Red velvet is such a classic cake flavor. Not only is it delicious, it’s also stunning! With October upon us once again, I wanted to put a fun and spooky spin on this beloved cake flavor by making a black velvet cake.

The Power of Black Cocoa

One of my favorite ingredients is black cocoa. It’s not the most common ingredient, and sadly it’s hard to find in grocery stores.

I like to order a big tub of Wincrest black cocoa powder on Amazon.

Black cocoa has a slightly higher pH than Dutch-processed cocoa (8 vs.7), and is much less acidic than natural baking cocoa (5-6).

The best comparison of how it tastes is to think of the bittersweet, chocolaty taste of an Oreo cookie! It’s absolutely delicious.

Black cocoa has a beautifully dark color, which naturally colors this cake batter and the frosting black! It’s kind of like magic. Maybe black magic?

If you’re in a pinch or don’t like ordering things online, you can always use dark cocoa powder in its place. Hershey makes a dark cocoa powder that you can find at most grocery stores!

It tastes slightly different but will give a similar end result of delicious chocolate flavor and a deep color.

Chocolate Cake vs. Black Velvet

At this point in time, you might be thinking “if we’re using THAT much cocoa in this recipe, isn’t it just a chocolate cake?”

And to be fair, you’re right! Most red velvet cake recipes call for 1 or 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder, which you can barely taste once it bakes up!

But the reason so little cocoa powder is used is because you want the batter to be bright red. Adding more cocoa powder would make it creepy red-brown color.

On the other hand, white velvet cake recipes don’t use any cocoa! So, I figure if some velvet recipes use less, this one can use more!!

In my mind, the most notable characteristics of a red velvet cake are its color, moisture, and tangy flavor.

In this recipe, we’ve got the color covered thanks to the black cocoa. To make sure this cake lives up to the moist and delicious reputation of a velvet cake recipe, it uses buttermilk.

Buttermilk is a key ingredient! Some people try to use regular milk in place of buttermilk, but I don’t recommend doing that with this recipe.

Black Gel Food Coloring

I love making colorful cakes with a bit of gel food coloring, but this cake batter is already so dark from the black cocoa powder it really doesn’t need any artificial food coloring.

However, if you use dark cocoa powder instead of black cocoa you may want to add a squirt of black gel food coloring to make sure your cake layers are black.

Picking the Right Frosting

If you’re making a black velvet cake, you might want to frost it with cream cheese frosting to stay true to the classic combination. I fully support that decision, or really any excuse to use cream cheese frosting.

My cream cheese buttercream has the delicious tang of cream cheese but is sturdy like my classic American buttercream. This means you can easily use it to frost a layer cake like this.

I made this cake around Halloween and wanted to match my frosting to the color of my cake. I used my deep black frosting recipe to give the cake a wonderfully spooky vibe!

It can be difficult to make a deep black frosting. If you’re struggled to get the color right, here are all of my tips and tricks for making super dark black frosting.

Tips for Making This Black Velvet Cake

• Try to get your hands on some black cocoa for this recipe– it’s delicious and totally worth it!
• Ingredients at room temp mix together better! Set out any cold ingredients ahead of time.
• Properly measure your flour (spoon into the cup measure, then level). Or better yet, use a kitchen scale to measure your dry ingredients.
• Level your room temperature or thawed cake layers with a serrated knife to make them easier to stack.
• Chill your cake layers in the freezer for about 20 minutes before assembling the cake. It makes it so much easier to stack and frost them!

Making This Black Velvet Cake in Advance and Storage Tips

Make your cake layers in advance and freeze them. It breaks the process up and makes it more approachable.

You can also make the frosting ahead of time or save any leftover frosting. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month.

Just be sure to give it a good stir once it thaws to make it nice and smooth again. This cake can last in the fridge for up to a week.

Let Me Know What You Think

If you try this black velvet cake recipe, I’d love to hear what you think! Please leave a rating below and comment below.

Don’t forget to tag me @chelsweets and use #chelsweets on social media so I can see your amazing creations!

Note: I updated this recipe in May 2022 to made the texture a bit more tender. If you want the original recipe, please email [email protected].

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