How I Developed The Perfect Chocolatey Red Velvet Cake
Shilpa Uskokovic spent days in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen making tray after tray of red velvet cake to develop her perfect recipe. Watch as she experiments with every variable to arrive at the ultimate red velvet—from the rich chocolatey taste to the fluffiest cream frosting—before publishing it for Bon Appétit.Get the entire recipe, plus access to over 50,000 more from Bon Appetit and Epicurious: https://bit.ly/3uLqs8D
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00:00 I spent the last two days making all these variations
00:03 of red velvet cake to end up with my dream version.
00:06 A big part of developing recipes is failure.
00:10 You figure out why you failed,
00:12 you try more things and then succeed.
00:15 Today I'm going to show you how I developed
00:17 my perfect red velvet cake.
00:19 [fast forward squeaking]
00:21 I feel like red velvet was a big deal,
00:24 like in 2013-ish.
00:27 That was like red velvet air freshener.
00:29 And candles.
00:31 And I want to think of this as red velvet cake's redemption.
00:35 You know how when you eat marble cake
00:37 and then you find yourself the perfect piece
00:39 with just the right amount of vanilla and chocolate?
00:42 It has this flavor that's a bit of both.
00:45 So I want my red velvet cake to taste distinctly chocolatey
00:50 without being overpowering.
00:51 I like to do my due diligence and research
00:54 and see what's out there.
00:55 And then I plot them all on like an Excel sheet.
00:57 I discovered that a lot of red velvet cake recipes
00:59 have barely any cocoa powder.
01:01 This is something I want to solve for.
01:02 I'm going into this with two recipes.
01:05 I want to see which one gives us the best texture.
01:08 The first one I'm going to do is using a one bowl method.
01:12 This one is loosely based on my chocolate sheet cake.
01:16 Okay, those are my dry ingredients.
01:18 And then we're going to work with ingredients.
01:20 But I'm going to start with a dry ingredient,
01:22 which is cocoa powder.
01:23 Cocoa powder is 14 grams because for my chocolate sheet cake
01:26 it had about 30.
01:28 And I don't want this to be strictly chocolate cake.
01:30 I'm going to bloom this first with my hot water.
01:33 Some of the water soluble compounds break open
01:36 when you introduce hot water.
01:37 The thing about using oil is it's fluid
01:40 at room temperature.
01:41 So it's going to keep the cake light and moist.
01:43 I'm going to use sour cream.
01:46 Gives you that lactic acid tank.
01:48 I need a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.
01:51 One egg in here.
01:53 I'm using gel food color.
01:55 They're much more concentrated
01:57 and you can get a nice color payoff.
01:59 So I'm actually going to go in a lower temperature
02:02 at 350 for like 10 minutes.
02:05 The second method is standard creaming.
02:07 Creaming method on the other hand uses a more solid fat.
02:11 So in this case I'm going to use butter.
02:12 And in a departure from red velvet cakes,
02:15 I'm going to actually use melted chocolate
02:17 instead of cocoa powder.
02:18 So it can give you that melting quality on your tongue.
02:21 Ooh, color looks great.
02:23 Very vibrant.
02:25 Back to the creaming method.
02:26 You paddle the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.
02:29 Then you introduce eggs.
02:30 Mix it enough for it to emulsify.
02:33 I am going to start adding
02:35 the wet and dry ingredients alternately.
02:37 Doing a little at a time will help it incorporate
02:40 without you working the mixture too much.
02:42 The texture looks really thick
02:45 but also fluffy at the same time.
02:47 The cakes have been cooling and things have happened.
02:53 The sides have collapsed in a little bit.
02:56 Maybe it was slightly under mixed.
02:57 I'm not evaluating for height.
02:58 The pan was a little too big.
03:00 So it's much thinner than what I would like.
03:03 You can see the difference in the crumb.
03:05 This, which is the one bowl method,
03:07 has like a more open crumb and bigger like bubbles.
03:11 It's supposed to be closed crumb.
03:12 And I think that's part of why it is called velvet
03:14 because the crumb is supposed to be velvety.
03:17 This one, which is the standard creaming,
03:20 has a much tighter, more even crumb.
