Blue Velvet Cake Recipe
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Baby showers are so fun, aren’t they? You ooh and aah over the cutest baby clothes in pastel shades, ogle over the new-fangled baby gear and how much it has changed since your baby showers, and then play shower games that can get just a wee bit crazy when they involve guessing how many inches around the pregnant belly is. They also always have a mighty impressive spread of food.
Cake is always a favorite part of any shower and I wanted it to have a surprise inside when you cut it.
Unexpected, vibrant, and perfect for a little boy.
Blue Velvet Cake has all of the great taste of the more traditional Red Velvet Cake, but with such a fun twist that everyone will remember it.
Blue Velvet Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup (92 g) shortening
- 1 ½ cups (297 g) sugar
- 2 large (100 g) eggs
- 1 ounce (28 g) royal blue gel paste food color
- 2 drops (0.2 g) violet gel paste food color
- 2 tablespoons (10.5 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ¼ cups (270 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 scant teaspoon (2.6 g) kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon (4.7 g) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) distilled white vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease and flour 3 8-inch round cake pans.
- Cream Crisco and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs one at a time, completely incorporating after each addition.
- In a small bowl, make a paste of food coloring and cocoa powder and add to mixture.
- Stir together flour and salt in a separate medium bowl, set aside.
- Pour buttermilk and vanilla into a measuring cup, set aside.
- Alternately, add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture into Crisco/sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl to ensure all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Reduce speed of mixer and stir in baking soda, making sure incorporated into batter. Then, stir in the vinegar, taking care not to beat hard or over mix.
- Distribute cake batter evenly into the three cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes or until cakes have gently pulled away from the edges of the cake pans and a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.. You can follow my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
- Cool cake thoroughly before frosting.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Notes: I used Americolor Soft Gel Paste in Royal Blue and Violet. You may also want to try a natural-based food coloring.
i used this recipe for a friends wedding cupcakes, everyone loved them. came back to use again since it was such a hit if im wanting this to be more of a purple velvet should i just omit the blue food coloring all together? thank you:)
Kimberly, I haven’t made this as a purple cake. You will need to test with the food coloring to determine the color you want. Maybe you can find the colors to use on the AmeriColor site.
Hey there! I haven’t made yet, but was wondering what time/temp you would do for a sheet cake. I plan on doing cake push pops for my son’s birthday and think this will be perfect for his nerf themed birthday!
Andrea, I would bake this cake in a 18×13 pan at 350º F for about 20 minutes. I hope your son has a very happy birthday. I think these blue cake pops would be awesome for a nerf party.
You said you used americolor royal blue. Did you use the entire bottle. I see that the small bottle weighs .75 ounce. I trying to figure out how to measure this so I get 1 ounce
Patricia, 1 ounce is the same as 2 tablespoons. Just squeeze the bottle and let the drops go into the spoon. I hope this helps.
I made cupcakes instead & was little dry. Bake them for 20. Should I have reduced the temp to 325? Advise please.
The oven temperature should have been reduced to 325ºF for cupcakes. It sounds like the oven was too hot and the cupcakes were over cooked.
H this cake looks amazung!.I’m going to make this cake today. Just wondering if I can substitute the Crisco with canola oil instead. Thank you
Stevie, you could use Crisco oil.
Is it okay to use butter instead of shortening?
You can use butter instead of Crisco, but it will change the structure of the cake slightly. The cake will not be as moist, etc. If you don’t want to use Crisco, you could use coconut oil instead.
I havent tried this yet. But my question is about the gel paste. It says 1 ounce which is 28 grams. Thats alot of food paste. Is that accurate. Also the sugar is 1 1/2 cups. Could more be added. Let me know. I want to bake this for my birthday. January 25 2021.
Patricia, I used 1 ounce Americolor Soft Gel Paste in Royal Blue and 2 drops of Violet to get the deep blue color I wanted for this cake. If you use different brands or types of food coloring, the amounts could vary. I haven’t tried adding more sugar to this cake since it was sweet enough to me. I don’t know if the texture of the cake will change with more added sugar.
Looks amazing! I have have 9-inch cake pans, would I still divide into 3, or just do a 2 layer cake? How would the baking times change?
Sarah, the layers would be thin in 3 9-inch pans. There may be too much batter in two of the 9-inch pans but you could always make cupcakes with leftover batter. The baking time may be a few minutes less with the 9-inch pans. Just watch for the sides of the cake to start pulling loose from the pan.
Would this recipe be the same for cupcakes?
I would bake cupcakes at 325º for about 20 minutes, Briana. Fill each cupcake liner about 1/2 full.
Absolutely delicious and moist!!! I would have given 5 stars but mine turned out so dark, it was a blackish blue. I really wanted the bright blue color. Do you really use an entire ounce of coloring? I did this twice. I used less the second time hoping that would solve it. It was still too dark. Do you have any suggestion? Maybe what brand you used an entire ounce of coloring?
Gina, in the Notes section of the recipe, I list the colors I used. Notes: I used Americolor Soft Gel Paste in Royal Blue and Violet. You may also want to try a natural-based food coloring. Some food colorings may be darker than others so if you use a different one, just add the coloring until the batter looks the color you want.
Does the cocoa powder enhance the color at all? I did not use cocoa powder and my blue came out a little brighter than I need. I’m looking for a midnight blue, I used the AmeriColor royal blue and violet like instructioned.
Thank you
The cocoa powder would make a difference with the color, Amanda.
What brand of flour did u use
Destiny, I use White Lily flour.
When u say Crisco do u mean Crisco oil
No, the solid vegetable shortening, not oil.
I made this last night and it was amazing.
I’m so glad you liked the cake.