This vegan red velvet cake is rich, moist, vibrantly red and topped with a delicious lemon buttercream frosting and maraschino cherries.
Red velvet cake is not just cake dyed red. It’s a lot more than that.
It’s a mix of subtle flavors: vanilla, chocolate, buttermilk. All these flavors are represented gorgeously, and subtly.
It’s like you can’t quite put your finger on it, is that vanilla I’m tasting? Oh wait no, it’s chocolate.
Paired with a lemon buttercream frosting and some maraschino cherries this is a cake to remember!
Perfectly moist, dreamy and decadent, not to mention absolutely gorgeous with that glorious red color.
This cake is ideal for birthdays or other special occasions and it definitely stands out from the crowd.
And if you love red velvet then also check out our vegan red velvet cupcakes.
About That Color!
A note about the color. I used red food dye.
Initially we made this cake with a liquid red food color but have since switched to a red gel color (Americolor is our favorite brand) and it works wonderfully and is confirmed to be cruelty free.
From my research it seems that most red food dye is vegan these days. The non-vegan ingredients – cochineal or carmine – are not usually seen anymore.
I did try using beet juice to dye previous versions of this cake, and…. I did not manage to make that work – to put it nicely.
It was the worst I have ever made and the whole thing went straight into trash, to put it more bluntly.
First off – it tasted like beets! Yum. Or rather, not yum at all!
All that and the red color did not hold.
The chemical reactions that take place while baking stripped that red color right out of it and it was a not terribly appealing shade of reddish brown. But way more brown than red.
I’ve heard of beets being used successfully but it might be out of my purview, so red food dye it is!
Red food dye enabled this cake to come out beautifully, with the color holding absolutely perfectly.
Storing and Freezing
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for a few days (3-4) or keep it covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
It is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cakes
- Vegan White Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Red Velvet Cake
Ingredients
For the Red Velvet Cake:
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder Unsweetened
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice + Soy Milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar
- 1 tsp Red Gel Food Color
For the Frosting:
- 4 and 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar (540g)
- 1/2 cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 2 tsp Lemon Extract
- 2-3 and 1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
For Decoration:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 8-inch cake pans (see notes*) with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
- To make the vegan buttermilk add 1 Tbsp lemon juice to a measuring jug and then add soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Leave to sit for a minute, it will curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the buttermilk, vanilla, oil, vinegar and red gel food color into the mixing bowl and mix in.
- Use a hand whisk briefly to get rid of any large lumps.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Transfer the cakes to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- While the cakes are cooling, add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, lemon extract and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to an electric mixing bowl and starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth. If needed add more lemon juice (see notes*).
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost and decorate with cherries (optional).
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly using the spoon and level method - spoon the flour into a measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife - don't scoop it and don't pack the flour into the cup. Alternatively weigh it on a food scale.
- Vegan buttermilk can also be made with almond milk. Other non-dairy milks may not curdle as well as soy or almond milk but could still be used.
- The red gel food color we used is Americolor brand and is highly recommended.
- Frosting - the amount of lemon juice you need for your frosting will depend on the brand of vegan butter you use. Stick style vegan butter has a much lower water content than a soft tub style vegan butter. We used a tub style vegan butter that is still pretty firm so we used 3 and 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice. If you use a stick vegan butter then you may need even more. Just play this part by ear and only use as much as you need to get a thick but spreadable frosting.
- Baking pan sizes. This cake can adapt as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans - bake for 20 minutes
- Two 7-inch round cake pans - bake for 25 minutes
- Two 8-inch round cake pans - bake for 20 minutes
- One 9-inch round cake pan - bake for 30 minutes
- One 9x9 square cake pan - bake for 25 minutes
- Cupcakes - This recipe makes a perfect 12 cupcakes. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Gluten-Free - if you'd like to make this cake gluten-free then I recommend using a gluten free all purpose baking blend to replace the regular flour.
- Storing - store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. It's also freezer friendly for up to 3 months if you want to freeze it.
Hi!
I love the taste of this cake!!! And mine turned out soooo red, I love it!!
But mine always rises in the middle quite A LOT, and doesn’t rise at all on the sides 🙁 I don’t know why this always happens to me every time i bake a cake, I preheated the oven to exactly 180 🙁
Can you help me?
Thanks!!!
