This vegan red velvet cake is rich, moist, vibrantly red and topped with a delicious tangy lemon buttercream frosting.
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 tangy lemon buttercream frosting 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.
It’s also really versatile and can be adapted for different size cake pans.
And if you love red velvet then also check out our vegan red velvet cupcakes and vegan red velvet cookies. You’ll also love our vegan blue velvet cake and vegan blue velvet cupcakes.
Ingredients You’ll Need To Make This Cake:
Ingredient Notes
- Red gel food color – our favorite brand is Americolor Super Red. Gels are much more concentrated than liquid food colors, so you can use much less and still get a very rich vibrant color.
- White vinegar – distilled white vinegar does two things in this cake recipe. It reacts with the baking soda and the acid in the vegan buttermilk and causes the cake to rise. It also helps to strengthen the color.
- Canola oil – can be switched for vegetable oil if you prefer.
- Vegan buttermilk – we make a homemade vegan buttermilk by mixing lemon juice and soy milk. You can also make vegan buttermilk with almond milk but I prefer soy milk as it creates a thicker, richer buttermilk.
How To Make Vegan Red Velvet Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the vegan buttermilk, oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and red gel food color and mix it into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter between three 6-inch round cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper along the bottom) and smooth down.
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- If your cakes have domes, then use a sharp knife to level them.
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost and decorate.
The Frosting
We used our vegan lemon buttercream frosting recipe to frost this cake. The tangy lemon is a perfect complement to the flavor of red velvet.
A more common pairing for red velvet is a cream cheese frosting and our vegan cream cheese frosting also works great.
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.
Baker’s Tips
- Weigh your flour or spoon and level. If you have a food scale then I highly recommend weighing out the flour for perfect accuracy. If you don’t have a food scale, then spoon and level the flour. Spoon it into your measuring cup and level off the top with the back of a knife. Don’t pack it into the cup and don’t scoop the flour.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Overmixing the batter can result in a dense cake. Mix it with a spoon or a hand whisk (don’t use a stand mixer) and mix it until just mixed.
- Don’t let the batter sit for too long before baking. As soon as your batter is mixed, divide it between your cake pans and then bake right away. Don’t let it stand too long or it can affect the rise.
- Level the cakes. If the cakes have domed on top then it’s best to level them with a sharp knife. If I’m making a two layer cake I seldom do it, but for a three layer cake it helps to level them. Serious Eats have a great tutorial on how to level cakes with a knife.
Recipe FAQ
The flavor of vegan red velvet cake is a gorgeous blend of vanilla and chocolate, with a hint of tanginess from the vegan buttermilk.
For a gluten-free red velvet cake try a gluten free all purpose baking blend to replace the regular flour, in the same quantity. We like Bob’s Red Mill brand.
This recipe makes a perfect 12 cupcakes! Bake for 20 minutes. Or just check out our vegan red velvet cupcakes.
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 Cake Recipes
- 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 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder Unsweetened
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice + Soy Milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line
- ½ cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Distilled White Vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Red Gel Food Color
For the Frosting:
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 2 teaspoons Lemon Extract
- 2-3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray three 6-inch cake pans (*see notes for different pan sizes) with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Let it curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the vegan buttermilk, oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and red gel food color and mix it into a batter. Don't overmix.
- Divide the batter between the three prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- While the cakes are cooling, add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, lemon extract and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth. If needed add more lemon juice (see notes*).
- If your cakes have domes, then use a sharp knife to level them.
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost and decorate.
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.
- Red gel food color. We used Americolor brand and highly recommend it.
- Level the cakes. If the cakes have domed on top then it’s best to level them with a sharp knife. If I’m making a two layer cake I seldom do it, but for a three layer cake it helps to level them.
- 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. Only use as much lemon juice 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 9×9 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 and freezing – 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. The frosted or unfrosted cake is freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
- This recipe has been updated with new photos and lots of extra tips, but the recipe itself is the same.
Hope says
Made a small birthday cake for a friend and absolutely loved it! Will be going into my recipe binder. 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for the great review Hope!
Romy says
Hi I loved your cake it was moist and very delicious but wasn’t red at all? I added the right amount of gel if not a bit more and wasn’t red could you tell me why pls?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Romy, it could only have been the brand of color that you used, we highly recommend the Americolor brand.
Marie says
Absolutely beautiful!! I’ve been searching for a good vegan red velvet cake recipe. This blows all the other recipes out of the water, even the regular ones. Such an easy to follow uncomplicated recipe. Made it for our daughter’s 22nd birthday paired with fresh raspberries and it went down a storm. Thank you so much💕
Alison Andrews says
I’m so happy to hear that Marie! Thanks a million for the awesome review!
Mars says
This recipe was super easy and delicious! I always have trouble with vegan baking but this cake turned out great. I used oat milk instead of soy milk and it worked fine for me. Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks so much for the wonderful review!
Brianna says
This recipe is absolutely perfect! I am not vegan myself but offer vegan items in my baking business and have been baking vegan for a long time. I often find myself preferring my vegan recipes over traditional. And this recipe is no exception. People couldn’t believe it was vegan at an event I hosted. It is so delicious and moist and that frosting is just divine. This is being added to my normal rotation. I am obsessed with this recipe! Thank you so much!!!
Alison Andrews says
That’s so awesome Brianna! Thank you so much for the amazing comment and review!
Brianna says
Hello! Me again! I just backed a batch of cupcakes(which they bake up just as beautifully as the cake!), but this time I forgot to add the vinegar 🤦🏻♀️. They have a beautiful rise. Will it effect the taste? And then the other batch I just dropped a little in each cup of batter and swirled it around. Probably a terrible idea, but I panicked. 🤣 Will that effect it too? I’m just coming off a cold so I’m a bit fuzzy brained.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Brianna, the color may not be as bright but as long as they still rose then there’s no issue!
Elizabeth says
Have you ever doubled any of your cake/cupcake recipes like this one?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Elizabeth, this cake doubles very well and fits perfectly to a two layer 9-inch cake.
Tahira Akhtar says
I only have liquid food colouring would they work as well?
Alison Andrews says
It doesn’t work nearly as well, often the color bakes right out and it just comes out brown. So I much prefer gel color these days.
Sofia says
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!!!
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Ruth says
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.
Alison Andrews says
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.
Sian says
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…
Alison Andrews says
Hi Sian, it might work but I’m not sure. It’s worth a try! Glad you’ve had success with the recipe! 🙂
Adina says
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!
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Naz says
Hi Alison, thank you so much for your recipes, I want to try this red velvet cake. I have coconut milk, would that work instead of almond or soy as you suggested? Looking forward for your reply. Thank you.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Naz, coconut milk won’t curdle into buttermilk. You can still use it if you like, but it won’t curdle.
Jack says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Wonderful! Thanks for the great review!
Bhoomi says
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?
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Bhoomi says
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. ❤️
Mari says
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.
Alison Andrews says
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.
Puja says
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 ☺️
Alison Andrews says
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!
Tahira Akhtar says
Would this work with cake flour?
Alison Andrews says
I haven’t made this with cake flour so not entirely sure, but from reader comments on various recipes I think it should work.
Nima says
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!
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear it was a success Nima! Thanks so much for the great review!