I’m such a sucker for red velvet anything.
The problem with that is that not all red velvet desserts are created equally. Some red velvet cakes are dry and tasteless and sad. Others are as tasty as they are pretty.
This red velvet sheet cake is the latter. It is moist and has great red velvet flavor. It is similar to a Texas sheet cake, and it has a lot of the same good qualities as that cake (easy to make, tender, and great flavor).
The cake is topped with a tangy cream cheese icing for that nice contrast of tangy and sweet. I use a little buttermilk in the frosting to up the tang, but you can use regular milk if you prefer.
More red velvet recipes!
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Red Velvet Sheet Cake
Easy red velvet cake recipe
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder*
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 oz.)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz. cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 1-3 tablespoons buttermilk
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 15x10-inch rimmed baking pan. Set aside.
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Stir flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
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In a heavy saucepan over low heat, combine butter, water, and cocoa powder. Bring to boil, stirring constantly.
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Remove from heat, and stir in eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and food color.Stir until well-combined.
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Stir in flour mixture until combined.
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Pour batter into prepared pan.
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Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Cool in the pan to room temperature.
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To make the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until well-combined.
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Stir in powdered sugar and enough milk to make desired consistency.
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Frost cooled bars with cream cheese frosting.
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Chill any leftovers.
Recipe Notes
*Not Dutch-processed
**Nutrition values are estimates.
***Whipped Buttercream Frosting is a great alternative frosting if you prefer vanilla frosting to cream cheese frosting.
Nutrition facts per serving (1g)
Adapted from BHG.
Janet says
This cake turned out soooo good!! I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 14 x 20 sheet pan & tooknit to a church pot luck. It was a huge hit!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Kate says
I’m so glad! Thanks for the note about doubling it. That’s really helpful. Thanks for commenting! =)
Nancy says
Delicious! Moist and sweet but not too sweet. Made it for a work Halloween potluck and everyone loved it!
Kate says
Yay!! I’m so glad that the cake was a hit! Thank you for taking the time to come back and comment! =)
Maureen says
Best red velvet cake! I don’t really like red velvet cake but had to make one for an event. This was very easy to make and absolutely delicious. My daughter, the baker in the family, said it was the moistest cake she’d ever had.
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that everyone liked it. =) Thanks for coming back to comment!
Nancy says
Wonderful recipe! I made this for a potluck, and I got several recipe requests. Thank you for the lovely recipe!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m glad that the cake a hit! This is one I like to make for potlucks, too. Thank you for coming back to comment. =)
Shubham Singh says
This Red Velvet is looking so delicious.
Kate says
Thank you!
Leslie says
Hi there! I’m curious about something. I’m making a double layer 1/2 sheet cake for a wedding shower. I’m not finding many recipes that people use for this. I want to use yours because your cake looks the most moist, but my pans are larger. They are 2 x 18.6 x 12.5. Do you think this recipe (doubled, of course) will work for this? I’m not wanting each cake to be it’s full height since I am stacking them. Just wondering what your thoughts are on the cooking time? Thanks in advance!
Kate says
Thank you! Gosh, I haven’t tried to double this recipe, so I’m not sure how it will work out. Normallly, when I double something (like brownies), I add 5-10 minutes on and then go from there. However, if you don’t want the cakes to be full height, they may bake in the same amount of time. I’m just not sure, and I’d hate to steer you wrong.
Anisa says
Hi
I want to know when adding the eggs do you let the coco mixture cool or just add the eggs
Kate says
Hi! I don’t let it cool first. I make sure that I’m whisking the whole time I’m adding, though, because otherwise the eggs will scramble. Hope that helps!
Jezreel says
Can I sub the water for milk or coconut oil? That’s usually what I do for thw majority of my recipes but I don’t want to mess it up?!
Kate says
I’m not sure! Can I ask why you wouldn’t want to use water?
Subbing milk for water can create a richer cake, but since there’s already buttermilk in the cake, I’m not sure what effect adding additional milk will have.
I would be hesitant to add a cup of coconut oil to the cake in place of the cup of water. The water helps to create a lighter, fluffier batter, and the coconut oil won’t have that same effect.
Esther Mabry says
Have you ever removed the cake from the pan for decorating?
Kate says
I haven’t. I keep the cake in the pan to frost and serve.
Rebecca says
Tasted great, it was fairily easy to make. Cake wss fuffy and tasted not so sweet, which was nice with the frosting I made (from another recipe, it was coockie dough buttercream). The one off thing about this cake is that it looks very dark, not very red at all – I added a lot of gel-colouring which would have colored red 4 batches of cookies, but it was “killed off” by the chocolate…
Kate says
Glad you liked it! I used regular liquid food color and didn’t have any issues with the color. Maybe all of the gel color, which is more concentrated, gave it a darker color?
Michelle Sheehan says
Hi! I am making this for my son’s lacrosse team. How many teenagers will this feed? :) It looks delicious and their team colors are red,white and black!
Kate says
Thanks! Normally, I would say that it makes 20-24 servings. For teenagers? Maybe half of that. =) Hope that helps!
Jim says
Was a great recipe, was a hit
Kate says
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! =)
June says
So I just baked my first red velvet cake and I must say it came out very very good thank you.
Kate says
I’m so glad! Congrats on baking your first red velvet cake! =)
Linda says
Hi my name is Linda I would like to know could this receipe be baked in an 11×15 sheet cake pan
Kate says
I haven’t tried baking it in an 11×15. I would guess that it would work, but you would probably need to adjust the baking time. Good luck!
Julie says
This looks wonderful!
Kate says
Thank you!!