- This is the most requested
cake on our channel, and I'm gonna teach you how to make it. (upbeat music) Hey, everybody. It's Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com, and today I'm gonna show you
how to make red velvet cake. This is moist, and you're gonna love how we make the ultimate
cream cheese frosting. And I'm craving cake so let's get started. (drums) You'll need to preheat your
oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then grease two nine-inch
cake pans with butter. Also, to keep the cakes
from sticking to the pans, I also like to dust with
a little bit of flour, and make sure to tap out the excess. Once you have your cake
pans buttered and floured, set those aside until
you're ready to use them. This quick prep will ensure
that the cakes release easily. Now we'll make the cake batter. Combine two and a half
cups of all purpose flour, two tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa, a teaspoon of baking soda,
and half a teaspoon of salt. Quickly whisk those together
just until they're combined. Now, we're gonna sift the dry ingredients to make sure everything
is really well blended. Sifting also ensures that your cake crumb is soft and fluffy, and I will link to the
sifter in the notes. Set aside the dry ingredients. Now in a large mixing
bowl, combine one half cup or one stick of softened unsalted butter, and one and a half cups of sugar. Cream those together
with an electric mixer. It takes a minute or two for the butter and sugar to come together,
and you just wanna keep mixing until the sugar is
moistened with the butter, and it has a powdery snowy consistency. You'll need two room temperature eggs. Add those one at a time,
beating well with each addition. Once the eggs are well incorporated, add two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and we're using our homemade extract. I will leave a link to
the two-ingredient recipe in the notes. Quickly blend in that vanilla. Now with the mixer on, add three fourths cup of vegetable oil, or you can use a light olive oil. I have one cup of room
temperature low-fat buttermilk. And into that, I'm gonna stir in one teaspoon of white vinegar. The buttermilk and vinegar mixture adds great moisture to the cake and activates the baking soda so you end up with a very fluffy cake. Add the buttermilk mixture, and blend until smooth
and well-incorporated. Now add your dry ingredients all at once, and with the mixer on low
speed, stir until well blended. Stop mixing once it's evenly moist and you no longer see
any dry streaks of flour. Also make sure to scrape down
the bowl while you're mixing to catch any pockets of flour. Now last but not least, we're gonna turn this into
a red velvet cake batter. To make it that classic red color, I highly recommend using
a gel food coloring. This is the one that I'm using, and I will link to this
in the recipe notes. All you need is half a teaspoon, and a little bit goes a long way. You could even use less food
coloring if you wanted to, just add it to your preference using the mixer on low speed, mix until the color is well
incorporated into the batter, scraping down the bowl as needed. Once the batter is uniform in color, you're gonna transfer it, and divide it evenly between
your prepared cake pans. My best tip for getting even cake layers is to use a digital kitchen scale. Zero out your cake pan, then you can see exactly how much batter you've
poured into each cake pan. And make sure to get every last drop of that yummy red velvet cake batter. Now use your spatula to spread the batter evenly into the pans, and
we're gonna transfer that and bake in a preheated oven
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. What I love about this recipe
is the cake layers rise evenly and have a level top, so
there's no need to trim. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into
the center of the cake, and it should come out clean. Once the layers are out of the oven, let them rest in their
pans for about 20 minutes. Run a thin spatula or knife
around the edges of the cake to loosen them from the pans. Now carefully invert the
cake onto a wire rack. Sometimes you need to
give the pan a little tap for it to slide out, but
normally, they slide out easily. Once your layers are on your
rack, you wanna set those aside and let them cool completely
to room temperature before adding the frosting
and assembling your cake. To make our favorite
cream cheese frosting, you'll need one and a half cups or three-fourths pound of
unsalted softened butter. Make sure you do not
over-soften your ingredients. This has been at room temperature for about an hour and a half, and you can see that you can indent it slightly with your finger, but it should still be a
little bit cool to the touch. Add that butter in pieces
to a large mixing bowl, and use an electric mixer
to beat that on high speed for about a minute, or until it's smooth
and lightened in color. And it's important to scrape
down the bowl periodically to make sure you don't
have any chunks of butter that aren't blended. (mixer buzzing) Now add your softened cream cheese. And again, you wanna use
