Name: All-Natural Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 330 g cake flour, homemade organic cake flour is preferred, see notes; 70 g red yeast rice powder, finely ground; 15 g cocoa powder, about 2 tbsp, raw unrefined preferred; 1 tsp baking soda; 1/4 tsp salt, Himalayan pink salt, or sea salt; 5 egg yolks; 120 g avocado oil; 115 g butter, organic unsalted, softened; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 4 tsp apple cider vinegar; 250 g whole milk, organic preferred, about 1 cup; 5 egg whites; 3 tsp white vinegar; 275 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred; 2 blocks of cream cheese, each containing 226 g (8 oz) of cream cheese; 115 g butter, organic unsalted, 1 bar, softened; 1.5 tsp vanilla extract; 120 g powdered sugar

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All-Natural Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting featuring Red Yeast Rice is so moist, fluffy, and yummy. The gorgeous red color is directly from this amazing ancient Chinese ingredient Red Yeast Rice. Homemade cake flour using organic all-purpose flour is easy, tasty, and healthier. Avocado oil is by far the most versatile nutritious oil excellent for baking.

If you are searching for dietary support for lowering cholesterol, and are fond of Red Velvet Cake, then this would be your perfect healthier treat. This is because Red Yeast Rice is known as a dietary supplement to lower cholesterol.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting {All Natural Ingredients}

Red Yeast Rice Fun Facts

What is Red Yeast Rice?

Known as Hong Qu Mi {红曲米} in Chinese, Red Yeast Rice is white rice that has been fermented with certain types of yeast. The fermentation process changes the color of the rice from white to this beautiful bright red.

Red Yeast Rice and Red Yeast Rice Powder

Red Yeast Rice has been used as an all-natural food color since ancient times in China’s Yangtze River Delta area. Dubbed in Jiang Nan {江南} in Chinese, literally translated as river south, this area is located on the south bank of Yangtze River along the delta area.

Home to the naturally delicious Huai Yang Cuisine, people in this area since old times have been using Red Yeast Rice to make savory dishes such as juicy delicious red braised pork, pork ribs, beef shank, pork with potatoes and carrots, chicken, or duck.

food featuring red yeast rice — Food Featuring Red Yeast Rice

Red Yeast Rice Health Benefits

During modern days, Red Yeast Rice gained a reputation worldwide for its impressive health benefits. Experts believed that the fermentation process would have helped developed compounds that can help lower cholesterol. What a bonus to enjoy a yummy treat that is also so healthy.

I am always a huge fan of Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I am beyond elated to have developed a recipe that uses all-natural ingredients.

How to make an All-Natural Red Velvet Cake easy, yummy and healthy?

Tip No.1 is to use Chinese Red Yeast Rice as an all-natural red color for Red Velvet Cake

Use a spice grinder to grind Red Yeast Rice into powder. Make sure you use the finest mode and go through the process twice. The goal is to get the finest possible red yeast rice powder.

Tip No.2 is homemade yummy healthy meringue

Meringue is essentially beaten egg whites with sugar until peak forms. Egg whites, when beaten to stiff, can expand the volume substantially, as much as 10 times. This is one important secret why this Red Velvet Cake is so moist and silky soft.

It is super easy and straightforward to make a basic meringue at home as long as you know a few tips & tricks.

Tip No.1 is to beat the egg whites while they are cold.

Keep the eggs in the refrigerator up to the moment you are ready to proceed with the beating. Cold temperature makes it easier to beat egg whites.

Tip No.2 is to add a few drops of white vinegar

Add a few teaspoonfuls of white vinegar to the egg whites before you start. The white vinegar not only makes the beating process easier but also makes the meringue tastier.

Tip No.3 is to gradually add organic cane sugar during the beating process

Measure out the cane sugar in advance in a bowl. Do not add the sugar initially. Once egg whites start to thicken, then gradually sprinkle the sugar in.

Beat egg whites in a Stand Mixer with a few drops of white vinegar, add sugar along the way, until form a peak.

Tip No.3 is to use a combination of organic butter and avocado oil

Let the butter stay at room temperature until softened.

Last but not least is to use homemade cake flour

For a moist cake, you will need cake flour for this Red Velvet Cake. However, you can use your favorite organic all-purpose flour and turn it into cake flour so quickly and easily. All you need to do is to steam the flour for 10 minutes, a trick cooks in China used all the time during old times. Read here for a detailed guided tutorial on how to make Homemade Cake Flour using organic all-purpose flour.

Red Velvet Cake Frequently Asked Questions:

What is Red Velvet Cake anyway?

Red Velvet Cake is a moist and smooth cake that boasts beautiful bright red color. It looks like red velvet, as the name alluded to. In terms of the taste, it has a subtle chocolate flavor as a result of a small quantity of cocoa powder incorporated in the recipe.

Cream cheese frosting complements Red Velvet Cake perfectly, both from a flavor and color presentation point of view. Truly a must-have for an authentic and complete Red Velvet Cake experience.

All Natural Red Velvet Cake — All-Natural Red Velvet Cake

What all-natural red food color can I use for the Red Velvet Cake?

Ancient and traditional Chinese food Red Yeast Rice is perhaps the best option out there. They are white rice has gone through a specific fermentation process, which then turns the white rice into red. Red Yeast Rice has a beautiful bright red color. More importantly, they are almost odorless and tasteless. This makes them an ideal all-natural food color so that they can blend into any food without interfering with the flavor and taste of the food.

Frosting freshly baked Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have a hard time frosting the cake, how to wrap the cake evenly and without pulling the cake apart?

Three tips I’d like to share on how to frost a cake nice and easy.

