Delicious Blue Velvet Cake Recipe.

Here you’ll find a delicious blue velvet cake recipe with a fine and moist crumb, covered with an easy cream cheese frosting perfect for cake decorating.

How to make a blue velvet cake?

Possible adaptation of this recipe.

Ingredients and substitutions.

This cake recipe requires different ingredients that could be substituted according to your needs :

• Room Temperature Unsalted Butter: You could try and swap it with a non-dairy alternative, but I haven’t tried it myself.
• Granulated Sugar: this recipe requires a fairly important amount of sugar, while you could reduce it, I don’t recommend it as it would impact the texture of the cake.
• Eggs: If you don’t eat eggs, you can try and swap them with an egg replacer.
• Vegetable Oil: you can actually use any flavorless oil of your choice, such as grapeseed oil or avocado oil.
• Buttermilk: I personally often swap buttermilk for a DIY buttermilk alternative (using milk and vinegar/lemon juice), and I swear nobody can tell the difference.
• White Vinegar: you could also use apple cider vinegar too, it doesn’t make any difference.
• Blue Gel Food Coloring: I have a preference for gel food coloring, as it has never let me down before, but I know some food creators would rather use powder food coloring. Feel free to experiment. I recommend you use the best quality food coloring you can afford whether it’s gel or powder form.
• Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder: you could try using Dutch-processed cocoa powder but you’d have to make sure your food coloring is of very good quality, as this kind of cocoa powder is darker.
• Cake Flour: If you don’t have any cake flour on hand, you could try swapping it with an easy cake flour substitute. Keep in mind the texture of your cake will be a little bit different.
• Baking Powder & Baking Soda: these two act as leavening agents.

Size adaptation of your blue velvet cake.

I tend to write my recipes for 3 layers of 6-inch cake tins, which also happen to be perfect for 2 layers of 7-inch cake pans. You can easily adapt this recipe to bigger cake tins though. Simply multiply the grams measurements by:

• 1.75 to get 3 layers of 8-inch cake pans.
• 2.20 to get 3 layers of 9-inch cake pans.
• 2.70 to get 3 layers of 10-inch cake pans.

If you end up having to divide an egg, mix the white and the yolk of the egg, then, add the desired measurements to your cake batter.

Bake the blue velvet cake layers.

1. Preheat your oven to 330°F (165°C) and prepare three 6-inch cake pans.
2. Microwave your milk in increments of thirty seconds just until it’s steamy. It took me 1’30 minutes.
3. Add the cocoa powder to the milk while simultaneously mixing with a whisk (or a fork). Once incorporated, set it aside.
4. In your mixing bowl, combine your flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder.
5. Add your room-temperature butter to it. Mix it on high speed with your hand mixer (or stand mixer with the paddle attachment) until it resembles wet sand. It should take you around 3 minutes.
6. Add one egg at a time with your hand mixer (or stand mixer).
7. Next, add the cocoa milk, the oil, the white vinegar, and the blue food coloring to your cake batter. Mix it all on high speed for 3 minutes.
8. Divide your cake batter into your cake tins.
9. Bake it at 330F° (165C°) until a toothpick comes out clean (around 27 minutes).

Make the cream cheese frosting.

1. Beat your room-temperature butter with a stand mixer until soft and spreadable.
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar in two additions and mix it all for at least 5 minutes. It’s important that you do so to get the best results.
3. Finally, add your cream cheese and vanilla essence and mix it just until smooth.
4. Set it aside until you’re ready to use it.

Assemble your blue velvet cake.

1. Make sure your cake layers are completely cooled and leveled before assembling your cake.
2. Then, alternate each cake layer with a layer of cream cheese frosting.
3. Finally, cover and decorate your cake.

Baker’s secrets.

In order to make sure you end up with the best results, here are three baker’s secrets (that are not so secret really):

• I cannot stress enough how using a kitchen scale is a game-changer when baking. I know the cup system is practical and easy, but once you try weighing your ingredients, you’ll regret not starting sooner both in terms of texture and taste.
• Temperature is also another game changer. Always use room temperature ingredients unless stated otherwise and preheat your oven, you’ll taste the difference.
• Finally, do not overmix your cake batter. Honestly, nine times out of ten, when someone has a problem with a cake recipe, it’s because they overmixed their cake batter. You’re in luck though, this blue velvet cake recipe uses the reverse creaming method, which makes overmixing easier to avoid.

How to decorate your blue velvet cake?

If you’re looking for unique cake decorating ideas, make sure to check one of my cake ideas blog posts. This cake is the perfect opportunity as this cream cheese frosting recipe is perfect for cake decorating. The cake designs are classified according to the cake decorating level they require and are paired with instructions on how to recreate them.

Can you make your blue velvet cake ahead?

You can easily make this blue velvet cake ahead. Spreading the process of a layer cake makes it way more manageable, especially for beginners. You have several options:

• You can freeze the cake layers for up to 6 weeks. Only make sure they’re tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.
• You could also make the frosting ahead and freeze it in plastic wrap or an air-tight container for up to a month. Once thawed, whip it again at your highest speed to allow it to come back together.

Whatever option you choose, let the cake layers, the frosting, or the entire cake thaw at room temperature before using / serving.