a block style cream cheese and make sure it's not overly softened. The key to having a thick and spreadable cream cheese frosting is to make sure that your ingredients are at the right temperature. (mixer buzzing) Now beat those together
on medium-high speed until the cream cheese and
butter are well incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed. Now add one tablespoon of vanilla extract and an eighth of a teaspoon
or a generous pinch of salt. Beat those in until well combined. I like to add four cups or a total of one pound of powdered sugar, because I think it has the
best balance of sweetness. We're gonna add the powdered
sugar one cup at a time, and mix on low speed
until it's incorporated. (mixer buzzing) Once all of the powdered sugar is in, kick the mixer up to high speed and continue beating for
another two to three minutes or until the frosting is
whipped, thick, and spreadable. All right, our frosting is ready, and our cake is now at room temperature so it's time to assemble. Place that first cake layer
onto a serving platter, and we're gonna add a
generous amount of frosting over the top. I love a thick layer of
frosting between my cake layer, so I'm using about a third of the frosting Spread that evenly to
the edges of the cake. Now top that with your second cake layer. And I like to place it upside down so that you have the
smoothest, most even surface for the top. Now we're gonna crumb coat the cake, which means that you're gonna
apply a thin layer of frosting all the way around the cake. Crumb coating glues the crumbs down and seals in the moisture of the cake. Once you've finished
with an even crumb coat, add a little bit more
frosting to the top and sides until it's evenly coated. I love using my offset spatula for this, it makes frosting your
cake so much easier, and I will link to this tool and all of our favorite
tools in the notes. Once you're satisfied
with your frosted cake, wipe the base of the cake
platter with a paper towel. Now transfer the remaining
frosting into a piping bag, fitted with a large open star tip. We're gonna use the rest of
this cream cheese frosting to pipe puffs over the top of the cake. And because the frosting has
been out for a little bit, and I'd like it to firm up, I'm gonna pop this into the refrigerator while we add sprinkles to the cake. This is how I like to
decorate my red velvet cake. I'm using two different
kinds of red sprinkles. Start by adding the larger sprinkles around the top border of the cake. Also apply some sprinkles to
the bottom edge of the cake. And I'm just gently tossing
the sprinkles onto the side, I don't have any secret tricks for this. And because I have the base
of my cake platter clean, I'm able to reuse some of the sprinkles that fall off the edge. I'm also using some red sanding sugar, and following the same pattern. And the sanding sugar just
fills in the sprinkles. This way of decorating
makes it look really pretty for a birthday, or Valentine's
Day, or even Christmas. Once you've cleaned off
your extra sprinkles from your cake platter, we're gonna pipe that chilled
frosting over the top. Add little rosettes or puffs
over the edges of the cake. Before cutting into this, I like to refrigerate
it for about an hour. This will firm up the frosting slightly and just make it much easier to slice. Who's excited? (laughs) I am, (laughs) 'cause I
get to have some cake. And it's just firm enough now
where I can slice it easily. That's the only reason to refrigerate, just to make it easier to serve, the cake layers stay
together a little bit better. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do the taste
test 'cause I want some cake. All right, here we go. And I do like to wipe the
knife in between slices, so that way you'll get a really clean cut, just like we do with cheesecake. Okay, here we go. Oh my goodness, look at that. (laughs) Oh, okay, yum yum, yum. Okay, and we're just gonna go for it because I want my cake. (laughs) I wanna have my cake, and I'm
gonna eat it too. (laughs) Okay, here we go. Oh, and it is so soft. The cream and the cake, super
moist, just the perfect crumb. That is exquisite! (laughs) We're bringing out the big words. (laughs) Seriously, it tastes like
a bakery quality cake, like a fancy bakery. It is moist, and you can taste that little bit of cocoa in the cake. The cake itself has so much rich flavor. It's just so decadent and delicious. Seriously, it's like I can't stop it, just one bite because it's really good. It's like melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I also love that it's not overly sweet, both the cake and the
frosting, it is just right. And maybe that's why I can
always eat a really big piece. (laughs) You can freeze the cake and
you can freeze the frosting, which is awesome because I
love make-ahead desserts, perfect for parties. Make sure to check out more desserts at NatashasKitchen.com. And if you're building
a Valentine's Day menu, or a menu for any special occasion really, check out some of our best
recipes right over there and right down there, and we'll see you in our next video. (laughs)
