Red Velvet Cake

With my dreams of opening up a bakery one day, I've been very hesitant about sharing my cake and pie recipes on this blog. I spent many days and many hours and many dollars testing recipes until I got them the way I wanted. However, a red velvet cake recipe that's tasty is hard to come by, so I decided I would share it with you guys.

Red Velvet is a flavor that is well loved here in Oklahoma. At my job, it's one of the most popular flavors of baked good. To tell you the truth, though, I've only ever eaten red velvet cake once before last week. I'm not kidding. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a fan of chocolate cake. I even almost dreading learning about red velvet because I know it has cocoa in it. But because I a) had a wedding cake tasting for a couple and b) know that everyone and their pet monkey in Oklahoma love red velvet cake (along with probably many more people)… I decided to give it a shot.

I'll admit it: it was pretty tasty.

Red velvet gets its name from the chemical reaction of vinegar and buttermilk when mixed with cocoa powder. When mixed together, the batter turns into a dark red color. Since the Great Depression, red velvet cake has been given its famous red color by adding food coloring; before then it was enhanced with beet juice. Cool, huh?

Anyways, enough nerd talk, here's a recipe for red velvet cake!

** In these photos, I used classic vanilla buttercream, as requested by the wedding party. However, a classic red velvet cake is coated in cream cheese frosting. I will be posting the cream cheese frosting I use in every recipe on the recipe card, but feel free to use my buttercream recipe here **