Red Velvet Pound Cake

It's the season for all things red velvet- and this flavorful, moist Red Velvet Pound Cake is sure to become a new favorite!

Why we Love It

There are so many reasons to love this Red Velvet Pound Cake! If you love pound cake recipes or red velvet cakes in general, you must save this recipe!

• Moist and velvety soft
• The hint of cocoa
• Easy to decorate cream cheese frosting or a simple vanilla glaze.
• Its red shade makes it a perfect Christmas Cake and Valentine's Day Cake, but true fans of red velvet will love this cake any time of year!

How to Make a Red Velvet Pound Cake

This red velvet pound cake has all of the flavor that you love in a red velvet layer cake . As you would expect from a pound cake, it is more dense (in a good way!) and has a very fine, tender crumb and moist texture.

It has richness from the butter and heavy cream, a slight tanginess, and a subtle chocolate flavor.

You can find the full, printable cake recipe card further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a large tube pan (we used a 10 inch pan)

• In a separate bowl add the cake flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.  Whisk to combine and set aside.

• Add the butter to the bowl of your mixer, mix until smooth.  Gradually add the sugar and  mix until fluffy and lightened in color, this will take 3 to 5 minutes.

• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk is blended.

• Add the vanilla, white vinegar, and red coloring to the whipping cream. The vinegar adds a boost of acidity, making for a more tender cake. It will thicken the cream as it turns it to an extra rich version of buttermilk.

• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the whipping cream mixture.  Begin and end with the flour mixture. (We do three additions of dry ingredients and 2 of the wet ingredients.)  

• Fill the prepared bundt cake pan (we used a 10 inch cake pan)

• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a long wooden skewer or toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.  Ovens bake differently so check at around the 1 hour mark and adjust the baking time as needed.

• Allow the pound cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

Easy Cream Cheese Frosting

We love the combination of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting!

This recipe is a simple combination of cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners sugar, and vanilla. We are using a half-batch of our usual Cream Cheese Frosting.

Since cream cheese frostings are on the softer side, it is best to chill the bowl of frosting in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm it back up before decorating the cake.

Decorating the Red Velvet Pound Cake

We may not have cake layers to fill for today's Red Velvet Pound Cake, but we can add the cream cheese frosting to the top!

You can spread and swirl the frosting onto the top half of the cake using an offset spatula if you'd like, but we decided to add decorative piping using a large star (1M) piping tip.

We applied frosting stars and rosettes over the top of the cake (and partially down the side). I love the look! (If you'd like more info on piping with star tips, check out our video here: Star Tip Piping Basics

I started off by piping larger rosettes and then filled in with smaller rosettes and stars.

Recipe FAQs

More Classic Cake Recipes

In addition to today's Red Velvet Pound Cake, make sure to check out these other amazing special occasion cake recipes! Some of our most popular are our Carrot Cake Recipe, Strawberry Cake, Pineapple Cake, and Spice Cake.

*Also, if you love cakes baked in tube pans or bundt pans, don't miss our 25+ Favorite Bundt Cake Recipes or our collection of Pound Cake Recipes. These moist cakes have amazing flavor and are simple to make!

We also have hundreds of free cake decorating tutorials!

You'll find basics like How to Make a Cake, How to Frost a Cake, buttercream flower tutorials, birthday cake ideas, and so many more!

More Red Velvet Cake Recipes to Try

If you love red velvet cakes, don't miss these other moist cake recipes with amazing flavor! Some of our favorites are Red Velvet Coconut Cake, Red Velvet Cake from Scratch, Red Velvet Cake Mix recipe, and Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake.

Enjoy the Recipe!

We hope that you enjoy this Red Velvet Pound Cake! Keep this delicious dessert in mind for your next special occasion!

We also have hundreds more cakes to share with you in our Cake Recipes section! You'll find delicious cakes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!

Red Velvet Pound Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist Red Velvet Pound Cake has wonderful richness from the butter and cream in the recipe, and the perfect amount of chocolate flavor. We love it with cream cheese frosting!

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

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Ingredients

• ▢ 3 sticks 1 ½ cups (339g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 3 cups 600g sugar
• ▢ 5 large eggs room temperature (place in bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes if in a hurry)
• ▢ 3 cups 342g cake flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon 2g baking powder
• ▢ ⅓ cup Unsweetened Cocoa 29g
• ▢ ½ teaspoon 3g salt
• ▢ 1 ½ cups 348g heavy cream or whipping cream (we used heavy cream)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons 8g vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon White Vinegar
• ▢ 2 ½ Tablespoons Liquid Red Coloring adjust amount to your liking. Because of the cocoa, the batter/cake will not be bright red.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• ▢ 1 8oz Package Cream Cheese. We use full fat cream cheese. Using reduced fat or the spreadable cream cheese will cause the frosting to be too soft. Soften slightly.
• ▢ 1 teaspoon 4 g vanilla extract
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt 1g
• ▢ 3 to 3 ½ cups 345g to 373g powdered sugar

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a large tube pan. We used a 10 inch bundt pan.
• In a separate bowl add the cake flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.  Whisk to combine and set aside.
• Add the butter to the bowl of your mixer, mix until smooth.  Gradually add the sugar and  mix until fluffy and lightened in color, this will take 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
• In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the vanilla, white vinegar, and red coloring to the heavy/whipping cream. The mixture will thicken as the vinegar reacts to the cream.
• With an electric mixer on low speed (with paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), alternately add the flour mixture and the whipping cream mixture.  Begin and end with the flour mixture. (We do three additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet.)  Pour into prepared bundt pan.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a long wooden skewer or toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.  Ovens bake differently so check at around the 1 hour mark and adjust the baking time as needed.
• Allow the pound cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
• Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
• Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
• Decorating the CakeWe used our large star tip (1M) to pipe rosettes and stars over the top of the cake with the cream cheese frosting. If it is too soft, chill in the refrigerator for a few minutes. You can also spread the frosting on top of the cake with an offset spatula. (This is a half batch of our cream cheese frosting recipe).

Notes

Bundt Pans

If using a smaller bundt pan than the 10 inch one that we used, be careful over overfilling. You should have at least 1 ¼ inches from the top of the cake batter to the top edge of the pan to be on the safe side.

Because of the cream cheese in the recipe, this cake should be refrigerated. However, for best taste and texture, you should remove the cake for 2-3 hours before serving so that the cake can soften and warm closer to room temperature.

Freezing Instructions

Pound Cakes can be made in advance and frozen! After baking, allow the cake to cool on a wire rack. Then, place it on a foil-lined cake plate or board. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then foil, and freeze for up to three months. To thaw a pound cake or bundt cake, it's best to move it to the refrigerator the day before you need it. Then, continue to thaw on the kitchen counter for a few more hours the next day.

Cake Flour Substitution

(Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour) For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

Serving Instructions:

This cake should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. For best flavor and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving so that the cake and frosting have a chance to soften a bit.

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