By now many folk know the purported origin tale of red velvet cake—a nerdy tale engaging a chemical reaction between natural cocoa powder and baking soda. While that can also impartial had been the case in used cases, the red velvet of this century is defined by its startling color, a hearth engine red so lustrous it stains your tongue for hours. Someplace along the kind the flavour started to topic now not up to the hue. Crimson velvet became once now not precise a cake—it became once a daily life. It became once a cheesecake, an air freshener, a candle to be lit whereas you luxuriate within the bathtub. And right here’s a disgrace because red velvet wants to be more, to attain better, to transcend precise being a car for cream cheese frosting and red dye 40.
Here then is our apogee of red velvet cake. It’s red, yes, but subtly so, worship the flocked lining of a luxurious win. Most importantly, it tastes perceptibly of chocolate. Nothing worship the bitter intensity of be pleased murky chocolate, more worship the warming milkiness of hot cocoa in a cup. Unsweetened chocolate proves to be a winner: The cocoa butter within the chocolate makes the cake extra fudgy and well off, with precise the precise quantity of squishiness. We worship Guittard, Ghirardelli, or Lindt.
Bleached all-aim flour is an absolute imperative. In a cake as at ease and tender as this one, with a bigger quantity of sugar than flour (known as a excessive-ratio cake in expert circles), only bleached flour can soak up and face up to the extra moisture. With unbleached flour, the cake will most definitely be dense, bearing a viewed band of gumminess in direction of the backside.
The quantity of cream cheese frosting, lightened by a generous pour of heavy cream, is modest, designed to blow their non-public horns the cake. Double up whenever you happen to favor a thicker blanket of icing.
All merchandise featured on Epicurious are independently selected by our editors. Then again, whenever you happen to aquire something by our retail hyperlinks, we might well impartial originate an affiliate rate.
Ingredients
Cake
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
¾ cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. liquid red food coloring
2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
2 cups (250 g) bleached all-aim flour
1¾ cups (packed; 350 g) light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, minimize into 1″ objects, room temperature
3 astronomical eggs, flippantly beaten to mix
Frosting and Meeting
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt
1 cup (110 g) powdered sugar
¼ cup chilled heavy cream
Flaky sea salt and sprinkles (for serving; now not mandatory)
Preparation
-
Cake
Step 1
Put a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Lightly coat backside and sides of a 13×9″ metal baking pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Line backside of pan with parchment paper. Put 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped, in a medium bowl. Pour 1 cup boiling water over chocolate and droop except melted and tender. Add ¾ cup sour cream, 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. liquid red food coloring, 2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract; droop to combine.
Step 2
Beat 2 cups (250 g) bleached all-aim flour, 1¾ cups (packed; 350 g) light brown sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder, and 1 tsp. baking soda within the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on low flee except well mixed, about 1 minute. Develop flee to medium-low and beat in ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, minimize into 1″ objects, room temperature except mixture resembles breadcrumbs, about 1 minute. Jam in chocolate mixture and beat except batter is tender and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in 3 astronomical eggs, flippantly beaten to mix, in 3 additions, beating except incorporated between additions and scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as mandatory; batter ought to be tender and creamy. Jam batter into engaging pan and tender surface with an offset spatula.
Step 3
Bake cake except region and high springs assist when flippantly pressed (an actual away-read thermometer inserted into the middle need to aloof register 200°), 35–40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cake frosty in pan, about 1 hour. Once you happen to favor to support the cake unmolded, invert cooled cake onto rack and fastidiously peel away parchment, then invert cake, precise aspect up, onto a platter.
-
Frosting and Meeting
Step 4
Beat 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature, ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract, and 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt within the dazzling bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dazzling whisk attachment on medium-excessive flee, scraping down sides of bowl midway by, except light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Turn off mixer and add 1 cup (110 g) powdered sugar and ¼ cup chilled heavy cream. Starting on low flee and step by step rising to medium, beat except frosting is tender and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Step 5
Spread frosting evenly over high of cake, working your complete solution to the edges with an offset spatula. Using a spoon or offset spatula, make decorative divots and swirls in frosting if desired. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and sprinkles if desired.
