Red Velvet Cake Without Buttermilk

Made without buttermilk, this Red Velvet Cake recipe brings a classic dessert to your table. The cake comes together quickly and easily, with no fuss involved. It’s ready to satisfy your sweet tooth or make any occasion a bit more special in no time.

I love red velvet cake for its eye-catching red color, moist texture, and unique taste. Instead of using buttermilk like most recipes, I go with lemon juice and regular milk to nail that tangy flavor and keep it moist.

A bit of cocoa powder tones down the intense red from the food coloring and adds a hint of chocolate. The cream cheese frosting is a game-changer, adding just the right amount of creamy tanginess to balance the cake’s sweetness. And it’s a breeze to whip up—just mix cream and cream cheese.

This part’s fun: you can play around with the frosting to make it your own. That’s how you can really make this cake stand out.

This recipe’s a hit for special occasions like birthdays or Valentine’s Day, thanks to that bold red color. But honestly, it’s also perfect for those days when you just want to treat yourself to something classic and delicious.

This cake is definitely a crowd-pleaser with its awesome look, taste, and texture.

Pro Tip: For the best flavor and texture, start making this cake two days before you need it. Let the dough cool, wrap it in cling film, and then let it sit for 6 hours or overnight to soften the crust. After assembling, let the cake rest for a few hours more to get even juicier.

Alright, enough talk—let’s dive in!

🥘 Ingredients and Substitutes

Ingredients for the cake mix:

• Milk.
• Lemon Juice. We used lemon juice because we needed some acid to coagulate the milk and extinguish the baking soda. If you don’t have lemon juice on hand, you could use white vinegar such as apple vinegar or white wine vinegar.
• All-purpose Flour.
• Cane Sugar. You could replace easily cane sugar with brown sugar.
• Eggs.
• Butter.
• Baking Powder.
• Baking Soda.
• Cocao. We add cocoa to balance the color a bit, because any red food coloring, will make the cake look too artificial and fake. Therefore, to give a more natural shade of red, we are using cocoa.
• Food coloring. I like to mix a cool and warm red to get a color that’s just right. But if you’ve only got one, go with what you prefer. I leaned towards a cool red this time, aiming for a raspberry-like hue.s.

Ingredients for frosting:

• Cream Cheese.
• Single Cream. I used an 18% fat single cream. So my ratio between single cream and cream cheese is 1:2. If you will use 36% heavy cream, you can use a 1:1 ratio.
• Powdered sugar.

👩‍🍳 Step-by-step Directions

Start by mixing milk with lemon juice. You’ll see it begin to thicken right away.

Then, in a big bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar.

Quick Note: Do this fast to avoid the yolk setting and messing up your cake’s texture.

Pour the milk-lemon mix into the eggs and sugar, stir, then melt the butter and add it in. Give everything a good mix.

Next up, add your red food coloring and stir until it’s all nicely blended.

For the dry ingredients, grab another bowl, mix them all together.

Then sift this mix into your wet ingredients in two goes to keep lumps at bay.

Stop mixing the ingredients as soon as the ingredients have been incorporated.

Pro Tip: If you will mix the cake batter for a long period of time, a gluten shell will form and as a result, the cake will not be so airy.

Pour the batter into a 6″ baking pan. If you use a bigger pan, your cake won’t be as tall, and you might end up with thinner layers or needing more layers.

Bake for 40 minutes at 325°F. Test with a toothpick to make sure it’s done.

Let the cake cool before handling. If you can, wrap the top in cling film and chill it overnight to soften the crust.

If the top’s a bit domed, trim it to flatten. That trimmed bit? Save it for decorating later.

Decide how many layers you want, then slice the cake accordingly. I went for 6 layers, so I cut it into 3 slices, planning for alternating layers of cake and cream.

Making the Frosting

I threw all the frosting ingredients into a big bowl to mix them up.

I grabbed my mixer and went to town until the mix turned into this thick, creamy frosting.

Assembling the Cake

A little trick I use is a pastry ring the same size as my cake, 6 inches, to keep everything neat.

I started by putting the first cake layer down in the ring.

Next, I filled a piping bag with the frosting and spread a quarter of it over the first layer, making sure it was nice and even.

I did this for all my layers, saving a bit of frosting for the top.

Quick Note: Save a quarter of your frosting for decorating later, after the cake sets.

wrapped the cake up in cling film and popped it in the fridge for at least 6 hours. Overnight is even better if you’re not in a rush.

If you skip this step, the cake might end up dry or lose its shape when you take the ring off.

After chilling, I took off the ring and went to town with the leftover frosting and the cake bits I saved from leveling the top.

When it comes to decorating, you do you. I kept it simple.

Pro Tip: For an extra creamy cake, let it sit out for a couple of hours before serving. It lets everything get to room temp and makes the frosting even softer.

And there you have it, a homemade red velvet cake that looks and tastes amazing, ready to impress alongside your favorite coffee or tea.

🏆 Expert Tips. What to Pay Attention To?

• When baking, getting the measurements right is crucial, so I always keep a kitchen scale handy to nail those exact amounts.
• Mixing dry and wet ingredients separately first helps dodge those pesky lumps, ensuring the batter is nice and smooth when they come together.
• Keep an eye on that baking time; overdoing it means a dry cake nobody wants. The toothpick test has never let me down for checking if it’s just right.
• Room-temperature cream cheese and butter mix way smoother, avoiding any unwanted lumps in the frosting.
• Chilling the cake before going to town with the frosting makes a world of difference. It’s easier to decorate, and the frosting stays put.

Answering Your Questions:

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