Classic Red Velvet Cake

Preheat your oven to 350 F and line the bottom of two 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper then spray the paper with baking spray and put a light coating of flour on top of that. Set the pans aside.

Crack the eggs into a medium-sized bowl. Lightly beat the eggs with a whisk and then add in the oil, buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and food coloring. Whisk together until combined. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix on medium until combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl once or twice with a rubber spatula.

Use a measuring cup to divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans. Tap the pans a few times on the counter to release any air bubbles.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester is inserted and comes out clean. Depending on your oven, you might want to rotate the pans once for even baking.

When done, remove them from the oven and let the cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing them to a wire rack.

Once the cake cools it’s time to frost.

For the frosting:

Combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high until creamy.

For some of my cakes I like to do a “crumb-coat” or a thin frosting to seal in the crumbs. So for this recipe I made a double batch of frosting. Place one cake on your serving platter. Then I spread a generous amount on top of that layer and added the other cake. Then I spread a thin, smooth coating on the the top and sides of the cake. I refrigerated the cake before applying the final frosting layer. This step is totally optional, but if you do decide to crumb coat, add an additional hour to the prep time. You might have a little frosting leftover if you double the recipe, but I’m sure you can get creative on how to use it up!

Enjoy.