Red Velour Cake

4.56 from 27 votes

This Red Velour Cake takes your classic Red Velvet Cake and brings it to the next level of elegance and deliciousness. Moist and full of the soft velvet texture we're all familiar with and love, this cake also has a velour exterior that's beautiful and sophisticated.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Cake, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: red velour cake, red velvet, red velvet cake

Servings:

Calories: 579kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

For Cake

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red gel food coloring
½ cup butter unsalted, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

For Frosting

¾ cup butter unsalted
2 ½ tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ cup milk I used 3%
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounce cream cheese softened
1 cup icing sugar same as confectioner sugar or powdered sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cake

Preheat your oven to 350℉. Prepare 3 8 inch cake pans. Cut out 3 parchment paper circles that will fit inside each pan and spray them with some cooking spray, underneath and over the paper. Make sure to spray some cooking spray up the sides of the pans too.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt to a medium sized bowl and whisk until combined.
In a smaller bowl add the cocoa powder, vinegar, vanilla extract and red gel food coloring and whisk until well combined.
In the bowl of your mixer add the butter, sugar and the cocoa powder mixture. Beat until well incorporated. Add the eggs and continue whisking until smooth. Add about half of the flour mixture and with the mixer on low continue mixing until well incorporated, then add half the buttermilk and mix until smooth. Mix in the remaining flour mixture, then the buttermilk and mix until smooth.
Divide the batter equally between the 3 prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes or until cool enough to handle, then unmould the cakes from the pans and finish cooling completely on a wire rack.
Cut off the dome of each cake using a serrated knife and finely crumble them onto a baking sheet. Spread the crumbs evenly and bake for 15 minutes. Let them cool completely.
Add the crumbs to a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds to a minute or until the crumbs are super fine.

Frosting - can be done while cake is baking

Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly, to get rid of the flour taste. Add the milk, vanilla, salt and whisk constantly for another minute. The mixture should resemble a thick paste. Place it in a small bowl and cover it with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the paste. Let it cool completely. I placed mine in the fridge to speed up the process.
When the mixture is cool, add it to a larger bowl, add the rest of the butter, cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add the icing sugar and continue mixing until smooth and creamy.

Assembly

Place 4 square pieces, about 6 inches by 6 inches of parchment paper on the bottom of a cake platter then place a cake directly in the center of the platter, over the parchment paper. This will make it a lot easier to clean the cake platter after we're done assembling it.
Spread about 3/4 of a cup of frosting onto the bottom cake, evenly over the surface. Add another cake and spread another 3/4 cup of the frosting. Add the last cake top side up, makes for a smoother top and easier to spread the frosting. Add the rest of the frosting and evenly spread it over the entire surface of the cake including the sides.
Sprinkle about half a cup of the fine red velvet crumbs over the top of the cake and lightly press them into the frosting. Repeat with the side of the cake, using your hands to smooth out the crumbs. You may use a cake spatula to finish smoothing the crumbs into the frosting.
Slowly pull out the parchment paper pieces from under the cake and clean off any leftover crumbs on the platter around the cake. Slice and serve.

Video

Notes

I strongly recommend using red gel food coloring because I find that you get a much more intense red color and there's no bitter taste after.
You can skip step 1 under assembly, if you have a large cake lifter. You can assemble the cake on a large cutting board, then use the cake lifter to transfer the cake onto a cake plate.
This cake can also be made in 2 cake pans and then cut the cake in half using a serrated knife. Baking time should still be around 35 minutes, but it's best to use a toothpick to check for doneness.
You should have more than enough crumbs for the entire surface of the cake. I only used about half of the crumbs.
Recipe adapted from Ricardo Magazine.

Nutrition