You have heard of Red Velvet Cake? Well this is the more demure, delicate, and delicious cousin..Pink Velvet cake. Sort of like the In Your Face Red Velvet cake’s cousin, the Southern Debutante. Rich…understated….and ready for any occasion.
Oh, this recipe is every bit as moist and tender, the crumb is velvety and soft, just like Red Velvet. The color is, as you can see…pink…and the flavor is amazing.
Would I lie?
No way.
I had the idea for Pink Velvet cake and knew what I wanted in it… after I had jotted it down I googled pink velvet cake to see if anyone had created such a thing..and yes..there were several…One from Bakespace was very close to the recipe I had chosen as a starting place at Epicurious. My main issue with most of them was that they used less cocoa but basically the same recipe as Red….and to me that was just a more insipid version of Red Velvet.
Good Lawd, protect us all from insipid.
So… I used the Epicurious recipe as a base….but I wanted to insure a dense, velvety crumb..almost like pound cake but not so heavy…and I wanted th color to be pink. Pinker than pink. Of course, I used cream cheese frosting. My kitchen was hot an humid and I had trouble keeping the frosting on the cake but the flavor was amazing. Truly. I usually stick a drinking straw down the center of a layer cake to hold the layers in place. This is especially true of when the cake has three or more layers. Just push the straw through the center, then pull it up about 1/8 of an inch. Cut it off and push it down so the top is just under the surface of the cake. Frost right over it. You can see the dent in the center of the cake where it was.
Oh, and be careful not to overbake. You see that brown line in the center? The third layer got too brown on the crust.
This would be great for a baby shower, or anything that you wanted a beautiful pink cake. Sooo easy..and sooooo good!
- 8 ounces imported white chocolate , chopped
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter , room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup half and half
- Rose or pink gel food coloring as desired for correct color
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Preheat the oven to 375F
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Grease and flour 3 8- inch round baking pans
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Bring 1/4 cup cream to a simmer and add chocolate. Remove from heat and stir until melted. Set aside
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Sift dry ingredients together
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Beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar slowly, beating well
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Add eggs, one at a time
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Add extracts and coloring and beat until well blended
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Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the half and half
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Stir in the melted chocolate mixture
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Divide between pans and bake for 30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean
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Cool in pans for 10 minutes and then turn out of the pans to finish cooling
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Frost with Cream Cheese Buttercream
Here is the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe along with an awesome recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl cupcakes. This cake makes amazing pink cake balls!
Nice to Have
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Hi I wanted to know if I use cake flour do I still add the baking poweder and salt. Also could I use buttermilk instead of half and half and use salted butter instead of unsalted.
Thanks
Yes, you’ll need to use baking powder and salt. If you use buttermilk you’ll need to adjust to add baking soda… and if you use salted butter it may be too salty and throw off the balance of flavor.
Hi, This is the best recipe I have found for a pink velvet cake!!! Just wanted to know if it is diabetic friendly and if not are there any substitutions in the recipe that you suggest?
No it isn’t Tiara.. it’s got a ton of sugar in it. You could substitute xylitol or any cup for cup measure sweetener and that would help.
I’m getting ready to do a breast cancer awareness event and has been looking for a pink velvet cake recipe glad to see this one, alot of the questions asked was what I needed to know , but I do need to know would it be o.k. to use liquid food coloring & also will it be o.k. to put pecans in the frosting , can’t wait to try it , looks delicious .
Liquid food coloring takes too much coloring to achieve the right color so it screws up the texture… I think pecans would be great in the frosting!
Hi thid cake seems delicious. I will be doing it for my daughter 1st birthday. Just one question please… The ingreadiant before last says half and half but of what… I don’t want to miss sonething thanks
half and half is light cream. 🙂
Do this cake really call for 8 oz white chocolate–that’s two bars of white chocolate–it comes in 4oz in the grocery stores. That means I would need 2 of those big bars–Is this correct??
Yes it does. 🙂
Also how much pink gel would I use.
However much it takes to get the color you want. There are a lot of variables – which exact color of pink you use, which brand, etc. I’d start with a little and stir it in then add slowly until it’s the color you want
Hi I plan to make this cake for a church event in the honor of cancer awareness. I use cake flour in all my cakes–do you think this will bake well with cake flour. Please let me know because this cake would be for a huge event. I plan to bake two in 9×13 pans
I haven’t tested it with cake flour so I can’t comment on the results, sorry.
Hi
I would like to make this cake for my daughters birthday. She loves purple, would it be fine to color it purple & how much color do I use. 10 tablespoons butter is how many grams please. thanks
Hello,
I made this cake last year for a baby shower and everyone loved it. I need to make cupcakes this time and was wondering do you know how many this recipe will make. It’s a large order and trying to figure out how many batches I will have to make.
Thanks.
Oh wow, I don’t. But I would think it’d make 24? Thanks for letting me know that it worked for you! Love getting updates.
Hi, I am interested in cooking this fab recipe for my wedding cake… just wondering if it can be frozen? or how long it lasts… as it will need to be cooked in advance (the frosting will be added on the day!)
Thanks!
You can put them on cakeboards, wrap them airtight, and freeze for up to three months. I wouldn’t keep them longer than that. Congrats!!
I’ve made this into cupcakes, I followed your exact instructions, I had some batter left so I had enough for 6 mini cupcakes, the only thing is they overbaked a little bit, so I reduce the temp to 350 so the regular size were perfect.
