Best red velvet cake recipe

Bake a modern classic with this fabulous red velvet cake. Put half each of the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb, sugar and salt in a bowl and best red velvet cake recipe well.

If there are any lumps in the sugar, squeeze these through your fingers to break them up. Mix half each of the buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract, food colouring and 100ml water in a jug. Add 2 eggs and whisk until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until well combined. The cake mixture should be bright red, it will get a little darker as it cooks. If it’s not as vivid as you’d like, add a touch more colouring.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 with the remaining ingredients, so you have four sponge cakes in total. Can be made up to three days ahead and will stay moist if wrapped in cling film, or you can wrap well and freeze for up to two months. To make the icing, put the butter in a large bowl and sieve in half the icing sugar. Roughly mash together with a spatula, then whizz with a hand mixer until smooth.