Red Velvet Bundt Cake

This moist and lightly dense red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese frosting is perfect for the holidays or any celebration when you want to impress your guests.

This red velvet bundt cake recipe is so good y’all! A classic Southern dessert, it’s so moist yet lightly dense that I just know you and your family will love it. Like seriously, look how gorgeous that is. I made this delicious red velvet bundt cake with a cream cheese glaze for the holidays but it’s perfect for any celebration when you want to impress.

This homemade traditional red velvet cake is made from scratch but I promise it’s easy. Let’s start with the ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring, baking soda, white vinegar, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. The buttermilk is the key to that tender texture. Get out your mixer and combine the butter and sugar, then the remaining wet ingredients, then the remaining dry ingredients. Your red velvet cake batter will be ready for the oven in no time.

Once your cake is baked and cooled, it’s time to make the quintessential cream cheese frosting. It’s not red velvet without cream cheese, am I right? With the same mixer, we’re going to combine cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and milk. Then you just have to spoon that over the cake and you have yourself a delectable red velvet bundt cake. I just love its light chocolate flavor paired with the creamy sweet icing. Red velvet cake is fluffy, tender, and absolutely delicious!

I hope you love it and make it soon too!

Recipe Ingredients

Red Velvet Bundt Cake

• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Buttermilk
• Red food coloring or beetroot powder
• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Cake flour or all-purpose flour
• Cocoa powder
• Salt

Cream Cheese Icing

• Cream cheese (click here for our homemade cream cheese recipe)
• Unsalted butter 
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Milk (not pictured)

How To Make Red Velvet Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl, add the butter and sugar.

Using a hand or stand mixer, cream sugar and butter together.

Add the red food coloring or beetroot powder to the buttermilk and stir it in.

Pour the red buttermilk mixture, eggs, and vanilla into the butter/sugar mixture. 

Mix just until combined.

Stir in the baking soda and vinegar.

*Note* Be sure not to overmix! Overmixing the butter and sugar or any of the steps could result in a dense cake. To keep the cake light and fluffy mix each step just until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Prepare a 10-inch bundt cake pan with non-stick baking spray. 

Pour cake batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely. 

Prepare the cream cheese icing

In a small bowl, using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. 

Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk.

Mix everything until well combined. Test the consistency with a spoon.

Test the Frosting

If the frosting needs to be thinned out a little more just add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Spoon the frosting over the cooled cake. 

Optional: top the frosting with some chocolate shavings.

Look at that beauty!

Grab yourself a slice!

Storage

• Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Let it come to room temperature before serving.
• You can also freeze the cake for up to 3 months. I’d wrap individual cake slices in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. Once again, bring the cake slices to room temperature before serving.

Recipe Notes

• Cooling the cake in the tin for 10 minutes will help it more easily pop out of the bundt tin and stay in one piece. If you try to remove it while the cake’s still hot, you might have a crumbly cake on your hands instead.
• For a deeper chocolate flavor, fold up to 1 cup of mini chocolate chips into the chocolate cake batter after you add the flour mixture.
• If you don’t want to add the cream cheese frosting, here are some other options:
  • Dust the cake with sifted powdered sugar.
  • Drizzle with vanilla glaze.
  • Add chocolate ganache.

Recipe FAQs

Can I make the red velvet bundt cake ahead of time?

Yes, you can make the red velvet bundt cake up to two days in advance and store it in an airtight container at room temperature. However, I’d add the icing on the day because it might bleed into the cake.

What’s the difference between all-purpose flour and cake flour?

Cake flour has less protein (gluten) compared to all-purpose flour. It is dense and milled to be ‘finer’ than normal all-purpose flour. You can use either in this red velvet bundt cake recipe but if you want a lighter texture cake (meaning less dense) then use the cake flour.

But what do you do if you want a lighter cake but only have all-purpose flour? What you’re gonna do is take your all-purpose flour and for every cup remove 2 tablespoons of the flour and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. This will make the cake less dense. But if you are happy with a denser bundt cake, then just substitute one to one: cake flour versus all-purpose flour.

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