Hi Sofia, if your oven is running a little too hot this can happen. I recommend an oven themometer, they are super handy and very affordable. So glad the cake comes out tasting great and a perfect color! Thanks so much for the great rating! 🙂
Just made this cake and it was delicious. I followed the recipe exactly. The only thing is that instead of turning red, the cake was a solid brown! Any reason you can think of that would turn the cake brown? We were disappointed with the colour.
Hi Ruth, some brands of red food color just don’t work as well. We recommend the Americolor brand of red gel food coloring, which is what we use these days and it works really well.
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve had great success with it 😀
Out of interest, do you think it would be possible to swap the buttermilk for soy yogurt? They’re both acidic, so I reckon it could work…
Hi Sian, it might work but I’m not sure. It’s worth a try! Glad you’ve had success with the recipe! 🙂
I haven’t made the cake yet, but my brother asked me to make a cake for his new (vegan) girlfriend. I’ve never baked anything vegan before (but I do bake a lot). I noticed that there doesn’t seem to be any substitute for eggs in this recipe, can you please tell me what “holds the cake together”? This cake has amazing reviews and I am really interested in how it works without eggs or substitute. (And if I’m going to be baking vegan more often, I guess I should educate myself a little)
Thank you so much!
Hi Adina, in vegan baking the egg replacement is often more to do with adding in moisture than binding. There isn’t really a need for ‘binding’ really. But the best way to see it in action is just to follow the recipe and you’ll see it for yourself. Often using egg replacers is to ‘replace’ the eggs from a non-vegan recipe. But when you’re creating the recipe as vegan to start with, there’s often no need to add in anything like that. All the best! 🙂
I am not a baker; yet, I made the entire recipe from cake to frosting and turned out great! It was moist and had a great consistency. Even my ‘dairy is my main food source’ mother in law loved it!
Thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for the great review!
I tried to make this cake at home. I even watched your video just to be sure. I used the exact same ingredients in the exact same amount. I tried making it 2 times. But for some reason, my batter was just too thick and and wouldn’t rise. I have been a long time follower and know that your recipes are amazing. They work. But for some reason the cake that I made became more like ice cream. Do you have any tips that might help me bake this cake better?
Did you substitute any ingredients? Also, did you weigh your flour? If you don’t have a food scale, then use the spoon and level method: spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don’t scoop the flour and don’t pack it into the cup. All the best! 🙂
Update: I tried it for one last time before giving up and added a around 2 tbsp more water and 1 tbsp more vinegar. It was still pretty thick but I left it for God to fix. It somehow rose perfectly and turned out just fine. Thanks Alison for the wonderful recipe. ❤️
The cake turned out quite well although not red, since I did not have a red dye???? but I did not mind.
I have 2 questions:
1. If I use half of the sugar in the cake, what can go wrong?
2. Is the frosting supposed to become dry after a few hours? By the way, with the proportions in the recipe, the frosting did not become creamy, I added more butter then it became creamy then it dried on the cake.
You can try reducing the sugar, though the function of sugar in baking is not just sweetness, it’s also texture, so the cake can be drier with less sugar. The frosting does harden on the cake.
Hello! I’ve made this cake previously as a cake and it tasted amazing!! I had a question as I wanted to covert this into cupcakes would that be possible? Anything I should probably look out for like baking time? And if you have any tips about frosting for that too?
Thank you! X ☺️
Hi Puja, so glad you enjoyed it! This recipe can be made into cupcakes without any changes. It will make a perfect 12 cupcakes, just cut the baking time to around 22-25 minutes. You can also check out our vegan red velvet cupcakes recipe!
Would this work with cake flour?
I haven’t made this with cake flour so not entirely sure, but from reader comments on various recipes I think it should work.
This recipe was great and would recommend to anyone else! I couldn’t even tell it didn’t have eggs in it. It was moist and perfect texture. I’m coming from a non-vegan background, and I searched high and low to find a red velvet cake recipe that had no eggs with good reviews (my boyfriend has an allergy). I ended up using this recipe, but used regular buttermilk (same amount), 1/2 tsp of baking powder in addition to 1 tsp of baking soda, and canola oil. I made a 9×13 pan, and checked at 26 minutes with a toothpick and it was done. Next time, I’ll probably check at the 23-24 minute mark. For the frosting, I used a different recipe mainly because I have a go-to/never fail non-vegan cream cheese frosting from Lualoangeles blog. I usually don’t write reviews for recipes but others need to know about this one! Thanks again!
So happy to hear it was a success Nima! Thanks so much for the great review!