03:23 Based on first looks,
03:24 I'm leaning towards the standard creaming method.
03:26 I'm trying the one bowl.
03:28 Tastes like a nostalgic chocolate cake.
03:32 I think it's a little too chocolaty for me.
03:34 Let's try this one.
03:35 I really like the crumb on this one.
03:37 It melts away.
03:40 Very soft, very tender.
03:42 Maybe it's even a little too tender.
03:45 And that would explain also why it kind of sank on the sides.
03:48 - Jesse.
03:49 Okay, don't stop.
03:53 - No, I'm just trying.
03:54 - We're not judging for visuals.
03:55 - Okay.
03:56 - We're just judging for taste.
03:58 - Is this oil?
03:59 - This is oil.
03:59 - And this is butter?
04:00 - That's butter.
04:01 - Okay.
04:02 I'll eat the oil one first.
04:03 - Okay, yeah, do that.
04:04 - I do like the structure.
04:04 This feels a lot different.
04:10 - Yeah.
04:11 - Like it's hefty.
04:12 - Yeah.
04:13 I feel like this has a slight structural issue.
04:16 - Yeah, it's like dense and-
04:17 - Yeah.
04:18 - Stodgy.
04:19 - That's not the word I would use, but okay.
04:20 - Okay.
04:21 Have I offended you?
04:22 - I was like damp and melting.
04:24 You're like, "It's stodgy, bitch."
04:26 - I could see this texture being really nice
04:28 if it just had more lift.
04:29 - I think it needs more acid to activate the leavener.
04:34 What if I do brown sugar?
04:36 - Yes.
04:37 - Instead of the white sugar.
04:38 - 'Cause that would react too
04:38 and it might give you more lift.
04:40 - Yes.
04:40 - Would you ever introduce a powder?
04:42 Or no, baking powder.
04:43 - A baking powder instead of the soda?
04:45 - Or a combo to like help the reaction along.
04:48 - Okay, I can do that.
04:49 - And I do think go intense on the red food coloring.
04:52 - Okay.
04:53 - Like I wanna taste it.
04:54 People don't realize that it has a taste.
04:56 - Oh, yeah.
04:56 - It has like a strange bitterness
04:57 that to me is red velvet.
04:59 - Thanks, Jesse.
05:00 Very helpful.
05:01 - It's good.
05:02 - The next one I'm going to do a brown sugar version
05:05 of the creaming.
05:06 Everything is the same,
05:07 except I'm going to switch the sugar.
05:09 Brown sugar has molasses in it,
05:11 which makes it more acidic for the baking soda to react.
05:14 The second variation, I am going to switch up the leaveners.
05:17 I'm going to do half a teaspoon baking soda
05:20 and half a teaspoon of baking powder.
05:23 I'm going to keep it 200 grams of white sugar.
05:26 For these variations of the standard creaming,
05:28 I'm just going to stick with doing the melted chocolate.
05:31 Each bowl also is going to get sour cream, salt, vanilla,
05:36 liquid food colors.
05:38 Since you have to use more liquid
05:40 to get the same payoff as gel,
05:42 it's going to introduce its own sort of flavor.
05:45 Not switching the butter.
05:47 This one is white sugar.
05:48 This is brown sugar.
05:49 Both my mixtures have been creaming,
05:52 and I think I'm ready to move on to the next step,
05:54 which is adding the eggs.
05:56 Wasn't as gentle with mixing it this time.
06:01 It's going to build a little bit more structure
06:03 and not sort of collapse in on itself.
06:05 In the meantime, I'm going to get started on my frosting.
06:09 One is like a cream cheese frosting,
06:11 and one is something called an ermine frosting,
06:15 which many people believe is like the traditional frosting
06:19 for red velvet cake.
06:21 It's a very stable frosting.
06:22 When the temperature is hot outside
06:24 or you're transporting it a far distance,
06:26 it is very stable.
06:28 It starts with a base of flour and milk.
06:30 You bring it to a boil, cook it to a paste.
06:32 I feel good about this.
06:34 I am now going to add the sugar in here,
06:36 and it's going to thin it out.
