Red Velvet Bundt Cake – a tender and moist red velvet cake with a cream cheese icing.

Valentine’s Day Cake
With Valentine’s Day just a few days away, I have the perfect Valentine’s Day cake you can whip up in no time! My Red Velvet Bundt Cake is incredibly moist and flavorful and is paired with a basic cream cheese icing that I’ve drizzled on top. Best of all, the color of this cake is a vibrant dark red!

What You Need For This Red Velvet Bundt Cake
As you prepare to make this cake, here are a few items you’ll want to make sure to have on hand:
- 10-cup bundt pan – I use this Brilliance Bundt Pan
- Red velvet emulsion – I use Lorann emulsions. You can find the red velvet emulsion HERE. Can’t get it in time? No worries, just sub the emulsion with red food coloring.
- All purpose flour
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Sour cream
- Cocoa powder
- Buttermilk
- Baking soda
- White baking vinegar
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla
Red Velvet Bundt Cake
As you probably know, a red velvet cake is considered a chocolate cake, even though it has a very minimal amount of cocoa. It also has a little tanginess to it, thanks to the buttermilk and sour cream – which both help the increase moisture in the cake too.
Traditionally, red velvet cakes get their bright red color from red food coloring. However, as you saw in the ingredient list above, I’m not using any food coloring. Instead, this cake gets this beautiful, rich red color from the red velvet emulsion. Emulsions are like extracts, but are water based instead of alcohol based. This particular emulsion also gives the cake a boost of flavor. But if you can’t find red velvet emulsion, you can always use red food coloring.

The result is a super moist and fluffy red velvet cake with the slightest hint of cocoa and citrus (a flavor element from the emulsion).

Cream Cheese Icing
I thought about making this into a layered cake with cream cheese buttercream, but opted to go a simpler route with the bundt cake – which made me want to switch up the icing too. The recipe you’ll see for the cream cheese icing is my regular cream cheese buttercream but with melted butter to make it thin. If you want to use a traditional buttercream, just leave the butter cold!

Cake Making Tips
Don’t forget to follow my go-to tips for getting your cakes to rise and bake well:
- Preheat your oven for 30 minutes prior to baking.
- Beat the butter and sugar for a few minutes on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy.
- Use good quality pans like Fat Daddio.
- Spray your pans with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.
- Don’t overmix your cake batter once you add the dry ingredients.
- Use room temperature wet ingredients.
- Use fresh baking powder.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
More Cakes You’ll Love
- Red Velvet Cake with chocolate sour cream buttercream and marshmallow filling
- Pink Velvet Cake with raspberry buttercream
- Chocolate Strawberry Nutella Cake
This looks amazing, will this recipe work for cupcakes too?
Yes! Keep your eye on them! It should make about 24 cupcakes.
How much red food coloring would I use if I don’t have the emulsion?
1 tsp.