Easy Vegan Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This vegan red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting is fluffy, delicious, and super easy to make! It has a tender crumb that almost melts in your mouth.

Jump to:

• 🍰 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🧁 Variations
• 🎂 Decorating
• 🧊 Storage
• 💭 Tips
• ❓ FAQs
• 📖 Recipe

While the red velvet cake was apparently invented in the 1930s at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, it really took off during the Depression Era as a creative response to food rationing. Makes sense, when you see that the cake calls for some strange ingredients (vinegar), or normal ingredients in questionable quantities (1 tablespoon of cocoa anyone?).

Back then, the red color came from a chemical reaction between anthocyanin (a flavonoid in cocoa) and the acidic ingredients, vinegar and buttermilk. Somewhere down the line, that was deemed not red enough, so bakers began adding red food coloring to the cake to really pump up the color.

Another version of the recipe calls for beet puree for color, moisture, and sweetness, which made the cake feel luxurious when baking ingredients were sparse. Nowadays, the beet version is marketed as a healthy alternative to red velvet cake made with food coloring, but people have been making it for years!

Earlier versions of the recipe call for ermine icing, which is a less sweet icing made with flour, sugar, milk, and butter that is boiled, cooled down, and whipped into a light and fluffy frosting. It's called ermine frosting because it resembles white ermine fur coats. We're going to go with the more modern cream cheese frosting version for this recipe, vegan of course.

While it got its start out of necessity, red velvet cake is now enjoyed as a classic Southern recipe, a Valentine's Day treat, and a staple at Juneteenth celebrations as a symbol of freedom.

No matter how you make it or what you make it for, a traditional red velvet cake is always made with butter, buttermilk, cocoa, and vinegar. This recipe calls for a vegan buttermilk alternative made with ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen. The acidic ingredients and chemical reactions combined with the butter give this cake a crumbly, but moist texture unlike other cakes.

🍰 Ingredients

• Vegan butter
• Sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Non-dairy milk
• Apple cider vinegar
• Red food coloring
• Flour
• Cocoa powder
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Vegetable shortening
• Powdered sugar
• Vegan cream cheese

See recipe card for quantities.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Remember how red velvet cake calls for vinegar and buttermilk? The apple cider vinegar in this recipe pulls double duty. When combined with the non-dairy milk, it creates a vegan replacement for buttermilk.

Red Food Coloring

Since red velvet cake calls for a large amount of food coloring to get its signature red color, this recipe calls for "no taste" red food coloring so the food coloring doesn't give the cake an unpleasant flavor. I like Wilton No Taste Red Icing Color. Since it's a gel, it doesn't affect the texture of the cake.

Cocoa Powder

While most cake recipes call for Dutch process cocoa powder since it has a more mellow flavor, make sure to use natural cocoa powder for this recipe. Natural cocoa powder retains the acidity of the cocoa, which play an important role in the recipe.

Vegan Cream Cheese

You can buy all kinds of vegan cream cheese at grocery stores, or even make your own from cashews! Make sure to use a cream cheese with a thicker texture so your cream cheese frosting is not runny.

🔪 Instructions

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line 2 8-inch cake pans with parchment circles or spray with cooking spray.

Cream together the vegan butter, sugar, and vanilla in a stand mixer, or with handheld beaters or by hand in a large bowl.

Pour the apple cider vinegar into the non-dairy milk, and let sit for a minute. This makes a vegan "buttermilk".

Gradually add the milk and vinegar mixture to the creamed butter and sugar until fully combined.

Add the red food coloring and mix until evenly distributed.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powder, and salt in a separate bowl.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the 2 cake pans.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the tops are firm and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

Cream together the shortening and vegan butter in a stand mixer or in a bowl with handheld beaters until fluffy.

Add the vegan cream cheese and beat until smooth.

Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing after each addition.

Add the vanilla extract. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, 5-6 minutes.

To assemble:

Place one of the cake layers on a plate, then spread frosting on top.

Place the other cake on top.

Frost the exterior of the cake, then decorate as desired.

🧁 Variations

Prefer cupcakes? Try my Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes!

If you'd like to try the beet puree variation of red velvet cake, try Viet Vegan's Natural Red Velvet Cupcakes. While these are cupcakes instead of cake, I found that many of the vegan cake recipes that call for beets were also gluten free or contained other "healthified" ingredients. This one stays true to the recipe and simply uses beets instead of food coloring.

🎂 Decorating

There are so many ways to decorate your red velvet cake! I went with a simple version frosting the whole cake and adding dollops of frosting on top, but there are many decoration ideas out there such as...

• Red candies
• Red sprinkles
• Red berries, such as strawberries or raspberries
• Coating the sides of the cake with cake crumbles
• Leaving the sides of the cake "naked" to see the red color

🧊 Storage

Cover the cake to prevent it from drying out and store in the refrigerator. It will keep for 7-10 days, but tastes best within a few days of baking.

💭 Tips

• Gradually add the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar mixture or the vegan butter and sugar will separate and get clumpy.
• Make sure to use "no taste" red food coloring, such as Wilton "No Taste" Icing Color.

❓ FAQs