Seeing red? Not anymore. This no-dye red velvet cake recipe is made without food coloring for a moist, sweet Southern layer cake that lets cocoa’s natural ruddiness shine through.
This recipe was originally published in 2021, and updated September 2024.
Take it from a professional pastry chef: Yes, you can leave the food coloring out of red velvet cake.
Admission: I do not like chocolate. Never have. I held this secret shame with me throughout pastry school, when I would smile through the pain of tasting our chocolate truffles or dark chocolate mousse assignments. I became an expert in hiding my “just a sliver” slice on the plate at a birthday party. Chocolate just tastes very bitter to me. But I have two exceptions: 1) Reese’s Cups, and 2) this cake.
This No-Dye Red Velvet Layer Cake Recipe is one of my favorites: moist, full of sweet cocoa flavor and made without Day-Glo red food coloring, so the cake’s natural warm reddish-brown hue can shine.
You can make a beautiful red velvet cake without food coloring (or beets, the most common natural substitute for food dye). Read on to learn why.
This makes a wonderful birthday cake or holiday dessert, especially around Christmas. (You may also like this fudgy Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie recipe as a holiday option).
Skip the dye, up the beauty.
I know many people like their red velvet cake to be bright red. I get that; it looks fun and you know exactly what cake it is from half a mile away. That said, cutting into a real red velvet cake has always made me feel like I was committing cake murder. Think Ouiser in Steel Magnolias.
Most red velvet cake recipes use an entire bottle of food coloring. This feels less terrible if you use a natural food coloring, but standard red food dye contains ingredients like propylene glycol, FD&C reds 40 and 3, and propylparaben. Yikes. I picture these chemicals coloring my entire digestive track for days. Possibly weeks.
And for what?
The best part about red velvet cake is the velvet part, not the color. In other words, the moist cake made from buttermilk, sugar, flour, cocoa, vanilla, and eggs.
Making red velvet cake without food coloring lets the cocoa be the star. Plus, the reaction of the alkaline cocoa and baking soda with the acidic buttermilk and vinegar gives the finished cake a beautiful reddish-brown color all its own.
No-Dye Velvet Layer Cake: Recipe Notes
- This red velvet cake recipe is adapted from one of my favorite custom cake bakers, Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes in New York City. Elisa has some great online cake sculpting and decorating classes, and a wonderful book if you are interested in fancy cake decorating.
- Be sure to sift your cocoa. Always. Cocoa clumps in a cake batter otherwise. These clumps are virtually impossible to get out without straining the entire batter or whipping the batter on high, which is bad because it will activate gluten and make the cake tough.
- Cake flour vs. all-purpose flour. This recipe uses cake flour. Cake flour has less gluten than all-purpose flour. This makes a more tender, lighter cake. No cake flour? No problem. You can easily substitute by removing two tablespoons of all-purpose flour per cup, and replacing it with two tablespoons of cornstarch.
- How to tell when your cake is done. Baking times are always approximate. Your cake is done when it springs back when lightly touched on top, and a cake tester comes out clean.
Jump To:
Red Velvet Layer Cake: Next Steps
Now that you’ve baked your cake, here are some more useful cake tips and recipes, for your reference:
- Here is my post on how to frost and decorate a layer cake, and what tools every home baker should have to make it beautiful
- Here is my recipe for classic vanilla buttercream frosting, enough to full and coat the cake, or enough for all of the cupcakes.
- You can also decorate a sprinkle cake!
- If you are feeling a bit more ambitious, here’s the recipe for my Swiss meringue buttercream. Swiss meringue buttercream is made with egg whites and hot sugar for a fluffy, silky buttercream that’s less cloying than frosting can taste.
Did you make this No Dye Red Velvet Cake? You’ll also enjoy these other fabulous layer cakes:
- Buttermilk Birthday Funfetti Cake
- How to Decorate a Cake With Sprinkles
- The Commissary Carrot Cake
- Spiced Apple Rye Layer Cake
Velvet Layer Cake Without Food Coloring
Ingredients
- 2 2/3 cups cake flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted (I like Hershey's)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups neutral vegetable oil, like canola
- 1 2/3 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- scant 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1/4 cup cold water (or food coloring, if you must)
- Buttercream frosting, to decorate (recipe follows)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease two 9" cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper, or line muffin tins.
- Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, and salt and set aside.PRO TIP: You must sift the dry ingredients, especially the cocoa powder. Cocoa powder, if left unsifted, will clump in the batter.
- In the bowl of a large mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the oil and sugar on medium until fully mixed and lightened slightly in color. Lower the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Add each egg when the previous one is almost fully mixed in. Scrape the bowl and beat on medium until everything is fully emulsified and smooth.
- With the mixer on low, alternately add the flour/cocoa mixture and the buttermilk in two additions each: flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk. Scrape the bowl and mix again on low until everything is emulsified.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda and white vinegar. It will sizzle like a mini-volcano science experiment. Add this to the cake batter with the 1/4 cup water (or food coloring, if using) and mix on medium speed for about 10 seconds to fully combine. Scrape the bowl.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the cake pans or muffin tins and bake on the center rack until done, about 25 to 35 minutes for 9" cake layers, and about 18 to 20 minutes for cupcakes.