06:38 Just to cool this down quickly,
06:40 I'm going to get it on a sheet tray,
06:42 and it'll cool down faster for us.
06:44 Lovely.
06:45 (children cheering)
06:48 It was Kendra's birthday yesterday,
06:51 so we made a little surprise for her.
06:53 - I made you, I made you.
06:53 - Tom!
06:54 - Struceley bing!
06:55 - Oh no, I love the Strucele topping.
06:58 - I actually need to come back to work, so.
07:01 Let me come back.
07:02 I'm a little concerned about the fact
07:03 I can see them pushing in.
07:06 We can't do anything about this right now.
07:07 I'm going to let it cool.
07:08 While that is chilling, I'm going to work on
07:11 the standard cream cheese frosting.
07:13 Butter, powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla salt.
07:17 Okay, this is looking good.
07:19 Feels a bit loose.
07:21 I feel like this could benefit
07:23 from a little bit of chill time.
07:25 The base for the ermine frosting is cool enough.
07:29 Actually, it's pretty cool.
07:30 First step in finishing the ermine frosting
07:33 is I'm going to put the butter in the mixer
07:36 and get it paddled.
07:38 I'm going to do half a teaspoon of salt
07:40 and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.
07:43 It is very dense.
07:49 It looks a little weird.
07:51 It is very pudding.
07:53 I don't know if it maybe needs more paddling time
07:56 or maybe slightly less flour.
07:58 Whoever would like to come and taste cake?
08:01 I can take thoughts.
08:04 It's 5.30, I need thoughts.
08:05 - I much prefer baking powder.
08:08 - Okay.
08:09 - The brown sugar just has a better flavor.
08:11 - Yes.
08:12 - This one for me is like...
08:13 - The ermine?
08:14 - It looks broken.
08:15 - Yeah.
08:16 - It just feels like a total bummer.
08:18 - Plus one to brown sugar.
08:19 - It's just a much rounder sweetness to it.
08:22 - But I think coupled with the cream cheese frosting,
08:24 which I prefer over the ermine.
08:27 - Got it, got it.
08:28 - It's a little sweet.
08:29 - Sure.
08:30 - But and also I wouldn't mind it being tangier,
08:31 perhaps a higher proportion of cream cheese.
08:33 - I'm also brown sugar.
08:35 - It's so tender, which to me makes it feel different
08:40 than your average cake.
08:43 - I love the point that you're making
08:45 about the role of the melted chocolate.
08:46 That's cool.
08:47 And that's like, feels like real,
08:48 like new information and thinking to me.
08:51 But it feels like it's sort of falling apart.
08:54 - Sure.
08:55 - So are we saying that the cocoa powder
08:56 would be a texture solve rather than an intensity?
08:58 - Both.
08:59 - Because...
09:00 - Both.
09:00 - Let's have fun with it.
09:01 - A murderous side eye glare.
09:05 - I love it.
09:06 - Jesse and Chris had valuable feedback
09:08 in that it was a little, almost a little too velvety.
09:11 So we're going to try to fix that
09:12 by introducing a little bit of cocoa powder.
09:15 Since cocoa powder is so absorbent,
09:16 it's probably going to open up the crumb a little bit more.
09:20 I'm not really decreasing the amount of chocolate.
09:22 I'm going to keep that the same.
09:25 The second thing I want to do,
09:26 I want to try to use unsweetened chocolate.
09:30 Let's see if taking off that extra sugar
09:31 that chocolate is bringing
09:32 is going to make the texture less damp.
09:35 Meanwhile, I'm going to get some dry ingredients going here.
09:37 Same as yesterday, but I'm using light brown sugar.
09:40 It won't color the batter that dark
09:42 and the red color will punch through.
09:44 Yesterday we did something that's called standard creaming.
09:46 I put the butter, sugar, beat it together,
09:49 eggs, dry ingredients, alternate with wet.
09:51 With reverse creaming, add all of my dry ingredients
09:54 to the mixer bowl, paddle it just to combine.
09:57 Then I'm going to add my butter, paddle that.
10:00 It sort of coats all of the proteins in the flour.
