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Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

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Red velvet cake with ermine frosting is the red velvet cake of the good old days. It’s not weighed down with heavy cream cheese but paired with the most delicate whipped ermine frosting. The combination is delicious!

(Oldie But Goodie: This post first appeared on The Unlikely Baker on January 27, 2016. I’ve given it fresh pictures and an updated recipe. Enjoy!)

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

I used to have a love-hate relationship with red velvet cake. I loved to eat it. But it hated me. I’ve failed at baking it so many times I’ve lost count. This was the recipe that changed everything. Now I can successfully make red velvet cake and know it will be a hit every single time.

What went wrong

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

Let’s get real for a second – red velvet cake is not for the fainthearted. One time my cake turned very brown – too little red food colour. So for my next try I added more food colouring.

That made the batter too runny that I’ve had to scoop the collapsed remnants out of the pan (and straight into the garbage bin).

Don’t even get me started on the cream cheese frosting. First it won’t stiffen to the proper consistency – my cream cheese and butter were always too soft. Or I thought it did, only to find it flowing like soup from within my layers like sweet, white, evil lava (now this is just wrong).

(I’m still not very good at cream cheese frosting so I usually make Swiss Meringue Buttercream instead.)

Keys for success

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

Happily, I’ve gotten over that dark period in my red velvet baking life and can now share two important tips so you can successfully bake red velvet cake too.

  1. Use gel food colour. Stay away from the liquid ones – they are just not red enough so you’d tend to use more which affects the total liquid in your batter (and you’d get a strange aftertaste too).
  2. Measure your ingredients using a kitchen scale if you can. Baking is a science after all. They’re pretty inexpensive and will improve your baking more than any other kitchen gadget (though I think it’s tied with an oven thermometer – also cheap!)

Red velvet cake with ermine frosting

Also, try pairing your cake with ermine frosting instead of cream cheese frosting. It’s less finicky than cream cheese frosting and lighter too.

What is it exactly? It’s one of those classic recipes that our grandmas hold near and dear. And it is actually the original icing paired with red velvet cake. It’s essentially flour and milk whisked until the mixture resembles thick pudding. This pudding then becomes the base for your buttercream.

Ermine frosting or boiled milk frosting or roux frosting

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

It’s called so many names but it’s really the same thing. And what is it like? Light with the consistency of whipped cream. Not too sweet – just the kind that makes you want more. And It works so well with red velvet cake. No wonder they were the OG lol.

Not your typical red velvet cake…better!

This is definitely not the red velvet cake we’re used to but I think I absolutely like this version better. It’s just so unique; hope you give it a try and like it too!

Related: How to Take Stunning Food Photos

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

Red velvet cake with ermine frosting is the red velvet cake of the good old days. It’s not weighed down with heavy cream cheese but paired with the most delicate whipped ermine frosting.
4.77 from 13 votes
Print Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: North American
Prep Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs
Servings: 12 people
Calories: 500kcal
Author: Jolina

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake

  • 2 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp unsweetened natural cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 0.70 oz gel red food colour
  • 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vinegar

Ermine Frosting

  • 5 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Red Velvet Cake

  • Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease 2 9-inch baking pans then put greased parchment paper at the bottom for easy release.
  • In a medium sized bowl, sift 2 1/4 cups cake flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons cocoa powder. Set aside.
  • Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream 1/2 cup butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
  • Add the eggs one at a time until combined.
  • In a separate bowl, add your red food colour to 1 cup buttermilk and stir until combined.
  • Switch to low speed and add a third of your flour mixture into the batter, then half of your buttermilk, then another third of the flour, the last of the buttermilk, then finally putting in the rest of the flour making sure each addition is fully combined before adding in the next. Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl as needed.
  • Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and stir until you see no more streaks of flour in the batter. Remove the bowl from stand mixer, if using.
  • In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon baking soda with 1 teaspoon vinegar. Once the mixture foams and bubbles, quickly fold it into your cake batter.
  • Pour the batter into your prepared baking pans and bake for 24-30 minutes or until the cakes start to pull away from the sides of the pans and when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  • Take out from oven and cool on a rack for about 15 minutes or until the pans are cool enough to handle. Then remove the cakes from pans, remove the parchment paper from the cakes and let cool completely on the racks before frosting.

Ermine Frosting

  • In a medium sized sauce pan, combine 5 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk and constantly stir over medium heat until very thick, like pudding (8-10 minutes). 
  • Remove from heat, place plastic wrap on top and cool to room temperature. Then transfer it to the fridge and chill for 1 hour.
  • Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream 1 cup sugar, 1 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract on medium high speed until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes).
  • Add the completely cool flour mixture and continue beating until you get the consistency of whipped cream (3-5 minutes).
  • Fill, frost and decorate cake as desired.

Notes

While you can serve this cake immediately, it is at its best after at least a couple of hours in the fridge. Then let stand in room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.
Tried this recipe?Tag @iamtheunlikelybaker or use hashtag #iamtheunlikelybaker!

Happy baking!

Did you make red velvet cake with ermine frosting? How’d you like it? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

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Reader Interactions

Comments


  1. just noticed you can toggle from “US customary” to “Metric” to get the weights of the ingredients. Thanks!

    Reply


  2. in the article you point out a scale should be used to weigh ingredients. I like that. can you please update the recipe to list the ingredients by weight (not just volume measure)?

