What Is Red Velvet Cake? Flavour, Colour and History
What is red velvet cake? It's a soft layer cake made with a small amount of cocoa, buttermilk and a splash of vinegar, coloured deep red and sandwiched with white cream cheese icing. It tastes of mild cocoa and vanilla with a gentle tang. It isn't just chocolate cake dyed red: it has far less cocoa and a finer, more tender crumb.
At a glance
- Mild cocoaa few tablespoons of cocoa in a whole two-layer cake
- Tangybuttermilk and vinegar give the flavour its edge
- Red colourfrom food colouring today; once a reddish-brown from cocoa
- White icingcream cheese icing is the classic modern topping
On this page
Red velvet is on every café counter and cupcake box, from Valentine's bakes to Christmas tables, but it's surprisingly hard to pin down. It's not quite a chocolate cake, not quite a vanilla sponge, and its famous colour has a story of its own. Here's what's actually in it, what it tastes like, and why it's red.
What is red velvet cake?
Red velvet cake is a red-coloured layer cake with a fine, soft crumb, usually filled and covered with cream cheese icing. It's an American cake that has become a bakery favourite in the UK too, as a full-size celebration cake, a traybake or, most often, as cupcakes.
So what's in red velvet cake? The classic ingredient list is short and ordinary:
- The sponge base: flour, sugar, butter (or oil), eggs, salt and vanilla.
- A little cocoa powder: enough to flavour the cake gently, not enough to make it a chocolate cake.
- Buttermilk: the main liquid, which adds tang and keeps the crumb tender.
- Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda: the acid and the alkali react and make bubbles, which helps the cake rise and stay light.
- Red food colouring: in most modern recipes, for that deep crimson colour.
King Arthur Baking's recipe shows how little cocoa is involved. For a two-layer, 8-inch cake it uses 14g of cocoa (3 tablespoons) to 270g of flour, plus 227g of buttermilk, a teaspoon of vinegar and 28g of liquid red food colouring. That's about 5g of cocoa for every 100g of flour (14 ÷ 270 × 100), which is why King Arthur calls it a "mildly chocolate" layer cake.
"Velvet" describes the texture, not the colour. In the 1800s, cakes with an unusually soft, fine crumb were called velvet cakes. Pastry chef and food writer Stella Parks explains that this was a way of sounding fancy at a time when most cakes were coarser.
What flavour is red velvet?
Red velvet's flavour is mild cocoa with a gentle tang. If you're asking what does red velvet taste like, think of a cross between a vanilla sponge and a light chocolate cake, with a slightly sour, buttermilk edge that stops it tasting too sweet. So what is red velvet, as a flavour? It's three things working together:
- Cocoa, but softly. You can taste it, but it's in the background rather than the star.
- Tang. Buttermilk and vinegar give a light, almost yoghurt-like sharpness.
- Cream cheese. The icing is rich, smooth and slightly sour, and for many people it's the part they recognise most.
That's why the red velvet cake flavour now turns up in cookies, brownies, lattes and even ice cream: it's the cocoa-and-cream-cheese combination people are after, usually with a red colour to signal it.
The texture matters as much as the taste. The acid in buttermilk and vinegar keeps the crumb soft, moist and close-textured, which is the "velvet" the name promises.
Is red velvet just chocolate cake?
No. The two cakes are cousins rather than twins. Red velvet uses much less cocoa, relies on buttermilk and vinegar, and comes with a white, tangy icing. Here's how it compares with chocolate cake and the British classic, the Victoria sponge.
| Cake | Cocoa | Tang | Topping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red velvet | A little | Buttermilk, vinegar | Cream cheese |
| Chocolate | Lots | Not essential | Buttercream, ganache |
| Victoria sponge | None | None | Jam, often cream |
Typical recipes. Red velvet from King Arthur Baking and Wikipedia; Victoria sponge from Wikipedia's sponge cake article. Individual recipes vary.
The cocoa difference is the big one. A chocolate cake is built around cocoa or melted chocolate, so it's dark and rich. Red velvet uses only a few spoonfuls, so the cake tastes lighter and the colour can show through. Take the colouring away and you'd have a pale brown, gently cocoa-flavoured buttermilk cake, not a chocolate cake.
