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!

151 Comments

Can Greek yogurt be subbed for the sour cream?

Hi Tammie, yes, that will be fine.

Hi there, is this recipe suitable for cuppies?

Hi Shirley, yes, it is. If baking standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes

Thanks so much, BeBe.

Hello,
According to my sour cream container , 1 cup= 8 ounces is 227 grams. I'm just wondering because the sour cream in your recipe, 242grams= 1 cup. Which is correct?
Thanks,
Amy

Hi Amy, I can see why you have a question about that. I very often use the gram weight chart from Rose Levy Bernbaum, author of The Cake Bible. I did use 242 grams sour cream in the recipe but I think you would be fine using 227g. I may need to change that weight. Thanks so much for your post.

Would it alter the recipe too much to use a white cake mix?

Hi Kayley, you can use the white cake mix. The only change you need to make is you should use whole eggs instead of egg whites. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Could you add chocolate chips to the recipe?

Hi Alicai, yes, you can add chocolate chips to the cake batter. I would use mini chips because they do not sink to the bottom as the full size chips do.

I tried this recipe today using red velvet cake mix and it came out moist and delicious. Only problem was it was a dark red almost chocolate in colour. I also used self raising flour instead of cake flour. H
What do I change to give me a nice red colour? And is it okay to use self raising flour instead of cake flour?