10:04 You can go in with liquid
10:05 and be aggressive to build structure.
10:08 So it makes a more tender cake.
10:10 I add the eggs in the very end
10:12 because you want to beat them
10:15 to get some of their mechanical leavening power.
10:18 But if you add it before, we would over beat them
10:21 and it would become too airy.
10:23 All in all, I think it's much more streamlined process
10:25 than a standard creaming.
10:26 Both these cakes have the same amount of chocolate.
10:29 One of them has cocoa powder
10:31 and the other has unsweetened chocolate.
10:34 For the cream cheese frosting,
10:36 I think I definitely want to try my cream cheese whip,
10:38 the one that I developed for my carrot sheet cake.
10:40 But I suspect that this is going to be
10:42 a little too light and fluffy maybe.
10:44 The texture, mind blowing.
10:48 Whoop, very light.
10:50 Obviously it's nice, I developed it previously
10:51 and just published, so it has to be great.
10:53 And I also want to try one other cream cheese frosting,
10:57 similar to yesterday's that I made, but with less sugar.
11:01 Essentially I want to make a whipped butter,
11:03 but I think where the change will be most significant
11:06 is I'm going to use much less sugar
11:08 and hopefully it'll be more tangy and creamy.
11:11 I feel like it's a little stiff,
11:12 so I'm going to add a splash of milk.
11:15 Let me begin with a tablespoon and see where that gets us.
11:19 Oh yeah, it's become a lot lighter.
11:23 I'm gonna add another tablespoon.
11:25 I don't know, should I do another tablespoon?
11:29 If I was a stronger person,
11:30 I would have just maybe do two full tablespoons.
11:34 Let's just do one more.
11:35 Total of quarter cup of whole milk at this point.
11:39 And it looks much, much better.
11:41 It is lighter, creamier.
11:44 I am going to fold it into this bowl
11:47 of softened cream cheese.
11:49 Taste is good.
11:52 I like the balance of the sugar to cream cheese.
11:55 Okay, the timer has gone on the cake for the 16th time.
11:58 Hopefully I have it down right.
12:00 Looking lovely.
12:01 Let it cool.
12:03 This one is the unsweetened chocolate.
12:09 There's a weird dark spot over there in the center
12:14 that doesn't fill me with deep confidence.
12:17 Okay, and this one is cocoa powder, 74% chocolate.
12:22 Oh my gosh, that spot over there.
12:25 I think that's the worst part of recipe development
12:27 when you feel like you're regressing
12:29 instead of progressing, that's discouraging.
12:31 When you're like, oh, I feel like I'm halfway there
12:33 last night and now you make changes
12:36 and you're like, oh, I feel like maybe
12:37 that wasn't the right change.
12:39 Okay, it is time.
12:40 I have two cakes, two frostings,
12:42 and I'm going to call Chris and Jesse
12:45 to come over and taste it.
12:46 - What's up with this?
12:50 It's like three different distinct sections.
12:53 It's like one of those Italian kind of--
12:55 - Like a magic cake? - Cake things.
12:57 They're like fudgy bands on the top and bottom.
13:00 - Not enough leavening, too moist.
13:03 It's just too dense and reading a little bit wet.
13:05 The flavor is nice.
13:08 - The flavor is good.
13:09 Yeah, the flavor is nice.
13:10 - Let's taste the same as yesterday's brown sugar version,
13:13 but it has the addition of cocoa powder.
13:15 - I think it's like too dense.
13:17 - I don't like the flavor, bland almost.
13:19 - I mean, it feels like you have a structural problem.
13:21 I would say, I agree, the unsweetened chocolate
13:24 just punches through just a little bit more.
13:25 - Yeah.
13:26 - This is like fine.
13:27 I would almost not even know that it's chocolate.
13:29 - Yeah, I think what we wanted for the cocoa powder
13:31 to do, like make it more intense, et cetera,
13:33 like almost the opposite happened.
13:35 - So that was the whipped cream cheese?
13:39 - Yes.
13:40 - Very light, almost like tastes like yogurt.
13:43 Was that like lightness?
