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This Red Velvet Pound Cake recipe is moist, dense and super tender! It tastes subtly chocolatey and decadently rich. The cream cheese glaze locks in the moisture and adds a delightful tangy sweetness!
You know I love recipe challenges, like the perfect red velvet cake, but make it a cookie {like these red velvet cookies}. Today we have, the perfect pound cake recipe but make it red velvet. Challenge accepted! You know I love a good baking challenge and always appreciate a good bundt cake. There’s my Sour Cream Pound Cake, my Maple Pound Cake, Cherry Almond Pound Cake, Chocolate Pound Cake…the list goes on and on! {I also blame the bundt pan shopping binge of 2021 for this continued obsession.}
I am obsessed with the way they look; the striking powdered sugar dusting and glaze drizzle; and the challenge of developing a perfectly tender cake in all the flavors that also unmolds beautifully. Moreover, you can always make a red velvet raspberry trifle with the leftovers, if there are any!
Table of Contents
Is red velvet cake just dyed red?
This cake does use red food dye to get that rich, red color but traditionally the red color came from the reaction of non-Dutch processed cocoa powder and an acid. This acid is most often white vinegar or buttermilk.
What to serve with red velvet pound cake?
I love this pound cake with a thick cream cheese glaze and vanilla bean ice cream. Serve with chocolate fudge sauce to really lean into the chocolate flavor or add a drizzle of salted caramel sauce for a fun, delicious twist!
What icing goes with red velvet pound cake?
I’ve drizzled it with an easy cream cheese glaze, but you could also mound the top of the bundt cake with my favorite cream cheese buttercream, the easy caramel frosting from these caramel cupcakes, or even just warmed salted caramel sauce.
Ingredients
- Butter: I use unsalted butter in my baked goods so I can keep track of the salt content.
- Sugar: There is a serious amount of sugar in this recipe. It adds to the flavor but also helps keep a tight crumb that still melts in your mouth.
- Light Brown Sugar: Using light brown sugar adds sweetness along with a little moisture.
- Whole Egg: The eggs are here to add fat, moisture and leavening.
- All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour has just the right amount of gluten to make a dense, tender pound cake.
- Cocoa Powder: I use Dutch processed cocoa powder, which just means it has been treated with an alkaline solution.
- Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is lass salty than table salt and a teaspoon weighs less than other finer ground varieties.
- Sour Cream: The extra fat and the low liquid content in sour cream help add flavor, lock in moisture, lower gluten and add to that dense, moist texture.
- Baking Soda: ¼ teaspoon of baking soda? I know it might seem odd but just a tiny bit of baking soda will immediately react with the acid in the sour cream and cocoa powder and will add just enough leavening to your pound cake.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla Extract adds a beautiful flavor itself but it also boosts the flavor of other ingredients around it like brown sugar.
- Red Food Dye: Don’t omit the red food dye and vanilla. They are the only liquids in this cake, and it is a silky, thick batter.
- Confectioner’s Sugar: Confectioner’s sugar is used in buttercreams because it is ground finely into a powder.
- Whole Milk: I generally use whole milk for the added flavor and fat.
- Cream Cheese: I use original Philadelphia Cream Cheese for all my baked goods including frostings and buttercreams.
Substitutions
- Cocoa Powder: You could substitute standard cocoa powder for the Dutch processed cocoa powder. The flavor change will be subtle but it will be less robust. There is so little cocoa powder in this recipe that it will make very little difference.
- Red Food Dye: You can replace this with water. I would suggest substituting the Dutch processed cocoa powder for standard cocoa powder so that it will react with the sour cream to produce a rusty-red color. There will be much less red in your Red Velvet Pound Cake.
- Sour Cream: I almost always bake with full-fat dairy because the fat adds to the texture and intensity of flavor, but low fat versions or even Greek yogurt can be substituted in most cases. Lower fat sour cream also breaks easier than the full-fat varieties when heated or an acid is added. This is generally not catastrophic but it will impact the final texture in a subtle way.
