Red velvet has been requested for an April wedding. There are many different recipes out there and I do not have the time or inclination to try very many of them. I have one that I like, but it uses 1/2 c of cocoa. The groom's cake will be dark chocolate, so I really don't want the wedding cake to taste like chocolate.
I don't know if it matters, but she has asked for raspberry filling.
If you will share your favorite, I would appreciate it greatly!
Martha
Here's the one I use after experimenting with a few recipes. This one also gets requested frequently. I got it off of Food Network. I don't use this icing recipe using instead the crusting cream cheese buttercream. I also use only 1 oz. of Red Food coloring and 3 tsps of Cocoa powder. HTH
For the cake:
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 ounces red food coloring
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the frosting:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 pound box confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans. In a medium bowl or on a piece of waxed paper, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk. Beat in food coloring and vinegar, then add vanilla. Spread the batter evenly in the pans.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.
For the Frosting:
In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat in confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Stir in pecans. Use frosting to fill and ice cake.
Slice and serve on individual plates.
Thanks, terrig. Is this Cakeman Raven's recipe? I was just reading the reviews on Food Network, but I have much more faith in CC'ers than in random reviews. I will definitely use a crusting cream cheese frosting. No way I can get a non-crusting recipe smooth enough for a wedding cake. I'll give yours a try.
Have a great weekend. It is a 3-day'er for me!
I tried a homemade recipe and a boxed recipe, then made one up by following the WASC recipe as a guideline and it the winner by far.
I used 3 mixes trying to get the proportion of chocolate right, but it was fine when I used 1 white and 1 milk chocolate mix:
2 boxes white cake mix
1 box dark chocolate cake mix (hard to find, but worth it)
2 pkg choc pudding
2-3/4 c flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
3 c sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
3 c sour cream
8 whole eggs
1/3 c oil
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 jars Wilton red-red (or 2 small bottles of Americolor super red)
Thank you MacsMom. You are so generous to share so many good recipes. I have them all saved in a Word document just in case CC has issues. I cetainly don't want to lose them!
Just one question. Do you use dark chocolate or milk chocolate cake mix?
Thanks again!
I got this from GourmetSleuth.com. I "know" the difference, but don't necessarily trust myself to give advice.
Best substitute for 1 cup cake flour use 7/8 cup all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch.
For each cup self rising flour, substitute 1 cup minus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour plus 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt
HTH
There are two red velvet recipes I've used. One is my grandma's and she made it when we were kids. It's the family's favorite cake. The other is the red velvet cake recipe from the Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes book. I was hesitant to even get the book because I'm so not a Martha fan but a friend convinced me I needed the book so I bought it and have tried some of the recipes - all delicious, I might add! The red velvet recipe in her book is - dare I say - better than grandma's. It's a little moister and has a great texture.
If you want either of these recipes, PM me and I'll send them to you.
Julie
PS - The coconut cake in her book is also very delicious! If anyone wants that book, check Amazon. I got it for nearly half price and free shipping.
Maria, I know that you can use self-rising flour and then just leave something else out, but it would probably be simpler to use the all purpose substitution. Maybe someone with more experience than I will jump in here and give you some good advice!
Martha
If you are looking for a cake mix recipe version and dont want to deal with red dye, I do this:
1 box of DH Red Velvet
1 box of butter yellow cake mix
1 box of devils food pudding mix
2 teas of butter extract
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
2 teas of vanilla extract
1 teas of salt
16 oz of sour cream
8 eggs
1/4 cup of oil
2 cups of water
mix all ingrediants and pour into pans as usual. (this makes 4-8 inch cakes or 2-12 inch cakes, etc)
Thanks, terrig. Is this Cakeman Raven's recipe? I was just reading the reviews on Food Network, but I have much more faith in CC'ers than in random reviews. I will definitely use a crusting cream cheese frosting. No way I can get a non-crusting recipe smooth enough for a wedding cake. I'll give yours a try.
Have a great weekend. It is a 3-day'er for me!
No, this one was Emerill's recipe. I had tried 5 of them but this one taste the best of them (with the adjustments). I haven't tried the Martha Stewart one yet but I do have the book. Perhaps I'll try that one too.
i got mine from Paula Deen...
2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into 3 (8-inch) round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.
i cant wait to try these. I always like to try a few and even get a few opinions from my coworkers ( Taste is so personal, I dont like to rely soley on my own)
Thanks everyone.
Last night I made the one from PinkCakeBox's blog. Holy moly was that stuff good! I finished making the cupcakes last night at midnight and I've already had 3!!! I can't stop! 
I've posted this in the recipes section on this site. HTH.
Enhanced Red Velvet Mix
Serves/Yields: 7 1/2 cups batter
Prep. Time:
Cook Time:
Category: Cake Mix Cakes
Difficulty: Easy
I've played around a bit with doctoring the DH Red Velvet cake mix and here is what I came up with. This is onw my family's new favorite cake.