The first is to chill the cake a little bit before you attempt to frost them. If you just freshly baked a Cake, allow them to cool to room temperature, and then store it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours will do the trick.

The second is to slice off a thin top layer of the cake to expose the soft and moist cake interior. A quality serrated knife will make this task easier. The fluffy interior cake will merge with the frosting wonderfully.

Last but not least is to have the right tool kit. You will need a cake turntable, icing spatula, and smoother. A beginner’s cake decorating kit usually contains all the essential gadgets you will need for decorating a beautiful cake.

What makes this Red Velvet Cake so healthy and yummy?

A few important facts about this all-natural Red Velvet Cake to highlight:

First, it uses Chinese traditional food Red Yeast Rice as an all-natural red food color.

Second, this recipe uses 5 eggs. Not only does it make the cake hearty, but the beaten egg whites make the cake extremely fluffy and soft. This also means the overall recipe can use much less oil, one of the wet ingredients attempting to make the cake moist.

Third, if you already have an organic unbleached all-purpose flour, you can read here to make a homemade cake flour and use that for making all kinds of yummy and healthy cakes.

All-Natural Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Yield: One 8-inch Red Velvet Cake

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

All-Natural Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting featuring Red Yeast Rice is so moist, fluffy, and yummy. Homemade cake flour using organic all-purpose flour is easy, tasty, and healthier. Avocado oil is by far the most versatile nutritious oil excellent for baking.

Ingredients

For Dry Ingredients to Sift In:

330 g cake flour, homemade organic cake flour is preferred, see notes
70 g red yeast rice powder, finely ground
15 g cocoa powder, about 2 tbsp, raw unrefined preferred
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt, Himalayan pink salt, or sea salt

Wet Ingredients For Batter Base:

5 egg yolks
120 g avocado oil
115 g butter, organic unsalted, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
250 g whole milk, organic preferred, about 1 cup

For Homemade Meringue:

5 egg whites
3 tsp white vinegar
275 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 blocks of cream cheese, each containing 226 g (8 oz) of cream cheese
115 g butter, organic unsalted, 1 bar, softened
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
120 g powdered sugar

Instructions

Prepare the Cake Batter:

Leave 2 blocks of cream cheese and 2 bars of butter at room temperature a few hours ahead of baking to soften them.
Gather and measure out all the sift in dry ingredients in a bowl using a kitchen scale. Measure out sugar, milk, and red yeast rice respectively.
Use a spice grinder to finely grind the red yeast rice into powder. Use the finest mode on the grinder and process twice to get the finest powder possible. Add them into the bowl holding dry ingredients.
Crack eggs and separate yolks and whites. Place egg yolks in another mixing bowl and egg whites into the Stand Mixer mixing bowl.
Add 3 tsp white vinegar into the Stand Mixer mixing bowl, turn the mixer on to medium-high level, I usually use 6 for my KitchenAid, and set a timer for 8 minutes.
After about 2 minutes, gradually add the sprinkle the cane sugar using a circular motion. Make sure all sugar is in by the end of 6 minutes. Stop the mixer once or twice during the process, scrape sugar off the mixer wall and mix together with egg whites in the mixer.
When the egg whites have exploded the volume, formed a peak, and stay in shape that way, you know the egg whites are ready. Turn off the mixer.
Sift the dry ingredients using a fine flour sifter or stainless steel strainer and place them in a large mixing bowl.
Gather and measure out all the Wet Ingredients for the batter base and add to the mixing bowl with the egg yolks. Butter should be softened by now, cut into small pieces and then mix and blend everything together.
Pour the milk into the large glass mixing bowl hold the sifted dry ingredients, stir, mix and fold. Add the wet ingredients mixture. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the bowl clean if needed. Mix and fold the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
Add half of the beaten egg whites into the mixing bowl, fold into the mixture.
Make sure you use a fold motion instead of swirl or make a circle using the spatula. This is the key not to deflate the beaten egg whites.
Pour the batter mixture into the Stand Mixer mixing bowl hold rest of the beaten egg whites, continue to fold the mixture with the egg whites continuously until smooth.

Bake the Red Velvet Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Layer 8-inch round non-bleached parchment paper inside of the 8-inch stainless steel cake pan. Press down along the edge and make sure the parchment paper is tight with the pan.
Divide the batter between two of the baking pans, each has about 725 g of red velvet cake batter. Gently shake the pan to even and get rid of the bubbles.
When the oven reaches 350 F, place the pans on the same level inside the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
Turn off the oven, remove the cake and place them on a wire rack to cool down.
Once it is almost room temperature, place the cake inside the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours. This will make the frosting process easier.

Make the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Clean and dry the Stand Mixer mixing bowl.
Gather the ingredients for making the cream cheese frosting.
Add the softened cream cheese and butter, along with the powdered sugar and vanilla extract into the mixing bowl.
Turn on the mixer to medium, I usually use 6 on my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, and beat for about 1 minute, or until smooth. Stop the mixer, use a silicone spatula to scrape and mix if needed.

Frosting the Red Velvet Cake:

Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Use a butter knife to separate the cake edge from the cake pan and remove them from the cake pan.
Use a serrated knife to slice off a thin top layer of the cake.
Place one cake on the cake turntable, add some frosting on the top.
While the left hand (less dominant hand) gently spin the cake turntable, use an icing spatula in your right hand and spread and level the icing. Until you have an even thin layer of icing.
Add the other cake, repeat the above step till you have covered the top of the cake with an even and thin layer of frosting.
Add some frosting to the side of the cake, while your left hand spin the turntable, hold an icing smoother in your right hand and smooth the wall of the cake.
All done! Enjoy a super yummy and healthy Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.