This Red Velvet Cake Doctored Cake Mix Recipe belongs in your recipe file of favorites! It is amazingly moist, delicious, and has just the right amount of chocolate flavor.

Add a little cream cheese frosting, and it is pure heaven! It's no wonder that Red Velvet Cake has long been a beloved classic southern dessert!

The BEST doctored Red Velvet Cake recipe by MyCakeSchool.com! Tastes like a scratch recipe and is super moist and flavorful! MyCakeSchool.com.

We have a Scratch Red Velvet Cake recipe that we love, but we were determined to find a doctored cake mix version that we loved just as much. This is it!

When I brought this leftover doctored cake mix version of Red Velvet Cake home to my family, they absolutely loved it, and couldn't believe that it wasn't a scratch recipe. This cake disappeared in record time!

We have experimented with using actual Red Velvet Cake Mix in doctored mix recipes in the past and were never happy with the flavor. This is why we chose to use Yellow Cake Mix as the base, and simply add red coloring.

**A note about the color: this Red Velvet Cake is not a vibrant red...it is more of a "chocolate red". The lighting in the photo above makes it look a bit more red. Red Velvet cakes come in all shades of red depending on how much cocoa the recipe calls for, and of course the amount of red coloring used.

We loved the chocolate flavor of this cake so much that we didn't want to remove any of the cocoa. However, if you'd prefer a deeper red, you can remove some of the cocoa and add more coloring. It's up to you! (But we love it just as it is!)

Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting go hand in hand. You can find our favorite Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe here!: Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting.

The BEST doctored cake mix Red Velvet Cake recipe! Super moist, delicious, and fantastic with Cream Cheese Frosting! MyCakeSchool.com.

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!

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake mix, sifted (15.25 box mix) plus 6 Tablespoons (45g) flour ( I used Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Mix)
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
5 Tablespoons (24g) unsweetened cocoa powder ( I sift the cocoa , then measure or weight
½ cup (107g) vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
½ cup (121g) milk
1 cup (242g) sour cream
2 Tablespoons (24g) red food coloring ( if you want a brighter red color to your cake, add 3 Tablespoons)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease and flour 2 eight inch round pans

In the bowl of your mixer, place the cake mix plus flour, sugar, sifted cocoa. Whisk to blend these ingredients together. Then add all the remaining ingredients.

Begin mixing on low speed, increasing to medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat at medium speed for 1 more minute (longer if using a hand mixer.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30 - 35 minutes (check at 30 minutes). The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean or with a just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out.

Makes 6 ¼ cups batter

Works well for cupcakes

We frosted with our Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

*You may like to try our fantastic Red Velvet Cake recipe from scratch as we mentioned above! Print this one out for later: Delicious Red Velvet Cake from Scratch

Don't forget to check out our full collection of favorite cake and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section! Or, for free, fun, and simple cake decorating tutorials, don't miss our Free Cake Tutorials Section!

Thanks for stopping by!

150 Comments

Do you think this recipe would work for a small tiered cake? I'm making a 3 or 4 inch cake to stack on top of a 6 inch cake.

Hi Tamara, The recipe will be fine for your cake.

Hi Rachel, I put the milk and sour cream out when begin preheating the oven. The chill is off but they are not at room temperature. I put the eggs in a bowl of very warm water for about 5 minutes.

Hi. What happens if I leave out the sour cream? What does the sour cream do when used in a cake recipe? Can I use 2% milk or applesauce if that's all I have?

Hi Ludivina, Sour cream has a high fat content, it makes cakes more moist and rich. If you don't have sour cream, a good substitute is yogurt. Greek yogurt is best but regular yogurt would be fine also. Another option is cottage cheese. You could also use buttermilk. If you do not have buttermilk, this is how to make a substitute. Using a 1 cup measuring cup for liquid, add 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. Add whole or 2% milk to the 1 cup mark. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes and it will be ready to use.

I'm new to baking, I thought sour cream would make a cake more dense? Is that inaccurate information?

Hi Mary, There can be confusion when using the word dense in describing a cake. It often means the cake has a tight crumb (dense) but it is also very tender. Dense is also used to describe a cake that falls due to baking at the wrong temperature or other reasons.

How many cupcakes will this make?

I don't know for sure but I think it will make 24 to 26 standard size cupcakes.

Thank you for answering everyone’s questions ❤️
Not everyone does that.
I found my answer just by reading the comments

Melissa Diamond says:

December 31, 2021 at 11:06 pm

Thanks, we hope that you enjoy the recipe!

Reply

Can you bake this doctored cake mix red velvet cake
In a sheet cake pan?

BeBe says:

November 6, 2022 at 1:21 pm

Hi Mae, Yes, it can be baked in a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 and keep an eye on it, it will be done when a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few
crumbs attached. Check at about 22 minutes.

Reply