13:44 - It's really good, it's just--
13:46 - Unexpected. - Too light.
13:47 Okay, got it.
13:48 Yeah, taste experimental one.
13:50 - I think the flavor's better here.
13:51 - It tastes like cheese in a good way.
13:53 - Your experimental is much more aligned
13:55 with like what people want and expect.
13:58 - It's like a better version of the classic,
14:00 whereas this is something else.
14:02 - They didn't need to, you could have just kept going
14:04 with the one bowl.
14:05 - Oh, no.
14:06 You had five minutes to be here,
14:08 I think your five minutes are up.
14:09 - My five minutes are up, I know.
14:11 The flavor is better here,
14:12 but you still have a structure issue.
14:13 - I agree, I agree.
14:15 Okay, thank you.
14:15 - It's all good.
14:16 - Remember how yesterday when I added the baking powder
14:18 and it helped?
14:19 - Yes.
14:20 - Maybe I do that.
14:21 - Yeah, it makes sense 'cause chocolate's heavy,
14:22 there's a lot of heavy ingredients in here.
14:24 - I think this can be like pleasantly dense
14:27 in like a very nice way if it's just like tiny bit puffier.
14:30 - Got it.
14:31 I love when you come and validate my choices.
14:33 Unlike yesterday.
14:34 Okay, I'm gonna try that.
14:35 - No, I think it's a good idea.
14:36 - Okay.
14:37 - Okay, cool.
14:38 - Thank you, Justin.
14:40 Sometimes life doesn't work out the way you want it to,
14:42 but that's okay, we have solutions.
14:45 So this version of my red velvet cake,
14:48 I am going to keep everything same
14:51 as the 100% chocolate one,
14:53 but I'm going to do combination of baking powder
14:56 and baking soda.
14:57 And I'm still going to use the reverse creaming.
14:59 Okay, 350 for 28 minutes.
15:05 Okay, the cake is done.
15:07 Interesting.
15:09 A few cracks, but perhaps not as life threatening
15:14 as I think it is.
15:15 Let's let this cool because as we've noticed
15:17 from all the different variations that we've made,
15:19 things change a lot as it cools.
15:21 Meanwhile, I'm going to go ahead and make the next version
15:25 of my frosting.
15:26 I'm trying to aim for a hybrid of both the ones
15:28 that I tested earlier.
15:29 So I want the airiness of the whipped
15:31 with the cream cheese forward flavor notes
15:34 of the experimental one.
15:35 I'm going to increase the sugar.
15:38 The previous whipped had 67 grams.
15:40 I'm just gonna go up to a hundred grams in this one.
15:43 I'm going to change the amount of whipping cream that I add.
15:46 I'm going to cut it in half.
15:49 Looks lovely and creamy.
15:52 Certainly you can taste the cream cheese much more.
15:55 My one concern is that it's not as thick.
15:59 If anything, we can switch to powdered sugar
16:02 because that's more absorbent.
16:04 And maybe I will run an experiment right now.
16:08 Okay, so I'm going to do same weight
16:10 as I did the granulated sugar.
16:12 This actually looks a little bit more promising.
16:16 Just as creamy and light, but seems a bit more stable
16:18 thanks to the powdered sugar.
16:21 (metal clangs)
16:22 The cake that I just baked,
16:23 the one with a hundred percent chocolate
16:25 and baking powder and baking soda is ready.
16:29 I'm almost scared to cut into it
16:30 because I really need this to work.
16:32 It's not fully cooled, but it's cool enough.
16:36 (inhales and exhales)
16:38 Is there a slight bend?
16:40 Yes, maybe.
16:43 But it's significantly less than previous.
16:45 And more importantly, I think you can see
16:47 the structure is much more airy than the previous version.
16:52 I like the level of sweetness to it.
16:55 Personally, I like the texture.
16:57 I think it really is very velvety
16:59 without having that very damp texture
17:01 that the previous ones had.
17:02 That one had obvious bending
17:05 and an obvious level of squidge.
17:06 This one, not so much.
17:07 It's much more airier and soft.
17:10 Let's evaluate the difference
17:11 between the one I made previously.