1 box DH Red Velvet
1 cup + 1 tbs. cake flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 tbs. oil
1 tsp. white vinegar
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup + 1tbs. milk
Red food color to desired effect
Pour cake mix into mixer bowl, sift in dry ingredients. Add all wet ingredients except food coloring. Mix for 30 sec. on low, then for 1 1/2 min. on med. Add red food color and stir on low. Bake at 325, timing depends on pan size, mine takes a bit over 1 hour for an 8" round, 3" deep when using the bake even strips.
tguegirl the recipe I use is right here on CC. It's called Decorator's Cream Cheese Frosting by azeboi2005. It is a crusting CC frosting, but it's flavor and consistency is what won me over. I only need a crusting one for my cupcakes since I almost always use fondant on cakes. But I found that this recipe is more stable. I tried out about 4 other cream cheese recipes before this one and they all seemed to be too soft. When making the raspberry CC frosting I omit the vanilla and add 1/2 tsp (or more depending on taste) of Gold Coast raspberry flavor. I use very little of the raspberry flavor since the Gold Coast brand is very strong in my opinon. So depending on what brand extract/flavoring you use you may need to add more. I hope this was helpful.
tguegirl the recipe I use is right here on CC. It's called Decorator's Cream Cheese Frosting by azeboi2005.
I also use the Decorator Cream Cheese frosting, it is delicious and very easy to smooth. Haven't used raspberry flavoring yet, but now I plan to . Yum.
If you go to the McCormick website, they have a red-velvet cake that is just great. I'll post it and their Cream Cheese icing for you:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle (1 ounce) McCormick® Red Food Color
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) round cake pans. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. Beat butter and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire rack.
4. For the Frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Fill and frost cooled cake with frosting.
be careful!! I just happened to be baking red velvet today, and I hadn't made it in ages. I accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda and ended up with a 1/2" lump/brick of a cake. Ugh. here's my recipe. It was originally posted here on cc but I can't find it on here anymore.
Sarah's Red Velvet Cake TWEAKED
Serves/Yields: One 8" or 9" round, 2-layer cake
Prep. Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 28-35 minutes
Category: Southern U.S.
Difficulty: Easy
This is a WONDERFUL red velvet cake recipe that I tweaked. The original recipe called for twice as much red food coloring, which bothered me, so I halved the amount and found the results to be exactly the same. Enjoy! Cake Central user "newlywedws" was the original source of the untweaked recipe.
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbsp baking cocoa ('natural' cocoa - not Dutch-process)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter (do not substitute margarine)
2 whole eggs
1 ounce red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.
Place butter and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With mixer on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
Be aware that the red food coloring in this batter will stain!
Pour batter into pans sprayed with Pam (or prepared however you prefer to prepare cake pans).
Bake 28 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to the toothpick. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then gently turn out onto cooling rack to cool to room temperature.
This cake tastes wonderful with cream cheese frosting as well as 7 Minute frosting. Here's a recipe for a mildly sweet frosting that goes especially well with red velvert cake.
Mary Kay Icing
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole milk
3/4 c. white vegetable shortening, such as Crisco
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
In a sauce pan, add 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of milk and whisk very well until there are no lumps. Add the remaining milk and whisk until well combined. Cook over medium heat until mixture is thickened. Cool COMPLETELY.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar on medium speed for several minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour/milk mixture and beat on high for 5 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spread on cooled cake.
Everyone I know will be tired of Red Velvet Cake by the time I get through testing recipes to pick one for the wedding. Thanks to all of you for generously sharing your recipes. My earlier impression was that people like RV Cake because of the cream cheese icing, but I'm thinking that there must be something more to it!
KrissieCakes ... I was not familiar with the Pink Cake Box and looked at their blog some this morning. They do some amazing cakes, but do they share their recipes? I only went through about 5 pages of the blog, but didn't find anything except for cake descriptions. I noticed that they make a Pink Velvet Cake, but my google search seems to think that it is the same as Red, but with either pink or less red coloring.
I guess I had better pick out a recipe to start with and do some RV (Red Velvet!) baking. Thank goodness I know what recipe I will use for the groom's cake, so I won't have to go looking for new friends to be taste testers for me!
Thanks again to everyone who responded to my latest cry 
for help! 
http://blog.pinkcakebox.com/recipes
Here is the direct link to PCB's recipes! I use both her RV cake and cream cheese icing recipes. I seiously can't stop eating them. I just had one for breakfast!!! Oh yeah...pink velvet is the same, just with pink coloring. Good luck with your recipe search!
Thank you MacsMom. You are so generous to share so many good recipes. I have them all saved in a Word document just in case CC has issues. I cetainly don't want to lose them!
Just one question. Do you use dark chocolate or milk chocolate cake mix?
Thanks again!
I guess I should have clarified more... In all of my recipes fo rchocolate cake I use dark chocolate--EXCEPT for the red velvet, I use devils food.
I also forgot to mention that when I use just two mixes (as opposed to 2 white + 1 devils food), it's one white cake and one milk chocolate cake and I omit the cocoa powder.
Thank you Macsmom-I plan on using your recipe in a couple of weeks for a wedding-I was just thinking I needed to find a version like yours!
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