The silkiest texture, moist and with a slight tang of buttermilk, this White Velvet Cake is perfect with an all-natural strawberry buttercream made with fresh strawberries (and one secret ingredient.) Includes both regular and high-altitude versions.
An All-Natural Version of White Velvet Cake.
One of my founding principles here at Baking Naturally was to work hard to avoid using artificial or over-processed ingredients in my baking. That’s why you won’t find a box of white cake mix in my Old Fashioned Coconut Cake, like you will in so many other recipes.
Boxed white cake mix is often used to create the kind of super-moist (and super sweet) white cake we see at weddings and other occasions. With the emulsifiers, gums, artificial flavorings and other add-ins, white cake mix serves as the easy substitute for a scratch cake with real flavor. It’s too bad we have allowed that to happen.
But no longer. This White Velvet Cake gives you all the silky texture you want in a white cake, without the gumminess, cloying sweetness and excess fat from a box mix.
Just a few notes about the preparation.
Though I use cake flour for this cake, you can use a high-protein flour like Hungarian and get very similar results. Or cut it half and half, all-purpose and cake flour.
Many White Velvet cakes use all-butter for the shortening. I use a mixture of butter and vegetable oil. I find butter – though flavorful – leaves a cake too dry. Cutting it with oil adds moisture to the cake that doesn’t bake off in the oven.
This version of White Velvet Cake calls for buttermilk. If you decide to use regular milk, you’ll need to increase the oil by another 2 tablespoons.
And finally, you can frost this cake when fully cooled, using your favorite frosting. I created an all-natural strawberry buttercream that I think you will like. See the recipe below.
White Velvet Cake Regular Altitude
Ingredients
- 3 cups Cake Flour 410 g
- 4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Freeze-dried Strawberry Powder (optional)
- 1/4 cup Butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 1/4 cups Sugar 525 g
- 6 lg Egg Whites room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups Buttermilk room temperature
- 2 tsp Vanilla or one scraped vanilla bean
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C).
- Prepare 2 9-inch round cake pans by greasing the bottom and sides and coating liberally with flour. If your pans tend to stick, use parchment rounds.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt (and freeze-dried strawberry powder, if using). Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla until creamed – about 8 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down at least twice.
- Beat in egg whites separately until blended – about 30 seconds per white.
- Starting with the flour mixture, mix about 1/3 of the mixture into your creamed butter until blended. Then add 1/2 the buttermilk. Repeat this process until you've blended the flour last. Scrape down the bowl twice during the process.
- Divide the batter between the pans (I use a kitchen scale to weigh it out.) Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a finger touch springs back, or a toothpick comes out with minimal crumbs.
- Cool completely before frosting.
And here is the high-altitude version:
White Velvet Cake High Altitude
Ingredients
- 3 cups Cake Flour PLUS 2 Tablespoons 430 g
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Freeze-dried Strawberry Powder (optional)
- 1/4 cup Butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 1/4 cups Sugar LESS 2 Tablespoons 500 g
- 6 lg Egg Whites room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups Buttermilk PLUS 3 Tablespoons room temperature
- 2 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 365F (185C)
- Prepare 2 9-inch round cake pans by greasing the bottom and sides and coating liberally with flour. If your pans tent to stick, use parchment rounds.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt (and freeze-dried strawberry powder, if using). Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla until creamed – about 8 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down at least twice.
- Beat in egg whites separately until blended – about 30 seconds per white.
- Starting with the flour mixture, mix about 1/3 of the mixture into your creamed butter until blended. Then add 1/2 the buttermilk. Repeat this process until you've blended the flour last. Scrape down the bowl twice during the process.
- Divide the batter between the pans (I use a kitchen scale to weigh it out.) Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a finger touch springs back, or a toothpick comes out with minimal crumbs.
- Cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting, I wanted a fresh strawberry icing. Those who work with strawberries know that the flavor can be elusive, and the color imparted by fresh strawberries is a rather unappetizing grey.
Not to be deterred, I decided to concentrate the strawberry flavor into a syrup, then used the syrup in the buttercream. Nice, but still resulted in a pale grey frosting.
The Secret Ingredient
A lot of recipes would just call for a few drops of red food coloring, or a teaspoon of strawberry gelatine (again, loaded with artificial flavors and colors.) No thanks. Instead, I rummaged through my freezer and pulled out a small bag of frozen raspberries. Just the thing!
I thawed a quarter cup of the raspberries in a pan, and threw in a few tablespoons of sugar to help release the colorful juice. Spooning a few tablespoons of the juice into my syrup provided the color I wanted, and actually boosted the strawberry flavor as well! You can see the result in my feature photo. For more color, add more raspberry juice, but be sure to reduce it down a bit more so as not to thin the frosting too much.
StrawBERRY Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
StrawBERRY Syrup
- 1 cup Strawberries fresh, sliced
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 4 tbsp Raspberry Juice From frozen raspberries
StrawBERRY Buttercream
- 1 cup Butter room temperature, salted or unsalted (add a pinch of salt if using unsalted.)
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 4 tbsp StrawBERRY syrup
- 1 tbsp Vanilla
- 1 tbsp Heavy Cream more or less, as needed for spreading consistency
Instructions
- Add sliced strawberries, sugar and raspberry juice to a small saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes until softened.
- Blend the berries until smooth. Place covered in refrigerator to cool completely.
- Beat butter in mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar and cover mixer with a light towel to prevent sugar "blowout". Blend together until smooth. Add strawBERRY syrup and vanilla while beating and blend well. Check consistency and add cream until the frosting is spreadable.I usually beat the frosting on medium-high for a few minutes to incorporate some air, but that is optional.
If you’re having trouble frosting your cakes, here’s a quick tutorial on how to frost a simple, 2-layer cake. No “leveling”, no piping, just the basics! But good information for you:
I use a large offset spatula when icing my cakes, and it is indispensable! A flat knife forces me to drag my big man-knuckles through the icing. An offset spatula keeps your hands far enough away from the cake to keep it nice and tidy. Here’s a good choice from Amazon:
