15+ Velvet Cake Recipes

There's just nothing better than a moist cake with a velvety soft texture- today we are sharing our FAVORITE Velvet Cake recipes.

Most people immediately think of Red Velvet Cake when they hear "velvet cake recipe". We love red velvet cake and have a few variations on the site. However, today we are featuring all of our velvet cakes in many different flavors!

Collage of our favorite Velvet Cake Recipes

When we refer to velvet cake, we are referring to a cake that has a velvety soft texture. This soft, tender crumb is achieved with acidic ingredients- usually buttermilk.

However, our "secret ingredient" that we also love to use is softened cream cheese in cake batter (sometimes in addition to buttermilk).

This adds richness and a magical velvety texture. These cakes have an incredibly fine crumb as well. We loved our "cream cheese" recipes so much that we made a whole series of "Velvet Cakes"!

Keep these trusted recipes in mind the next time you need a birthday cake recipe, holiday cake, or are just craving a fantastic dessert.

Our most popular velvet cakes are: white velvet cake, lemon velvet cake, and vanilla velvet cake, but we love them all!

15+ Velvet Cake Recipes

We love these ultra moist, velvety soft cake recipes! Most contain buttermilk as well as softened cream cheese in the cake batter.

White Velvet Cake

This White Velvet Cake has amazing flavor and texture. It is our most popular white cake, and it is the lightest shade of our white cakes as well! We love the ultra fine crumb and light texture. Perfect for birthdays, showers, weddings, and more!

Lemon Velvet Cake

This moist Lemon Velvet Cake has a fine, moist, and tender crumb. This lemon layer cake is filled with lemon curd and whipped cream, and frosted with lemon buttercream- but could be paired with all sorts of fillings and frostings.

Red Velvet Pound Cake

This tender Red Velvet Pound Cake with cream cheese frosting is one of our favorites! If you love pound cake (or red velvet cake), this one's for you!

Yellow Velvet Cake

This yellow velvet cake is a wonderful yellow cake recipe- rich with a fine crumb, and the perfect match for chocolate frosting!

White Chocolate Velvet Cake

This white chocolate velvet cake (not to be confused with our white velvet cake) ;0) - has a richness and subtle sweetness from the white chocolate in the recipe. It is heavenly!

Berry Cheesecake Cake

This Berry Cheesecake Cake takes our vanilla velvet cake layers to a new level! A creamy berry cheesecake layer is sandwiched between two vanilla velvet cake layers, filled with whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries. It is the perfect summertime dessert!

Vanilla Velvet Cake

This moist Vanilla Velvet Cake is rich, creamy, and delicious. The cream cheese in the cake batter along with the buttermilk make for an ultra tender, velvety soft cake. You will love the vanilla flavor as well!

Chocolate Velvet Cake

This heavenly chocolate cake has a velvety soft, creamy texture from the cream cheese in the batter! It is fluffy and moist with a fine crumb and just the right amount of chocolate!

Almond Cream Cake

This moist, delicious Almond Cream Cheese Layer Cake is so soft and tender with the perfect amount of almond flavor! We love it for all sorts of special occasions from birthdays to showers, holidays and more!

Lemon Mascarpone Cake

This amazing lemon mascarpone cake has a fine crumb, richness, and velvety soft texture- this time, thanks to the mascarpone in the cake batter! Much like cream cheese, the mascarpone adds something really special to the texture of this lemon cake!

Coconut Velvet Cake

This moist Coconut Velvet Cake is named for its velvety soft texture. It is so tender and decadent, with a luscious coconut seven minute filling and frosting.

Red Velvet Cake - Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

This delicious Red Velvet Cake is super moist and has just the right amount of chocolate flavor. I love red velvet year-round, but especially for Christmas and winter gatherings!

Cherry Almond Cake

This decadent Cherry Almond Cake is super moist with the perfect balance of cherry and almond flavor. It is a beautiful cake for all sorts of special occasions!

Homemade Strawberry Cake

This delicious strawberry cake is a favorite on our site! As with many of our other featured "velvet cake" recipes, this recipe calls for cream cheese in the cake batter. Strawberry puree and extracts give it a wonderful boost of flavor (as well as sliced strawberries in the filling)!

Red Velvet Cupcakes from Scratch

Moist and Delicious Red Velvet Cupcakes! This recipe is always a favorite (and can be used for cake layers as well!) We love to swirl them with cream cheese frosting!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

This is such a pretty cake and so delicious too! A creamy layer of cheesecake is sandwiched between two moist homemade red velvet cake layers! Perfect anytime of year but we especially love it for Christmas and winter celebrations!

Strawberry Lemonade Cake

This delicious Strawberry Lemonade Cake consists of moist strawberry cake layers with lemon cream cheese frosting! Such a delicious, refreshing combination of flavors. (These cake layers are from our Homemade Strawberry Cake- another "velvet" cake with cream cheese in the cake batter.)

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This amazing cream cheese pound cake has become a new favorite for us! It has all of the qualities that we love in a cake- super fine crumb, velvety soft, and a lovely richness (without being heavy). Like many of our "velvet cakes", this pound cake has a block of softened cream cheese in the batter. (Our Buttermilk Pound Cake is a close relative-- also wonderful texture) ;0)

Pink Velvet Cake

Everything is better in pink! This Pink Velvet Cake has a wonderful vanilla flavor and velvety soft crumb. It is perfect for birthday celebrations, baby showers, Barbie themed parties, or for anyone that loves pink!

Velvet Cake FAQs

The velvet cakes need to be refrigerated if a perishable filling or frosting is used. For instance, if it has whipped cream filling, lemon curd, cream cheese frosting, etc. it should be refrigerated. Of course, our Berry Cheesecake Cake which has vanilla velvet layers needs refrigeration also ;0)

If you do need to refrigerate your velvet cake because of the filling or frosting, store in an airtight container or under a cake dome. Then, remove from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow the cake plenty of time to warm and soften.

Yes! These velvet cake layers freeze beautifully. After baking, allow the layers to cool, and then wrap each layer in plastic wrap followed by foil. We usually wrap our layers while they are still slightly warm.

For extra support, you can place each layer on a foil-wrapped cake board before wrapping.

Freeze the velvet cake layers for up to three months!

When you are ready to thaw, move the cake layers, still wrapped, to the kitchen counter. Thaw for 30-45 minutes before unwrapping and continuing to thaw to desired amount.

(If you have made a bundt cake, move to the refrigerator the night before, and then move to the counter the next morning.)

Many of these "velvet cake" recipes have cream cheese in the cake batter (many along with buttermilk). You likely will not detect the flavor of the cream cheese- but it adds a wonderful richness of flavor and texture!

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this delicious roundup of flavorful, ultra moist velvet cakes. If you give any of these a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below!

Also, make sure to check out our full collection of Cake Recipes including more cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!