17:14 Whoa, that's significantly different.
17:17 Both have hundred percent chocolate.
17:19 The only difference is this one has just baking soda
17:24 and this one has a combination
17:27 of baking soda and baking powder.
17:29 Look at the height difference.
17:31 Let's count this as a win.
17:32 I'm going to work with this.
17:34 I want to double it and put it in a nine by 13 pan.
17:36 I'm going to call it the big boy, big boy with an I.
17:39 Sometimes when you double ingredients
17:40 and when you put them in a different pan, things change.
17:43 Obviously you need to have a longer bake time, et cetera.
17:46 Okay, while the cake is baking,
17:47 I'm going to get Hannah to come over
17:49 and taste the cream cheese frostings that we made.
17:52 This version with the granulated sugar
17:54 is what supermarket frostings wish they could be.
17:57 Okay, this is powdered sugar.
18:00 Kind of think that the cream cheese tang
18:03 comes through a little better here.
18:06 I don't know if it's because powdered sugar is so fine
18:09 and that it absorbs everything so much better.
18:12 I'm not sure.
18:13 For that alone, I feel like this is the winner,
18:16 the powdered sugar.
18:17 I can't wait to taste it all together.
18:19 - Timer has gone.
18:20 - Yes. - Thank you, Hannah Chang.
18:21 - Okay, perfect timing.
18:22 - I appreciate your notes. - Go check on your case.
18:24 - Okay, looks really, really good.
18:26 So I'm going to put it off to the side and let it cool.
18:29 In the meantime, I'm still thinking about the frosting.
18:31 I kind of like the lightness of the whipped cream,
18:34 but then it's not really very stable.
18:36 I'm worried that if I use this on a slice of cake,
18:38 it's just going to come running down the sides.
18:40 I hate that.
18:41 This is the experimental one,
18:43 the one with just powdered sugar, butter, and cream cheese.
18:46 And now I'm almost like,
18:47 why can't I just combine the two in a way
18:49 and just make a cream cheese frosting,
18:51 but introduce some heavy cream into it to lighten it up?
18:54 And maybe that's the way to go.
18:56 We'll call it the hybrid.
18:58 Cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar,
19:01 salt, vanilla, and heavy cream to lighten the whole thing up.
19:04 [mixer whirring]
19:06 This might actually work.
19:07 Let's get this chilled.
19:09 Then we will evaluate in like maybe 10 minutes.
19:12 Cake is cool.
19:12 I'm going to bring it in and we're going to taste a piece.
19:15 Oh, wow.
19:16 No banding, which was the issue that we were having before.
19:19 Still has that same intensity of chocolate.
19:22 This is the one.
19:23 This looks good.
19:25 Very defined swoops.
19:27 And then you use a bunch of sprinkles.
19:30 I love doing a mixture of sprinkles
19:32 because I think it's most dynamic.
19:34 It looks great.
19:35 It looks cute.
19:36 Jessie.
19:37 - Okay, this looks perfect.
19:38 - Shut up.
19:39 - It's really good.
19:42 It's really good.
19:43 It's like light, but substantial.
19:45 - And the whipped cream is also light, but substantial.
19:47 - Flavor-wise, it really, you know,
19:48 I think I really nailed what I was trying to achieve,
19:51 which is a flavor of really good like marble cake,
19:54 where you get like a perfect bite of the chocolate
19:56 and vanilla.
19:56 - It does taste like that.
19:57 - Yeah.
19:58 Texture-wise, I wanted something with a very fine,
20:01 tight crumb and velvety.
20:03 We achieved that as well.
20:05 - It like gives people exactly what they want,
20:07 but it's better.
20:08 I think this is perfect.
20:10 I'm usually really happy.
20:11 - Sometimes you need validation,
20:12 especially after a day like today and yesterday.
20:16 So when they come in and they're like,
20:17 "Oh, I like it."
20:17 And I'm like, "Oh, okay.
20:19 Maybe it's actually really good."
20:20 It took me eight cakes and seven frostings,
20:24 but I feel like this big boy was worth it.
20:26 (laughing)
20:28 As I gaze lovingly.
20:30 (laughing)