    Reply


  3. My boyfriend loves red velvet so on his birthday I decided to bake him one. I don’t really bake from scratch a lot (mostly boxed mixes) so reading your experiences with red velvet convinced me I can do this. It was hard!!!!! And my cake did not look nearly as pretty. But it came together and he still loved it and we were surprised that we liked the icing too. It was different. Maybe next time I will pick an easier cake ha ha.

    Reply

    • Hello Kerri. You’re right, red velvet is one of the more technical cakes out there but glad yours came out ok. And that you guys liked it (that’s the most important thing!). Yay! I’m still learning too so hope you follow along 🙂

      Reply

  8. So interesting. I have never had red velvet cake without the cream cheese frosting. This sounds perfect. Your photos are gorgeous too. Im craving red velvet cake now.

    Reply


  9. This looks so delicious. I want to make this soon maybe for Valentines. It is awesome that you shared your mistakes and what you learned from it so that we can make hopefully a perfect one just like you did.

    Reply


  10. Looking at those photos and reading this post when I’m meant to be healthy eating is TORTURE! Looks absolutely delicious, though. Will have to try and make at some point for a special occasion.

    Reply


  12. Congratulations for mastering this recipe! I’m not sure I can but with your tips I’d definitely give it a try. I wouldn’t say that I love red velvet, but it would be nice to make it for the family or during gatherings!

    Reply

  13. I love red velvet cake, and with all the baking I’ve done, I’ve never tried to make one before. My husband and I both enjoy it so much our wedding cake was red velvet! I definitely agree that the gel food colors are the way to go, that’s all I will use.

    Reply


  16. I’ve never tried to bake red velvet cake, I’m sure that the cake would hate me too. This is unique cake, and the color is amazing. I’m glade to hear that you haven’t given up on it. I don’t think I’d try to bake one 😀

    Reply

  17. Red velvet is my wife all-time favorite flavor. This would make a great Valentine’s Day gift for her – guess I’d better go get the ingredients!

    Reply

  18. I am a hardcore cream cheese frosting fan… so it took a lot for me to read this post! Just kidding. This actually looks really really good! I may attempt to try it!

    Reply

    • Hahaha I love cream cheese too but man so much heartache frosting with it! Thanks Taria! If I find out you like this that would totally make my day 🙂

      Reply

    • Hi Mary! You know. I thought long and hard about this one. Conclusion: it’s really unlike any frosting I’ve ever had. It’s light, not too sweet, awesome texture. It’s indescribable! To taste is to believe. It is absolutely delicious is all I can say!

      Reply

  23. This cake is super tempting! I feel like grabbing it from my lappy right now! Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!

    Reply

  24. Have always wanted to taste Red Velvet Cake. Somehow couldnt till now. But now that I know the recipe , i will give it a try at home.

    Reply

    • Hi Subhadrika! This version is different from what we’re more used to (i.e. cream cheese frosting) though I like this version much much better. Let me know what you think!

      Reply

    • It’s just one of the default favourites right? Something about it being red and white I guess? Haha! Hope you like this version Carrie!

      Reply

  27. We love red velvet cake! We almost chose it for our wedding but did pumpkin cake instead! This frosting sounds amazing too!

    Reply

    • Pumpkin is an awesome choice 🙂 I do like the frosting with the cake. They complement each other perfectly. Hope you like this version Neely!

      Reply

  29. I’m not big on frosting. I’d much prefer double the size of the cake and leave off the frosting. But you make this kind of frosting sound so tempting!

    Reply

    • If given a choice I would choose simple cakes like pound or butter cake too but this frosting is light and delicious so I don’t mind it slathered on my velvet cake haha. Hope you try it!

      Reply


  30. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Red Velvet Cake seems to be very tempting and yummy. I am fond of trying new recipes, i will try this one for sure.

    Reply

  31. I love red velvet but have never tried making it myself. I’m a little nervous but I’ll start with your recipe since you had success.

    Reply

    • Hi Crystal! You’d do great 🙂 I find this version is way easier to execute than the other recipes I’ve tried.

      Reply

  33. Thanks for the recipe! I really hopes this one works out for me! And I always thought cream cheese was the original frosting for red velvet cake, but thanks for letting me know what the original frosting is. Thats really helpful!

    Reply

    • I had soooo many red velvet cake disasters which was what led me to this ermine frosting revelation. And it really tastes good and different. You’ll do great Shreya I’m sure 🙂 And I hope you like it!

      Reply

  34. I had to bake red velvet cakes all the time when I was a baker and we always had so many problems with them! Your frosting is really interesting though, I’ve never used flour in my frosting before so I’d be really interested to see how it tastes. You do make it sound very good though!

    Reply

    • So it’s not just me lol! This cake was my nemesis for a very long time. This was the only recipe that worked! It was the first I heard of the frosting too but I read more about it and it turns out it was the original frosting for red velvet, not cream cheese. Interesting huh 🙂 Hope you get a chance to try it and let me know how you like it! Thanks Tess 🙂

      Reply

  35. Hahaha that makes me less sad! It’s just the hardest cake to bake in the world for me. Thanks for stopping by!

    Reply

    • Hahaha that makes me less sad! It’s just the hardest cake to bake in the world for me. Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

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