. Add some or the butter and stir with a spatula. Add extra butter till the cake combine begins to clump. Don’t add an excessive amount of!! It’s simpler so as to add liquid if it’s too dry, however in case you add an excessive amount of butter it’s important to begin over.
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Unfold on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for approx. 10 minutes. Cool fully. Break crumble aside if wanted.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
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Utilizing a stand mixer or hand mixer beat butter till pale and creamy.
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Cut back pace to low. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and blend on low till properly blended. Enhance pace to medium and beat for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and proceed to beat on medium for 1 minute.
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Slowly add chilled cream cheese one dice at a time (about 1 tablespoon at a time). Beat properly till blended and guarantee no lumps of cream cheese stay.
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If wanted, add cornstarch or meringue powder 1 tablespoon at a time to stiffen the frosting (I did not however that is an possibility).
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Run mixer on low for a few minutes to take away any air bubbles.
Meeting:
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Place one layer of cake onto a serving plate or cake stand. Prime with about 1 cup frosting and unfold evenly. Repeat with subsequent layer.
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Place ultimate cake layer on prime and crumb coat the cake. Add 1 cup of buttercream to the very prime and easy till it hangs over the perimeters. Do a swirl on the highest with a big offset spatula after which use an icing smoother to easy the perimeters and create a lip on the highest with the frosting.
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Sprinkle some pink velvet crumble across the prime if desired.
Energy: 669kcalCarbohydrates: 86gProtein: 6gFats: 35gSaturated Fats: 21gPolyunsaturated Fats: 2gMonounsaturated Fats: 9gTrans Fats: 1gLdl cholesterol: 125mgSodium: 289mgPotassium: 173mgFiber: 1gSugar: 67gVitamin A: 1136IUCalcium: 83mgIron: 2mg
The dietary info and metric conversions are calculated mechanically. I can’t assure the accuracy of this knowledge. If that is essential to you, please confirm along with your favourite vitamin calculator and/or metric conversion software.
This publish was initially revealed on 02/14/19 and was up to date with new content material on 02/06/23.