- Let cool in the cake pans until you can handle them without an oven mitt, but are still warm. Turn out onto cooling racks, removing the parchment from the bottom of the cakes, and cool fully before eating or decorating. PRO TIP: The best way to remove cakes from a cake pan is to run a small offset spatula around the edges first, with the front of the spatula facing outward so it does not accidentally cut into the cake. I like this Ateco one, and find it indispensable.
- To layer and decorate you cakes, use this recipe for classic vanilla buttercream frosting, or whip up a Swiss meringue buttercream.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutrition information is provided for courtesy purposes only, and is an estimate not verified by medical or nutrition experts. Read the full nutrition disclaimer.
92 comments
Rose
Hi, what do you mean by scant one cup buttermilk?
Unpeeled
Hi, Rose! Scant basically means to take one cup and then take out a tablespoon, so it’s on the low end of the fill line 🙂 Hope you enjoy the cake!
lauren
hi, i haven’t made this yet, but it looks delicious and you explain it very well. question, can i use AP flour instead of cake flour?
Unpeeled
Hi, Lauren! I hope you like it. Cake flour will make for a more tender cake. You could substitute all-purpose flour, but I recommend making your own “cake flour”: For every cup of all-purpose flour, remove two tablespoons and replace it with cornstarch.
JI
But what makes it red if you don’t use food coloring. It’s just a chocolate cake then? I’ve been wondering if beet juice would work for the red.
Johnathan
non alkalized coco powder mixed with vinegar turns it red. make a simple google search before commenting. hope this helps!!
Unpeeled
If you want a very vivid red, you definitely want to consider adding some food coloring. Beet juice is a great way to go. You can also buy natural food-based coloring at Whole Foods or online. (The brand I recommend is India Tree.) But you will actually get a reddish, ruddy color naturally due to the chemical interaction between the cocoa and baking soda (alkalis) and the buttermilk (acid). I hope you enjoy!
Naomi
LOVE IT!!
Unpeeled
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it. It’s one of my favorite cake recipes of all time.
Jennifer
Hello, I’d love to make this cake as a single layer tray bake. Which size baking tin would you recommend? Would I need to adjust the cooking time?
Thank you 🙂
Unpeeled
Hi, Jennifer! I recommend a 9 x 13 x 2″ cake pan. Just make sure the cake batter does not fill beyond 2/3 full and you’ll be just fine. The baking time will increase a little since it’s all baking in the same pan. I’m not sure how long exactly, but just bake until the center springs back and a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!
Helen
Have you ever tried this with butter in place of the oil? I love the taste of butter and usually cakes have you cream the butter and sugar, so I’d think it should work. I’m unsure though!
Unpeeled
Hi, Helen! Great question. Whipping softened butter into the batter instead of liquid oil could actually make this too aerated, and rise too much given the amount of other leaveners. I agree with you about the deliciousness of butter, however. Try substituting the equal amount of melted, slightly cooled butter. I bet it’s great. Happy baking!
Cindy
Thanks for a great recipe! But a note, the character in Steel Magnolias is Ouiser, not Weezer.
Unpeeled
Hi, Cindy! You have absolutely blown my mind with this movie fact–I don’t know why I always assumed it was Weezer! (I guess because I once knew someone named Louise who went by Weezie?) I am going to correct this right now, and thank you so much for this great insight. Hope you enjoy the cake.
Linda
I absolutely love this recipe!! But I’ve never been able to find at what point you combine the oil mixture with the flour mixture. Is this done before you add the buttermilk?
Thank you for clarifying.
Linda
Unpeeled
Hi, Linda! Thanks for writing. If you look in step 3 of the directions, you’ll see that you combine it with the sugar! Hope this helps, and happy baking.
Augusta
I made this cake for my stepdaughter’s birthday. Red Velvet is her favorite but I did not want to use the food coloring so I thought I would give it a try. It came out great. Absolutely delicious. Everyone loved it! this recipe as a keeper. Thank you so much.
Unpeeled
Fantastic! Thanks so much and I am so glad that it turned out well.
Kassandra Harris
Hello! I have not made this recipe yet but would like to try it. I am making a smash cake for my niece for her first birthday and my sister-in-law wants a red velvet cake without any dyes, so I thought this recipe looked perfect! She really wants it to be a vibrant red though, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading on beet root powder. Would I be able to add it to this recipe to enhance the red color, and if so how much would you recommend??
Anna Caraballo
Just curious why you would rate 3 stars just to ask a question? Her ratings take a hit by you rating it less than 5 stars so I’m just curious if you just didn’t know that or if you had a problem with the recipe?
Unpeeled
Great question, Anna. Thanks for the support!
Unpeeled
Hello! Thanks so much for writing. You can certainly add beet root powder. India Tree also makes nice natural food colorings, and is generally available in grocery stores (especially such as Whole Foods). As for beet powder quantity, if you want a very vibrant cake, I would guess that you will need a generous amount. I’m going to ballpark at least 1/4 cup, but you may need even more. As my favorite pastry chef instructor at the CIA used to tell us–much to our frustration!–just do it ’til it’s right. In that spirit, start with 1/4 cup, then go by tablespoon until the batter is a super red color. I’d love to know what you end up with!