How to Make Red Velvet Cake

Learning how to make red velvet cake is not difficult. My recipe uses a cake mix and then adds other ingredients to give the cake a more flavorful, Argentine-inspired twist. If you find red velvet cake somewhat lacking in flavor, be sure to try my recipe.

Red Velvet Cake History

Although red velvet cake is thought to have originated during the Victorian Era, it was not until after the Second World War that the cake became popular in the United States. Although the cake is considered a classic Southern cake, the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City is credited for making the cake known in the United States in the 1950’s. Although the reason why red velvet became so popular in the South is not clear, its popularity in the Southeast may in party be due to John A. Adams, a food-dye and extract salesman, who according to an article on Culturetrip.com, “released a mahogany cake recipe that used red food coloring…Red velvet became popular in Texan homes and Midwest state fairs, eventually spreading to the South.” The 1989 movie Steel Magnolias is often credited with making the cake even more popular.

My red velvet cake has a delicious chocolate orange flavor.

Red Velvet Cake Ingredients

As a Southern chef, I knew I had to have a red velvet cake recipe since it is such an iconic Southern dessert. I had never tried red velvet cake, so I was not sure what it was supposed to taste like. As I began researching the history of the cake and various recipes, I realized that red velvet cake is a lightly-flavored chocolate cake that is dyed red and normally covered with cream cheese frosting. However, while researching recipes, I also read a lot of comments in forums, on YouTube, etc. Although red velvet cake seems to have a lot of people who really like it, a fair number of people said that it was mediocre because they did not think that the cake had much flavor: just a faint hint of chocolate mostly overtaken by the cream cheese frosting. Since the sight of a deep, dark red cake that has the word “velvet” in the name conjures up expectations for something really unique and delicious, I decided to develop my own, more flavorful version of red velvet cake.

Since I am also an Argentine chef, I thought about Argentine cuisine, and I remembered that many Argentine recipes combine chocolate with orange. Even though the flavor combination is not extremely common in the United States, I knew from personal experience with Argentine food that it is a delicious combination. Thus, I decided to make a chocolate orange cake.

Learn how to make red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

Like most of my Southern layer cakes, I started with a box cake mix. Since I try to keep the fat content of my recipes low, I decided to add a package of orange gelatin not only to help the cake retain moisture but to also add a color that was closer to red than the black cocoa.

Originally, red velvet cake would have been a reddish-brown color because the acidity of the buttermilk would have reacted with the raw cocoa powder and slightly changed the cocoa powder’s color, the addition of red food coloring completing the changeover to red. However, since most cocoa powder sold in the United States is not raw, most modern recipes reply solely on food coloring to achieve the red color. Although I had to do a bit of guessing, the first time I tried the recipe, I decided to use a full teaspoon of red food coloring. I really liked how it turned out, so I decided to make one teaspoon of red food coloring a permanent part of the recipe.

Although I was a bit nervous as to how much red food coloring to use, adding orange flavor to the chocolate cake was not as difficult. Starting with a package of instant orange gelatin, I built upon the foundation by adding orange juice, orange extract, and orange zest. Along with buttermilk and vinegar to make the cake light and fluffy, I quickly developed a red velvet cake recipe by adding extra ingredients to cake mix.

As with most modern red velvet cake recipes, I frosted the cake with cream cheese frosting. However, I used my no butter cream cheese frosting, so I saved on calories not only in the cake itself but also in the frosting. Since I added fruit to the cake as well, this recipe seemed somewhat healthy.

Red velvet cake is a Southern and Soul Food classic

I truly believe that my recipe is probably one of the most flavorful red velvet cake recipes. The chocolate and orange blend together subtly, neither overpowering the other; instead, they both come together perfectly to create a unique and delicious flavor. If you were to give this cake to someone, he or she would know it was red velvet by the color and by the taste of chocolate; however, since the orange marries so well with the chocolate, I doubt that he or she would realize that the other flavor were chocolate: the two flavors mesh that well.

Although I really like the recipe as it is, you could still tweak the recipe to suit your tastes. You could use lemon or lime instead of orange, but I recommend using no fewer than 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder. Once I made the cake and I accidentally only used 2 Tablespoons: while the cake was delicious, the orange flavor was a bit too strong for a cake that is supposed to be a combination of two flavors. Furthermore, if you use lemon or lime, I would use either extract or zest, not both, if you are going to serve the cake soon after baking it and assembling it. Lemons and limes have oils in the grinds that can be bitter if present in large quantities, and the only way to lessen the bitterness is through exposure to oxygen. Thus, without sufficient exposure to oxygen, a lemon or lime and chocolate version of this cake may be somewhat bitter the first day it is made if both extract and zest are used.

If you want to learn how to make red velvet cake with cake mix, try this recipe: it’s a quick, easy, and delicious way to put a South American spin on a classic Southern dessert.

Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting is a Southern classic.

Red Velvet Cake Recipe