Today’s red and white Valentines cake features three layers of fluffy and moist white velvet and red velvet cake. A demure coat of vanilla buttercream covered in pretty little piped red hearts is the perfect sweet touch to this pretty Valentine’s Day cake. Everyone will love when you cut the cake to reveal the striking red and white striped cake layers inside!
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Ingredients
If you’re only interested in decorating the outside of today’s red and white Valentines cake, then you can certainly use any cake flavor that you like. Or, you could always buy a white box cake mix, and tint 1/3 of the batter red as noted in the recipe, for the alternating red and white layers of this Valentine’s Day cake.
For a from-scratch version, though, I recommend my White Velvet Cake. I actually had some spare white velvet and red velvet cake layers in the freezer that I used for my cake. But to make it easy for you, all you need to do is prepare one cake recipe, and color some of the batter.
- White Velvet Cake. My white velvet cake is a delicious white cake that’s soft, fluffy and moist. It’s a personal favorite of mine out of all the cakes on my blog.
- Perfect American Buttercream. Next you’ll need to make a batch of American buttercream. Make 4x the recipe to have enough to frost an 8-inch 3 layer cake.
- Red Gel Food Coloring. You’ll need red gel food coloring to tint 1/3 of the cake batter, as well as to color a small amount of buttercream for the little red piped hearts. I recommend Super Red Gel Food Coloring for the deepest, truest shade of red.
- Dutch-processed Cocoa Powder. If you only add red gel food coloring to white cake batter, you’ll end up with pink cake. To get a darker shade of red, you’ll need to add a tablespoon of Dutch-processed cocoa powder to the cake batter, too.
- Piping Bag + Coupler + Tip #3. To pipe the buttercream hearts, I used tip #3, which is a very small round tip. For bigger hearts, you could use a slightly bigger round tip.
Instructions
Make the White Velvet Cake Batter
- Preheat the oven to 350, and spray the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- Prepare the White Velvet Cake batter as instructed.
Color 1/3 of the Cake Batter Red
- Divide 2/3 of the cake batter between 2 of the pans.
- To the remaining 1/3 of the cake batter, add the cocoa powder (it’s helpful to sift the cocoa powder over the cake batter and then whisk it in, to avoid lumps).
- Add a few drops of red gel food coloring, until you have your desired shade of red. Pour the red batter into the 3rd cake pan.
Bake the Cake
- Bake on the center oven rack for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a wire rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Make the Buttercream and Frost the Cake
- Prepare the American Buttercream as instructed: you’ll need to make 4x the recipe to have enough to frost a 3-layer cake. For a bright white buttercream, substitute shortening for 1/2 of the butter in the recipe.
- Remove the cooled cakes from the cake pans, and place one of the white cakes on a cake board. Frost with a layer of buttercream. Add the red cake layer next, frost with a layer of buttercream, and top with the other white cake, so that the red is sandwiched between two layers of white.
- Frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Frost the cake with a final pretty coat of buttercream. You can make it smooth or swirly, whatever you like. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Pipe the Red Hearts
- Take the remaining buttercream (you’ll only need 1/2 cup) and tint it red with the red food coloring.
- Fit a piping bag with a coupler and tip #3; fill with the red buttercream.
- Pipe small red hearts all over the cake. You can line them up evenly in a polkadot pattern, or make them random. Here is a helpful Wilton tutorial on piping these easy, pretty hearts.
- And if you’re not inclined to pipe buttercream hearts, then decorate your cake with candy sprinkle hearts! Your Valentines cake will be so cute either way.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading my comprehensive post on making Perfect American Buttercream.
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Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
Red and White Valentines Cake
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle and Whisk Attachments
- Piping Bag fitted with Tip #3
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 recipe White Velvet Cake
- Super Red Gel Food Coloring
- 1 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder, whisked free of lumps
Buttercream
- 4x recipe Perfect American Buttercream
- Super Red Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350, and spray the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- Prepare the White Velvet Cake batter as instructed.
- Divide 2/3 of the cake batter between 2 of the pans.
- To the remaining 1/3 of the cake batter, add the cocoa powder (it's helpful to sift the cocoa powder over the cake batter and then whisk it in, to avoid lumps). Add a few drops of red gel food coloring, until you have your desired shade of red. Pour the red batter into the 3rd cake pan.
- Bake on the center oven rack for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Set the pans on a wire rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream & Assembly
- Prepare the American Buttercream as instructed: you'll need to make 4x the recipe to have enough to frost a 3-layer cake. For a bright white buttercream, substitute shortening for 1/2 of the butter in the recipe.
- Remove the cooled cakes from the cake pans, and place one of the white cakes on a cake board. Frost with a layer of buttercream.
- Add the red cake layer next, frost with a layer of buttercream, and top with the other white cake, so that the red is sandwiched between two layers of white.
- Frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Frost the cake with a final pretty coat of buttercream. You can make it smooth or swirly, whatever you like. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Take the remaining buttercream (you'll only need 1/2 cup) and tint it red with the red food coloring. Fit a piping bag with a coupler and tip #3; fill with the red buttercream.
- Pipe small red hearts all over the cake. You can line them up evenly like a polkadot pattern, or make them random. Here is a helpful Wilton tutorial on piping these easy, pretty hearts.
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