The Best Pink Velvet Cake
Serves 14
45 mins prep
20 mins cook
65 mins total
This pink velvet cake is ultra fluffy, tender, moist, and frosted with a luxurious cream cheese frosting. It’s pink inside and has vintage piping decorations all over the sides and top! It’s similar to red velvet cake, but doesn’t contain any cocoa powder. It has the gorgeous dense velvety texture and subtle tang that you expect from a red velvet cake! It’s the perfect pink birthday cake, vintage birthday cake, or even a princess party cake. You can decorate it as elaborately or as simply as you like!
Cake Layers
Cream Cheese Frosting
Congratulations!
Save $4 cashback on Banza Spaghetti Made From Chickpeas. Scan QR-code and claim coupon
Claim $4 coupon
Congratulations!
Save $4 cashback on Banza Spaghetti Made From Chickpeas. Scan QR-code and claim coupon
Cake Layers
Preheat oven to 355°F (180°C). Grease three 8” round baking pans with a bit of cold butter and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine softened butter, oil, sugar, and salt. Beat with an electric mixer until lightened in color and increased in volume. Scrape down the bowl.
⅕ cup unsalted butter⅕ cup vegetable oil¼ cups granulated sugar⅕ teaspoon sea saltAdd half of the egg whites, blend, then the rest of the egg whites and blend. Beat until increased in volume and thick. Add vanilla extract and vinegar, blend.
1 large egg whites⅕ tablespoon pure vanilla extract⅕ tablespoon vinegarAdd pink food coloring, one pea sized amount at a time until you get a pink color. It will lighten a bit after adding the flour so make it slightly darker than you’d like.
⅕ teaspoon pink gel food coloringSift half of the cake flour, all of the baking powder, and all of the baking soda into the bowl with the batter. Add the buttermilk and fold with a whisk to incorporate. Sift the rest of the flour in and fold well with a whisk to break up most of the lumps to make a mostly smooth batter. Don’t overmix.
½ cups cake flour⅓ teaspoons baking powder⅕ teaspoon baking soda⅕ cup buttermilkEvenly divide the batter between the greased and lined baking pans. Smooth the batter tops and gently tap them on a counter to release any large air pockets. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs attached.
Remove from the oven and let the layers cool for 8 minutes inside the pans. Loosen the edges with a spatula and turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely.
When cooled, use a serrated knife and a sawing motion to gently trim the edges, top, and bottom of the layers. Only trim the golden brown bits to give you clean, pink layers.
Cream Cheese Frosting
In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter with a paddle attachment until creamy and lightened in color.
⅓ cups butterAdd the salt and powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Beat well in between each addition and scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently. Whip until very creamy and light. The longer you whip, the creamier the frosting will be.
⅕ teaspoon sea salt1 cups powdered sugarAdd pieces of cream cheese, blending well before adding the next. The frosting will become very light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat again.
1 ⅕ oz cream cheese⅕ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Assembly
Smear a small dollop of frosting onto a serving plate or cake stand. Place the first layer of cake down. Spread about ⅓ cup of frosting in an even layer on top. Continue until the last layer.
Cover the stacked cake with a very thin layer of frosting all over the top and sides. Use a long metal spatula or cake scraper to help spread. Pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes to set and lock in the crumbs.
While the crumb coat chills, work on dividing and coloring the remaining frosting. Transfer about 1 cup of frosting into a medium bowl (this is for the white piping) and color the remaining frosting a pale pink color.
Pink gel food coloringCover the cake with the pale pink colored frosting and smooth the sides and top. Set aside a third of the remaining frosting and add more red and pink food coloring into the rest of the frosting. This will be the darker pink piping color. You should have 3 colors in piping bags: white, pink, and dark pink.
Red gel food coloringPink gel food coloringTransfer the white, pink, and darker pink frosting colors into three different piping bags. Use a large open star piping tip for the dark pink color. I used a Wilton 1M for the bottom border and embellishments, and a large drop flower tip for the top border. Use a small open star piping tip for the pale pink color, and for the white - I just cut the end off the piping bag to make a round tip. Pipe borders and swoops all along the edges and sides of the cake.
edible glitter spray
