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Chef Stef's southern red velvet cake

Chef_Stef
By: Chef_Stef
Posted 08/31/09 • Last updated 01/20/09 • 659 views • 35 comments

Posted by Chef_Stef

This is one of my very most popular cake flavors. I've never had a bride taste it and not order it. One said her southern grandmother has been making her RV for her birthday every year all her life; when she tasted this, she said, "Oh! Grandma is SO fired." Enjoy!

Chef Stef's southern red velvet cake

Ingredients

  • 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/2 cups sugar 1 ts baking soda 1 ts salt 1 ts cocoa powder 1-1/2 cups vegetable oil 1 cup buttermilk, room temp 2 large eggs, room temp 2 TB (1 oz) red food coloring 1 ts white vinegar 1 ts vanilla

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil and flour (or line bottom with parchment) two 8" round pans. (although I usually do 1.5 x the recipe for two 8" actually).
  2. Sift all dry ingredients together into stand mixer bowl. In another bowl whisk together all wet ingredients. Using paddle attachment and low speed, blend the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Divide between cake pans and bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean. I never use recipe times, but the original said 30 minutes for 9" pans.

Comments (35)

donkeemom 10/13/09 at 12:49pm
Thanks for sharing this recipe, it is awesome! I had a customer who wanted red velvet cake, I tried this recipe and it was a big hit (you made me look really good). Thanks Again, Linda
ToniLee 10/21/09 at 7:03pm
Ive only had a few different peoples red velvet and each always seems extremly dry. This turned out perfect!!! It was a perfect blend of everything and was super moist! THanks for the recipe!
lutie 11/13/09 at 8:17pm
...just pulled out my 4 nine inch cakes from the oven (I doubled the recipe)...they were all perfect and lovely! Thanks for the great directions (I followed them to a "t"). The batter was a great color (at first, I did not think I would have enough cocoa in it, but it was the correct amount), and the cakes were flat with little to no "dome" on each. I baked the cakes @ 300 degrees for the first 20 minutes and then moved it up to 330 degrees to finish them...thank you, thank you, thank you.
Jewels117 11/22/09 at 12:55pm
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I never cared for Red Velvet cake and could never understand what all of the hoopla was about because every cake I tried was either dry or, basically, tasted like devils food cake dyed red. I absolutely love this recipe and it's become one of my favorites!
LoriMc 12/12/09 at 3:43pm
This is my favorite red velvet recipe also. I found it in a Hershey's cookbook years ago and still love it!
lutie 1/2/10 at 9:44am
Made this for a 25th anniversary for a business in my community, which had an Open House...hundreds came and this was the favorite of the three types of cake (WASC and Butter Pecan were the other two) I had made...people who said they "hated" RV came back for seconds. Thank you so much great recipe!
ae1191 1/7/10 at 6:07pm
I tried this receipe and it came out super oily. The cake was greasy. Any suggestions as to what I may have done wrong?
cakesrock 1/12/10 at 5:54am
LOVED it- goes great with white chocolate cream cheese icing. I had tried another one everyone was raving about but this recipe was the winner! 10/10 from me!
Lisaa1996 1/27/10 at 2:27pm
I have never made a red velvet cake before but a customer asked for one. I had two recipes...this one and other one I found on here. I had my family taste test for me and your recipe won hands down! My daughter has made this her new favorite cake flavor :). Thank you so much for making my introduction into the world of red velvet , an overwelming success!!!!
amber1121 2/1/10 at 11:12am
I'm so excited to try this recipe! I will be making it this week for my last Wilton cake class.
sweets_2sweet 2/6/10 at 8:03pm
I never had red velvet before and I tried your recipe. It's ok but not the cat's meow for me... Nice recipe though
flamingochic 2/15/10 at 10:18am
Just tried this recipe last night and not very impressed with it. Did not seem to have enough cocoa powder in it. I have looked at other RV recipes and most call for 2T. Also, it seemed to be a bit oily. I had my husband try it and he said it tasted a lot like corn bread. It did have a bright red color though.
Tana30052 4/24/10 at 2:06pm
I tried this recipe for a cake I was making for my son & daughter-in-law's baby shower. Had to discard it and use another recipe. The cakes were extremely oily - they actually sunk in the middle and were gooey. My intincts told me there was too much oil in the recipe. Are you sure it is supposed to be 1 1/2 cups of oil? Most similar recipes call for 1/2 cup oil or butter.
iwantcookies 5/1/10 at 4:26am
Beautiful recipe! Came out perfect, nice and moist, not oily. I tried a RV recipe from a celebrity cake decorator, and it was extremely oily. I was a bit disheartened with the whole RV thing, until i tried this cake. LUV IT!
Roxybc 5/3/10 at 4:20pm
Just in case your trying to decide between making this recipe or Cake Man Raven's or Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cupcakes they are all EXACTLY the SAME! Yes, that's right this recipe is identical to the other 2, so I have no idea where the original recipe came from, but no matter where it did, it's a good one! Maybe a tad too oily, but you could either reduce the oil by a tablespoon or two, or add another teaspoon of cocoa.
Tana30052 5/19/10 at 3:58pm
I looked at the Paula Deen recipe. It calls for 1/2 cup vegetable oil - unless I am totally mis-reading Chef Stef's recipe, it calls for 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil.
momtofourmonkeys 6/20/10 at 3:13pm
I tried this for a taste test this weekend. Made two different recipes last weekend and froze them. Took them out, thawed, frosted, and had family members pick the best for me. This cake won hands down before they even tasted it! It was oily upon thawing. My hands had oil on them as I leveled and filled but that wasn't an issue after icing. The appearance, texture, taste... all fabulous!
divinecc 6/22/10 at 9:57am
Hi, I am really excited to use this recipe although I just want to make sure that it is dense enough to hold up to alot of weight (fondant/tiers)? Alot of oil based recipes I have used do not hold up as well as butter....thanks ;0)
flngirl95 7/21/10 at 3:05pm
Have you ever tried this with apple cider vinegar?
V-dizzy 8/18/10 at 2:44pm
the paula deen recipe does have 1 1/2 cups of oil as well...they are all the same recipe...here i go about to try it!
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