If it's the full chocolate hit you want, our keto chocolate fudge cake with ganache is made with our Keto Chocolate Cake Mix, which lists cocoa powder among its main ingredients.
Cocoa is also what separates brownies from their paler cousin: if you've wondered what a blondie is, it's a brownie-style traybake made without cocoa or melted chocolate.
Why is red velvet cake red?
Today, red velvet cake is red because of food colouring. It didn't start that way, though, and the original colour was much less dramatic.
Early "velvet cocoa" cakes were made with natural cocoa and acidic buttermilk. Stella Parks explains that most cocoa then was natural and unroasted, and the acidity of the batter helped some of the colour pigments in the cocoa show through. The result was a reddish-brown cake, not a bright red one: a food scientist in the 1930s described it as a "red-brown hue". The names of related cakes from the time, such as mahogany cake and red devil's food, give a better idea of the shade.
Modern cocoa is roasted, and much of it is alkalised (Dutch-process), which makes it darker and less acidic. So the old trick doesn't really work any more, and bakers add colouring instead. Even King Arthur Baking, which avoids artificial dyes in its own products, says red dye gives its red velvet a vibrancy it hasn't been able to match with natural colour.
| Colour from | Shade | Used today? |
|---|---|---|
| Natural cocoa + acid | Reddish-brown | Rarely |
| Beetroot | Red to burgundy | Some recipes |
| Food colouring | Bright red | Most recipes |
From Stella Parks (The Splendid Table), King Arthur Baking and Wikipedia. Shades depend on the amounts used and on the cocoa.
Beetroot red velvet
Beetroot was used to colour cakes during the First World War and the Great Depression, and some bakers still use it. One beetroot version published in The New York Times pairs diced beetroot with Dutch-process cocoa and adds lemon juice for acidity, to help keep the colour bright. Beetroot brings its own earthy sweetness and carbs, so our guide to beetroot on keto is worth a look before you bake with it.
What colouring do our mixes use?
Both our red velvet mixes list "E120 Red" in their ingredients. The Food Standards Agency's list of approved additives names E120 as cochineal, carminic acid or carmines, a red colour made from cochineal insects. Worth knowing if you avoid animal-derived ingredients.
Where red velvet cake comes from
Nobody knows exactly who invented red velvet cake, but the outline of its story is clear:
- 1800s: velvet cakes. Bakers softened flour with ingredients such as cocoa, cornflour or ground almonds to make fine-crumbed "velvet" cakes. Rich, dark devil's food cake appeared around the same time.
- Around 1911: velvet cocoa cake. Stella Parks traces a published "velvet cocoa cake" to this period, a cross between a velvet cake and a devil's food cake, made with cocoa instead of chocolate. As it spread through the southern United States, it was often made with buttermilk.
- 1920s: the Waldorf-Astoria. According to Wikipedia, red velvet layer cake has been served at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel since the 1920s. The hotel and the Canadian department store Eaton's have both claimed the recipe.
- 1930s and 1940s: food colouring. Colouring makers promoted recipes that used their products, including a red velvet cake from the Adams Extract company. Parks mentions a 1940s recipe with four ounces of red colouring.
- 1989 onwards: the revival. An armadillo-shaped red velvet cake in the film Steel Magnolias renewed interest, and by the 2000s red velvet was a bakery staple.
King Arthur Baking adds one more detail: the story that the Waldorf-Astoria charged a guest a huge fee for the recipe, and she shared it in a chain letter, is an urban legend with apparently no truth to it.
Cream cheese icing: the classic topping
In the UK we'd usually call it icing; American recipes say frosting. Either way, red velvet's classic partner today is a cream cheese icing: soft cheese beaten with butter or sugar and vanilla until smooth. Its tang matches the buttermilk in the sponge, and the white layers make the red stand out when you cut a slice.
It wasn't always this way. King Arthur Baking notes that some say the traditional frosting was a cooked flour paste with sugar and butter beaten in (a style also known as ermine icing), while others insist only cream cheese will do. King Arthur itself tops its red velvet with a plain white buttercream. The constant is colour: a white icing against a red cake.
Our keto cream cheese icing is made with cream cheese, our granulated erythritol and stevia blend and a few drops of vanilla stevia, and we suggest it for red velvet cupcakes. For an extra-smooth finish, our Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend is finely ground like icing sugar; our guide to icing sugar vs powdered sugar explains the names.
