Why do you put vinegar in red velvet cake?

Q: Can I skip vinegar in red velvet cake?

Vinegar isnt a typical cake ingredient -- unless youre making the lightly chocolate-flavored, crimson-hued red velvet version. If you leave it out of the ingredients, chances are your cake will turn out just fine. But adding it may help make your cake light and tender, or preserve the reddish color.

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Vinegar isn't a typical cake ingredient -- unless you're making the lightly chocolate-flavored, crimson-hued red velvet version. If you leave it out of the ingredients, chances are your cake will turn out just fine. But adding it may help make your cake light and tender, or preserve the reddish color.

Red velvet cake contains baking powder and baking soda to leaven, or raise, the height of the batter. Both are used to ensure that the cake, which contains cocoa powder that makes a batter resist rising, bakes up light and high. For baking soda to effectively leaven a cake, it must react with an ingredient that contains acid. Although most red velvet cake recipes contain acidic ingredients such as buttermilk and cocoa, the addition of vinegar provides just a little extra acid to ensure the baking soda can do its best rising work.

Another potential reason that vinegar is an ingredient in red velvet cake recipes has to do with the hallmark color. Originally, the color of the cake came from the addition of beets or beet juice, not the red food coloring of current times. When beet juice has too alkaline an environment, it bakes into a bluish hue -- so you'd end up with blue suede, rather than red velvet, cake.

By adding vinegar to the baking soda, and then the whole mixture to the batter, the cooking environment for the beet coloring is more acidic and results in a red cake. Nowadays, most people use red food coloring, which isn't reactive to pH changes -- but the tradition of vinegar in the cake persists.

Most recipes that make a single cake call for just a tablespoon of vinegar. Almost any type of vinegar will do, including white or apple cider. You can substitute another acidic liquid for the vinegar too. Choose something with a light flavor that won't alter the taste of the cake -- such as lemon juice.

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8
Amount per serving
Calories	685
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 46g	59%
Saturated Fat 5g	27%
Cholesterol 55mg	18%
Sodium 446mg	19%
Total Carbohydrate 65g	24%
Dietary Fiber 1g	3%
Total Sugars 39g
Protein 6g
Vitamin C 0mg	2%
Calcium 49mg	4%
Iron 3mg	18%
Potassium 100mg	2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Red velvet cake is as striking visually as it is delicious. There's just something about that deep, red cake against the cream cheese frosting.

Mixing the baking soda with the vinegar is an interesting technique that you don't see very often in cakes, but its purpose is to generate extra rising power. And you really need to make sure your baking soda is fresh.

In fact, our number-one tip for anyone baking a cake: Use fresh baking soda! If it's been more than six months since you bought the baking soda in your pantry, you should replace it. And if you don't know how long it's been, replace it anyway. Baking soda loses its potency quickly, and your cake won't rise properly if it's too old. (The same is true of baking powder, but this red velvet cake doesn't use any.)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
250 grams (2 1/2 cups) cake flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup red food coloring
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Cream cheese frosting, optional

Preheat your oven to 350 F.
Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans. It can help to line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper cut to fit the pan.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, and salt until blended.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, eggs, oil, red food coloring, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until fluffy.
Now add some of the dry ingredients to the egg-sugar mixture while the machine is running. When it's fully incorporated, add some of the buttermilk. Continue alternating adding the dry ingredients with the buttermilk until it's all incorporated and the batter is smooth, scraping down the side of the bowl as you go.
In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and baking soda, and when it foams, mix it into your batter. You're going to want to move quickly, though. Mix it in just until it's combined, about ten seconds. Then pour the batter into your prepared pans and transfer them to the oven.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with a crumb or two attached. You can start testing after 28 minutes because it's better to check too soon than to overbake.
Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack, then loosen the edges by running a knife along the sides, turn the cakes out onto the racks and cool for at least another hour, and then refrigerate (wrapped in plastic) for at least an hour before frosting with this cream cheese frosting.

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Does red velvet cake need vinegar?

Red velvet cake has an acidic taste that comes from the use of buttermilk and vinegar as well as the cream cheese in the frosting. The acidity is balanced out by the sweetness of the cake itself. It also has cocoa powder added to it for a mild chocolate flavoring.

Can I skip vinegar in red velvet cake?

What is the purpose of vinegar in cake?

Vinegar is a surprisingly common ingredient in baked goods, considering that it has such a sharp flavor. But as an acid, vinegar is often included in cake and cookie batters to react with baking soda and start the chemical reaction needed to produce carbon dioxide and give those batters a lift as they bake.

What can I use instead of white vinegar in red velvet cake?

Cider vinegar is a mild-flavoured vinegar but lemon juice would also be fine to use as an alternative acid ingredient, as it should also not interfere with the flavour of the cakes.