I love how they were so firm, easy to peel of and super delicious. This was a test for My Grandbaby’s Birthday, so I’ll be making some more tomorrow.
Thanks for the recipe, its a keeper for sure.
My neighbor and I used your recipe to make a practice cake for my wedding. It turned out wonderful. So moist! I think it was one of the best cakes I ever had. We paired it with strawberry filling and cream cheese butter cream. Thanks so much for introducing us to Pink Velvet!
YAY! Thanks for letting me know! And congratulations!
Oh my goodness….. I am for sure going to make this one!! I am so excited! Can’t wait.
Daisy
Daisy.. I hope you love it… let me know how it comes out and if you have any questions you can usually get me to answer them fast if you post on the facebook page. 🙂
Could I bake this cake in two nine inch pans instead of three eight inch? I have trouble fitting three pans in my oven at the same time…and when I do, the cakes never bake quite evenly. Thanks!
sure! Just adjust your baking time.
Hi! I would love to make this cake for a baby shower coming up…the only thing is that the couple is having a boy. Do you think that if I used blue coloring it would work out OK, or would it possibly turn a little green? Thanks so much!
It could turn light green. You may be able to get it blue IF you just use egg whites and use crisco rather than butter AND clear vanilla extract.
i made this cake for my neices christening….10″ double layer square for a small crowd of 20 people, it was gone in 20 minutes….everyone insisted on second and third helpings!!!!I couldn’t cut it up quick enough. my sister was distraught that she had NONE left over……HUGE success…and am now in the midst of making a blue version for a babyshower tomorrow. Love love love this cake
YAY! Thank you SO much for telling me, Amy! I live for comments like this!!!
How do you think this cake would hold up if decorated with fondant? I’m not used to it so not sure if particular cake collapse or what
It should be fine.
Ok then, i want a pink cake so i will just stick to your recipe then.
Thank 🙂
Wow, this cake looks so awesome! I have been searching to make a pink velvet cake for a friends daughter. Don’t get me wrong I love this recipe and I can almost taste it, however I am somehow clinging to the idea of making pink velvet cake the traditional way except I would use less cocoa and less food colouring and that is only because I personaly don”t like white chocolate that much. Would that work, please don”t be offended as I am not trying to change your recipe at all………….but I am just wondering if I could do it like that?
Thanks
You would end up with a light rust colored velvet cake
Hey I wanted to make this into a sheet cake would it be the same ?
should be. 🙂
If I didn’t have any imported white chocolate, could I use white morsel chips/white chocolate chips?
Thanks for the recipe! It looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it out!
that would be fine, Silvia. 🙂
Just an update: I made this recipe into cupcakes and I added 4T of sour cream, decreased BP to 1 1/4 and added 1/14 of BS. They turned out so moist and delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Glad it worked!
This looks so delicious and moist! I’m always disappointed when I try a new flavor other than chocolate. All my yellow/white cakes always come out dense and tasting like a corn muffin for some reason…I don’t know how to explain. It seems that the most affected ones are the ones made with all butter and no oil, so I’ll be completely and utterly happy if this turns out moist and fluffy 🙂 thanks for sharing.
Well I hope you love it! You may be over mixing the cake and allowing it to develop the gluten
No over beating, and even using cake flour. I just may be comparing them too much to box vanilla cakes. Also, I love sour cream in cakes, do you think I can add some in this recipe?
You would have to cut the baking powder and add baking soda, then exchange the sour cream for part or all of the liquid in the recipe. If you had a lot of experience cake baking you could, but if not you might not get a great result
That’s what I was thinking. I’m going to try it, I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for your quick replies 🙂
I made this cake into cupcakes. They were perfect at around 16 minutes. These tasted amazing and the chream cheese icing recipe was to die for! Usually, cupcakes are a delivery system for icing, but this cake was delicious on its own!
YAY! Thanks for letting me know!
This looks all sinfull and full of fabulosity! You are my cake recipe savior tonight… I’ve had a request for a pink velvet cake and your recipe left me scavenging my pantry for something sweet to tide me over till I bake it!
YAY! I hope you love it as much as I do.
Mam I am very much inspired by you and your cakes. Mam you have mentioned half and half, what is this? In India I suppose we dont get this.
half and half is a type of light cream here.. it may go under the name of table cream there… it is half cream, half milk basically.
Marye,
I made this cake tonight and noticed that the recipe doesn’t state when to add the food coloring. Also I used red food coloring until I got the level of pink I wanted. I also made 2 layers instead of 3. When I poured the batter in the pans it didn’t seem enough for 3. They are cooling now will frost later. Thanks for sharing this. It has become one of my favorites!
Fixed, thanks Becky. I dunno..I got 3 layers out of it…maybe differences in flour or thickness of the layers?
I’m going to make white choc layer, pink choc layer and red velvet layer!
Robin that sounds amazing!
If I wanted to use 9″ cake pans, and just two of them, would that work? What would you recommend the baking time would be??
Catherine, yes it should… you may have some left over batter – just make cupcakes.
The baking time might need to be increased by 5 minutes or so.
These sound delicious and I want to make these for my sisters baby shower, but she wants cupcakes. How much do you think I should cut the time by?
I would check them at 15-20 minutes. 🙂
Love the color!
thanks Linette
man, I’m hungry!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL Deb…