Red Velvet Bundt Cake

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This Red Velvet Bundt Cake is truly a showstopper and uses less than 10 ingredients. It’s a bakery-style dessert easily made at home using a boxed cake mix. Topped with a cream cheese frosting, everyone will love this dessert.

When it comes to desserts, they can be daunting, especially cakes. But this red velvet bundt cake is super simple and easy to prepare thanks to a boxed cake mix as the base of the recipe.

We add a packet of chocolate pudding mix to enhance the red velvet cocoa flavor and also give it a dense and fudgy texture, similar to pound cake.

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To top it off, we had to make a cream cheese frosting of course – it’s everyone’s favorite! This is a cake anyone can master and is perfect for bringing to any gathering or event. It’s a dessert worth celebrating with it’s gorgeous red color and bundt shape.

If you’re looking for more simple yet decadent dessert recipes, we happen to be experts in that field. Try our Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting, Zinger Cake, and Creamsicle Cake.

Laura Ashley's Tip: The flavor of red velvet is a light chocolate flavor. There is cocoa powder in the cake mix, but not as much as a classic chocolate cake. It's truly vanilla meets chocolate and so delicious. The batter is then dyed red for it's signature look.

Table of Contents

Why You'll Love this Recipe

Foolproof cake recipe: By using a box cake mix as the base, this red velvet dessert is truly fail-proof and easy to make.
Less than 10 ingredients: Desserts are usually complicated, but this red velvet bundt is simple.
Impress family and friends: It’s the perfect cake for any celebration or gathering that will look and taste like a bakery-style dessert. With its bold red color, it's especially a great cake to make for Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, or Christmas!

Ingredients

Scroll Down to the Bottom of this Post for Ingredient Amounts Listed in the Printable Recipe Card

Cake

Red velvet cake mix: The base of the cake that makes this recipe foolproof and simple.
Instant chocolate pudding mix: Adds a fudgy, creamy element to the batter.
Sour cream: Gives the texture a denseness as well as moisture.
Large eggs: Binds the batter together.
Water: Activates everything in the cake mix.
Canola or vegetable oil: The fat for the base that keeps it from being dry.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese: Base of the frosting. Make sure it's truly soft for the texture to be correct.
Salted butter: Balances out the cream cheese in flavor.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the icing just right and helps hold its structure.
Vanilla extract: Adds a nice floral note.

The ingredients to make red velvet cake.

Tools You'll Need

How to Make Red Velvet Bundt Cake

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the red velvet cake mix, instant chocolate pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, water, and oil. Mix with a hand mixer or whisk just until combined and smooth.

The batter for red velvet cake in a bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto a cake plate. Allow it to cool completely before frosting.
For the icing, in a mixing bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese and butter with a hand mixer or spatula until creamy and smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, and mix again until smooth.

Whipping icing for red velvet cake in a bowl.

Fill a pastry or Ziploc bag and cut off the corner. From the outside in, squeeze and pull a line of frosting up and over the cake, into the center hole. Repeat around the whole bundt.

Expert Tips

Don’t skip the pudding mix. This enhances the cocoa flavor of the red velvet cake and also adds a fudgy moist element to ensure its never too dry.
Fully soften the cream cheese for the frosting as well as the butter. This is required to make sure it’s the right consistency and mixes evenly.
Grease the bundt pan thoroughly. This ensures it unmolds with a beautiful shape.
Don’t over-bake the bundt. This will make it tough and hard in texture.

Storage

Store the cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

You can also freeze the cake as well for up to 2 months. We recommend slicing the cake and storing in individual slices for ease.

FAQs

What makes a bundt cake different from regular cake?

A bundt cake is baked in a bundt-shaped pan while a regular cake is baked in a circular, square or rectangular cake pan.

How do I keep my cake from being too dry?

Avoid over-baking the cake and only allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. The residual heat of the pan can continue to cook the cake causing it to be dry.

What is the flavor of red velvet cake?

It's a cake with light chocolate flavor. The cake batter has less cocoa powder than a classic chocolate cake. The cake batter is then dyed red in color for it's signature look.

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