Red Velvet Cream Cheese Swirl Bundt Cake
With a characteristic tang and a heaping pile of cream cheese frosting, this one bowl red velvet bundt cake with a cream cheese swirl is easy, delicious, and a true crowd pleaser!
You guys knew this was coming, right? A bundt cake of the month series, so what else would we choose for February other than… red velvet!
Red velvet is such a confusing cake flavor, because… what is it, exactly? There’s a little chocolate, but it doesn’t have a distinct chocolate flavor. There’s a little hint of sourness and tang. The texture is a little different too – it’s so light and fluffy compared to other cakes.
And of course, the most obvious part: it’s red!
Let’s talk a little bit about the history of red velvet cakes. It involves my favorite topic: science! Have you ever wondered why red velvet cakes are red? I mean, a bottle of food coloring does nothing to add to the flavor, so why do we use it?
Time for a little science and history lesson!
Kitchen Chemistry: Back in the day, cocoa powder contained a compound called anthocyanin. Anthocyanins are flavonoids that change color based on pH. Red velvet cake gets its unique tang and texture from some acidic additions: buttermilk and vinegar. When the anthocyanins react with the acid, the color changes from brown to deep red. Science! So why do we now add red food coloring? Most cocoa powder today is processed with an alkalizing agent to neutralize the pH. This makes cocoa powder taste more chocolatey, but it also makes it darker brown and prevents the color change.
Pretty interesting, right? (Okay, maybe I’m the only one who loves kitchen chemistry.)
To get the characteristic red velvet flavor and texture, we need to use buttermilk and distilled white vinegar for the acidic component. Don’t worry, you don’t taste the vinegar at all!
We need some baking soda to help give the cake a little extra rise. You guys all remember the vinegar and baking soda volcano experiment from elementary school, right?
And now, we add some red food coloring to replicate the traditional color change from the anthocyanins.
Here’s the great debate on red velvet: should it be BRIGHT red or brownish-red? A lot of cakes now are super red. Like, red red.
You can achieve this by adding a lot of food coloring. A lot of recipes call for a full one ounce bottle. I… I just can’t get behind adding that much food coloring when there’s no real reason.
This red velvet bundt cake uses 3/4 of a tablespoon, which gives it a reddish color, but not super bright red. I prefer to think of it as a more authentic color, versus the modernized super red version.
(Another fun history fact: the super bright version started during the Great Depression, when it was an inexpensive way to make a cake look extra fancy.)
Of course, since this is a bundt cake, the texture will be a little more dense than a layer cake. Even with all the baking soda and vinegar and buttermilk, the increased depth of a bundt cake adds to the density.
But this thickness means that bundt cakes are ideal for adding a little layer of something in the middle – like a cream cheese swirl!
For reasons I don’t quite know, red velvet cake always has cream cheese frosting. Not only do we top this red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese frosting, we’re also going to add a swirl right in the middle!
Just drop dollops of the cream cheese mixture on half the cake batter, use a knife to spread it around, and top with the rest of the batter.
So, how do you like your red velvet? RED red, or reddish-brown? Are you a red velvet purest who only likes it in the form of a light, fluffy layer cake, or are you down with all the red velvet cookies/brownies/pancakes/doughnuts/everything else this time of year?
This easy (did I mention that you mix everything in one bowl?) red velvet bundt cake is a huge crowd pleaser (my coworkers ate the entire cake in 2 hours!), so it should definitely be on your baking list for Valentine’s Day or any other day of the year!
Love Bundt Cakes? Check out these other amazing bundts!
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- Cinnamon Clementine Bundt Cake
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- Peppermint Mocha Bundt Cake
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- Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake
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- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Bundt Cake
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- Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake
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- Cookes and Cream Oreo Bundt Cake
Red Velvet Cream Cheese Swirl Bundt Cake
With a characteristic tang and a heaping pile of cream cheese frosting, this red velvet bundt cake with a cream cheese swirl is an easy crowd pleaser!
Ingredients:
For the cream cheese swirl:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the red velvet cake:
- 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3/4 tablespoon red food coloring
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan.
- Start by making the cream cheese swirl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat with the paddle attachment until combined. Add in the egg, sour cream, heavy cream, and vanilla extract and continue to beat until mixture is soft and pourable. Scrape out the cream cheese swirl mixture into a small bowl and set aside.
- Wipe out the inside of the mixing bowl with a towel. Pour in the vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and red food coloring. Beat for 2-3 minutes, until well combined and all the sugar has dissolved. Add in the dry ingredients and beat for an additional 1-2 minutes, until no flour streaks remain.
- Pour half the red velvet batter into the prepared bundt pan. Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese swirl mixture on top of the batter and spread into an even layer with a knife. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top of the cream cheese swirl.
- Bake for 55 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the bundt pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- While the cake cools, make the cream cheese frosting. Using the electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluff, 3 to 4 minutes. Slowly add in the confectioners sugar, followed by the heavy cream. Continue to beat an additional minute or two.