Let the sponge cool completely, and chill cream cheese icing for 15 to 20 minutes if it feels soft. A thin "crumb coat" first, then a short chill, stops red crumbs streaking through the white top layer.
Making red velvet with no added sugar
A classic red velvet cake uses plenty of sugar in both the sponge and the icing. Our two red velvet mixes are sweetened with erythritol and stevia instead, with no added sugar, and both are made with almond and coconut flour.
- Keto Red Velvet Cake Mix: the product page lists erythritol, almond flour, chicory root fibre, organic coconut flour, whey protein, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, E120 red, natural flavouring and stevia. You add 100g of butter, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon of water and 1 teaspoon of vinegar, then bake at 175°C for 20 to 25 minutes, or divide it into cupcake cases. Per 42g baked slice, the label shows 11g of carbohydrate, of which 10g is polyols (the erythritol), so 1g of net carbs.
- Keto Red Velvet Mug Cake Mix: a single-serve sachet made with erythritol, almond flour, coconut flour, oat fibre, cocoa powder, raising agents, salt, E120 red, natural flavouring and stevia. Stir in 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of melted butter and microwave for 1 minute.
Notice the vinegar in the cake mix method: it's the same acid that classic red velvet recipes use. Top either one with cream cheese icing for the full effect. If you'd like to build a cake around it, our guide to keto bento cakes shows how to make a small, decorated celebration cake.
The Red Velvet Cake Mix contains almonds and milk (whey protein). The Red Velvet Mug Cake Mix contains almonds. Check each product page for full allergen details before you bake.
Free delivery is on orders over £30.
Frequently asked questions
What flavour is red velvet cake?
Red velvet tastes of mild cocoa and vanilla with a gentle tang from buttermilk and vinegar. It's less chocolatey than a chocolate cake because most recipes use only a few tablespoons of cocoa. The cream cheese icing adds a rich, slightly sour sweetness, and it's a big part of the flavour people recognise.
Is red velvet just chocolate cake with food colouring?
Not quite. Red velvet uses much less cocoa than a chocolate cake, so it tastes milder, and buttermilk and vinegar give it a tangy flavour and a soft, fine crumb. Most modern recipes do add red food colouring, but the acid, the light cocoa flavour and the cream cheese icing make it a different cake.
Why is red velvet cake red?
Today, it's red because of food colouring. Early velvet cocoa cakes were only reddish-brown: acidic buttermilk helped red pigments in the natural, unroasted cocoa of the time show through. Modern cocoa is roasted and often alkalised, so the batter stays brown without help. Some bakers use beetroot, and our mixes use E120.
What icing goes on red velvet cake?
Cream cheese icing is the most popular choice today. Older recipes often used a cooked frosting made from a flour paste beaten with butter and sugar, sometimes called ermine icing, or a plain white buttercream. Any white icing works, because the pale layers against the red sponge are part of the look.
What is the difference between red velvet and chocolate cake?
Chocolate cake is built around cocoa or melted chocolate, so it's dark and rich. Red velvet uses only a little cocoa, adds buttermilk and vinegar for tang and a fine crumb, and is coloured red. It's usually layered with cream cheese icing, while chocolate cake more often gets buttercream or ganache.
Sources
- King Arthur Baking (US). Red Velvet Cake: ingredient weights, the frosting debate, the Waldorf-Astoria legend and the note on red dye. Cocoa-to-flour ratio is our own calculation.
- The Splendid Table. The evolution of red velvet cake, an iconic American dessert (Francis Lam interviews Stella Parks, 2017): velvet cakes, velvet cocoa cake, buttermilk, cocoa pigments and the "red-brown hue".
- Wikipedia. Red velvet cake: ingredients, the Waldorf-Astoria and Eaton's, Adams Extract, beetroot, ermine icing and Steel Magnolias. Sponge cake: the Victoria sponge.
- Food Standards Agency. Approved additives and E numbers: E120 (cochineal; carminic acid; carmines). Wikipedia, Carmine: how the colour is made.
- Groovy Keto product pages: Red Velvet Cake Mix, Red Velvet Mug Cake Mix, Chocolate Cake Mix and Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend (ingredients, method, allergens and nutrition). Checked 28 October 2026.