- Cake Flour: You could certainly substitute cake flour for the all-purpose flour but the resulting texture will be ever so slightly lighter. Be sure to sift it!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can make the batter up to one day ahead or bake, cool and freeze the cake for serving at a later date.
Technically this is the creaming method; however, you want to beat the butter and sugar just until the point when they form a paste. If you keep beating, then you will begin to trap air between the sugar and fat molecules. This is how cakes and other baked goods get that light, airy texture without a ton of leavening. That’s not our goal. Turn off that mixer. Don’t be overzealous; you’re good.
You can make as large a batch of this red velvet pound cake as you would like. You are only limited by the capacity of your stand mixer and the number of your bundt pans!
Store Red Velvet Pound Cake well wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature, refrigerated or frozen.
Pound cakes will keep 5 days at room temperature, two weeks refrigerated or 3 months frozen. For optimal freshness, serve within 2 days of baking or freeze for longer term storage.
Red Velvet Pound Cakes freeze beautifully. This is the best way to preserve the moisture and texture of a freshly baked cake. I like to pre-slice them before freezing if I am not planning on serving the whole cake.
Thaw covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
How do I keep my bundt cake from sticking to the pan?
Do not underestimate the power of a well-greased and floured pan. It is especially key with a detailed bundt pan like the one I used. No cake left behind! I actually added my flour back to the pan and then tapped it around a second time to get every millimeter of the surface. Then tap that out. No weird patches of flour on the outside of your cake. For shame. Plus, it is soooo satisfying.
Why do I need to let the cake cool?
It’s the hardest part of the whole process, but it’s so important. I am the queen of impatience but I also know that a bundt cake turned out too soon will end in disaster. I tried something new here and turned it out after 20 minutes because I read that butter and floured pans should be cooled completely, but nonstick spray and floured pans should be still warm. The internet did not disappoint here! This is my new move. You still have to let it cool completely on a baking rack. Sorry. If you cut the cake when it is still too warm, it will turn into a gloppy, dense cake situation. Trust me here. The crumb hasn’t set and it will be compressed by the cutting process. This is the bad kind of dense.
Red Velvet Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 339 g Butter
- 520 g Sugar
- 170 g Light brown sugar
- 300 g Eggs
- 315 g All Purpose Flour
- 50 g Cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
- 225 g Sour Cream
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons Red Food Dye
Cream Cheese Glaze:
- 400 g Confectioner’s Sugar
- 100 g Milk
- 128 g Cream Cheese room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F convection.
- Prep your Pan: I sprayed my pan with cooking spray and then floured it. Tap the flour around until every inch is covered. Tap out the extra flour onto a piece of parchment on the counter. You should be left with a perfectly floured pan.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar just until a thick paste forms. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after every two eggs or so.
- Switch the mixer to low and then alternately add the flour and sour cream. I don’t wait until all the flour has incorporated until I add the next batch. I just keep adding with two hands. Pro-style. I do stop the mixer to add the last of the sour cream because I like to scrape it all out with a rubber spatula.
- Once you have added your last bit of flour, add the red food dye and vanilla. Add it slowly because it is A LOT of food dye and you don’t want to dye everything red. Turn the mixer up to quickly incorporate. You should have a silky, smooth batter.
- Pour into prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake in preheated oven until a cake tester comes out with a few clinging crumbs. This will take about 60-85 minutes depending on your oven. Mine baked for 70 minutes. If you overbake it will be dry. Even that much butter, sugar and sour cream can’t over compensate for overbaking. Just sayin’.
- Let her COOL 20 minutes and then loosen the edges with a paring knife and then turn it out onto a rack. Allow to cool completely.
- I chose to level it with a serrated knife just a smidge for the photos. Don’t worry, the cake scraps did not go to waste!
- Dust with powdered sugar, drowned in glaze or just slice it right up!
- To make the cream cheese glaze: whisk cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar and milk together. Pour over the top.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Before You Go!
Check out our other delicious, chef-developed Cake Recipes!