- Once the cake has cooled completely, use a spatula to spread the frosting along the top and sides of the bundt cake. Top liberally with sprinkles.
- Transfer the cake to a refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the frosting to set. The cake can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Baked cake can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap, followed by a layer of aluminum foil. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator, then transfer it to the counter and allow it to come to room temperature, 1 to 2 hours, before frosting as directed above.
A Bunsen Burner Bakery Original Protocol
Thanks Julie for the chemistry lessons, I feel so mush smarter, lol! I love how you’ve made a one-bowl method and who needs all that food coloring anyways!
Food and chemistry has such great overlap!
How good this looks, love the presentation and the surprise when you slice teh cake. By far red velvet is one of my favorite cakes perfect for Valentine’s Day indeed.
I had no idea how red velvet came about. That is so cool to know! Also, this cake looks delicious. My son’s favorite kind of cake is anything red velvet!
This cake looks so pretty and would be great for Valentines day! I didn’t realize that about the cocoa and why you had to add food coloring. Interesting!
I’m loving the surprise cream cheese swirl. I’m always so confused when people tell me their favorite flavor is red velvet. They must wonder why I look at them like they’re crazy. But seriously, what is red velvet, really?! LOL! Regardless, I’m totally in love with this bundt cake. It’s gorgeous and festive and you had me at cream cheese!
Haha- A bundt cake of the month– One of these days you’re going to talk me into buying a bundt pan! I can’t bring myself to buy food coloring, but I’m not sold on the beet coloring either (can you taste it?!?!), but I love the idea of making the cake a little more buttermilk-tangy. Sounds delicious!
You actually can’t taste the beet food coloring! I made two versions of this cake – one with food coloring and one with beet powder. I brought the beet powder one to work and it tasted almost the same; I never would have guessed if I didn’t actually know. It also didn’t turn out super red, though – also a reddish brown. I figure a little food coloring is fine — in the grand scheme of things, from a scientific perspective, consuming a single slice of food coloring dyed red velvet cake still results in less cellular damage than a glass of bourbon — so I’m okay with using some food coloring sporadically.
My friend was just asking about red velvet the other day and what exactly it is so I had to laugh when I read your post and was able to give her an answer! I never knew that!! And your cake looks amazing!
Wow! This is such a gorgeous bundt cake! My daughter would love it: she adores red velvet and sprinkles 🙂 I bet this is so delicious!
That was very interesting to read, l had no idea that the red colour could be obtained naturally too. I tend to use the paste food colouring over liquid just because it works a lot better and only a tiny amount is needed for instant bright red. Your colour is a beautiful one, and the cake looks fantastic, perfect for Valentine’s Day.
Bundt cakes are great. The shape is perfect, and you don’t have to spend hours decorating it. I love red velvet cake, so this would not last long in our house. I would eat it for breakfast….seriously I would.
Oh! how much I love this? Too much. Just reading the first sentence got me drooling and dreaming. Tangy, sweet, chocolaty I mean hello! Perfect!!! It is also so beautiful!!
Great history lesson there! I always add red food coloring to brighten up a red velvet cake- it does make it look fancier! Beautifully done and perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Ok, not only is that cake beautiful and looking absolutely delicious, but we got a history/chemistry lesson too! That’s a bargian, no? 🙂
I lean more toward just adding a drop or two of colouring. I don’t like the overly processed red colour that you get from store-bought Red Velvet – it looks too fake and too much like that red sweet and sour sauce you get from a Chinese restaurant.
This cake is so pretty! I love the little hearts. Perfect for Valentine’s Day!
I’m so in love with red velvet at the moment – red velvet donuts and shortbread cookies to be exact – but I’ve actually never tried making a red velvet cake before. This one looks amazing though, so thanks for the inspiration!
Red velvet shortbread cookies sound so good!!
I love the surprise inside the cake and so want to eat some! I am also not a bog fan of food coloring and I would rather have a little pale cake than overusing the coloring. This is so perfect for the season!
Thanks for the explanation – I knew it had *something* to do with cocoa, but I’d never seen a really clear explanation.
I never even heard of it until I went to college and a friend talked about her mom making the bright red version – and it totally confused me! (That was years ago – it’s been in NYC a while, now… )
And yes, I love learning about kitchen chemistry!
I also did not grow up with red velvet – I don’t remember when I first heard about it, probably also in college. It’s such a southern staple and I really don’t think it took off in the north until the big cupcake craze when red velvet cupcakes popped up in every bakery!
I’m all about taste vs color! This looks and sounds so good though. So festive, and perfect for this time of year. Love that cream cheese filling!
That is one stunning cake! I wish someone will bake this for me on Valentine’s Day!
1. This cake is freaking STUNNING.
2. I LOVE learning about kitchen and cooking science!
3. Learned something new today, thanks to you. 😉 Woohoo!
Love this! What a festive cake!
Wow, what a beautiful cake! I loved reading about the science and history behind it, too.
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