The Brilliant New Technique for Pillowy Soft Challah

Ritual and muscle memory have carried this soft, rich Jewish bread through generations. My unique method for enriching the dough and in-depth guide for braiding a basic three-strand loaf make this challah easy enough for even the most novice bread bakers to perfect at home.

Entire loaf of plain woven challah on a plate, surrounded by smaller plates, salt, honey and a cup of tea
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Challah, the ubiquitous Jewish Sabbath and holiday bread enriched with eggs, oil, and sugar, has a surprising history. The sweet, eggy bread is now commonplace in American culture, but for the majority of Jewish history, the Hebrew word “challah” simply meant a small portion of the Sabbath bread’s dough that was burned as a symbolic gift to the kohanim (priests) in ancient Israel. It wasn’t until the 15th century that challah began to refer to the loaf we know now with its iconic braided shape.


Today challah is eaten on Shabbat and Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, and its pillowy soft texture and rich flavor have also made it popular for French toast and bread pudding in many US households—something that my Jewish grandmother never would have done, but an excellent use for the bread nonetheless! Making the show-stopping, mahogany braided loaf may seem like an intimidating project, but creating the supple egg enriched dough and getting a perfect braid are something you can easily do at home, and I encourage you to do so. Here is my guide to the key ingredients and the mixing and shaping techniques for making bakery-worthy challah at home.

2 loaves of challah on a light blue textile. One challah has sesame seeds, the other is plain.
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

The Key Ingredients in Challah

The Flour

When I started devising my ideal challah, I initially tested using whole-wheat flour in the recipe. I love the nutty deep flavor of baked goods with whole wheat flour, but found early versions were unappealing, flat, and gummy in texture due to the lack of gluten in the flour. In my subsequent research, I learned that white flour has been the ideal for Shabbat loaves since the early medieval period, according to multiple sources, including Gil Marks' Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. More recent recipes are divided between those that use all-purpose flour and higher protein bread flour. I found in testing that bread flour, with its higher gluten percentage produces a stronger, more manageable dough that is easier to shape with a better defined braid. Challah made with bread flour also had a more satisfying chewy texture.

The Sweetener

I originally wanted to sweeten the loaf with all honey—challah is customarily dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah, and I wanted to echo the floral sweet flavor in the dough. But I found that loaves made with all liquid honey were too wet to shape and braid. The solution was using a combination of both granulated sugar and honey; this created the sweetness I wanted in the loaf with a hint of honey flavor and gave the dough the ideal texture for braiding.

Two loaves of challah on a sheet pan. One is half sliced, the other is whole.
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

The Eggs

Eggs, and especially their yolks, contribute flavor, color, richness, and tenderness to challah. Additionally, as Harold McGee writes in On Food and Cooking, eggs “supplement [the] gluten structure with tender protein coagulum” and they also “slow staling.” Egg benefits the bread when used both in the dough and as a final egg wash. When brushed on before baking, the egg wash enhances the loaf’s deep amber hue and produces its signature glossy varnish.

The Fat

Unlike many other enriched breads, a truly kosher challah is made without dairy or meat derivatives, relying on vegetable oils and egg yolks for fat—which are considered pareve, or neither dairy nor meat. This is a result of the kosher requirement that dairy not be served with meat (the latter of which is likely to appear on the traditional Shabbat table). Some recipes call for a neutral-flavored oil like canola in the bread, but I’m fond of the fruity, bitter notes that extra-virgin olive oil adds. It also enhances the dough with a subtle green-gold hue that I love.

Key Steps in the Mixing Process for the Best Challah

Sure, you could mix all of your challah ingredients together at once, knead vigorously, shape, and bake, and you’d have a perfectly OK loaf. But experience has convinced me that working the following steps into the pre-shaping process ensures a next-level foolproof challah loaf everytime.

Rely on an Autolyse

After moistening the flour and yeast with water and eggs to form a shaggy mass, it’s important to let the roughly mixed dough sit for 15 minutes. This is known as autolyse. According to Ken Forkish’s Flour Water Salt Yeast, during this brief rest, the flour has time to hydrate and amylase enzymes begin to break down the complex carbohydrates into simple sugars the yeast can feed on, without salt interrupting this process. It also gives gluten structure a sort of head start, meaning that the dough will require much less mixing and kneading further down the line; this also means less work for us, the bakers. You can also read more about autolyse in our breadmaking 101 guide.

a slice of challah standing up on a marble surface. 2 loaves of challah are in the backgorund, one is plain, one has sesame seeds
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Add a Golden Paste

Since the challah is enriched with liquid fats—oil and egg yolks—it can be challenging to knead the wet ingredients into the dough without the dough turning too soft and slack. Sticky, wet dough won’t hold its braided shape once baked. To avoid this, instead of just adding the liquid ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients when mixing, I instead incorporate what I refer to as a “golden paste,” a method I came up with, inspired by the French technique for slowly incorporating butter into brioche.

I combine a small portion of flour with the oil, yolks, and honey until a manageable soft paste is formed. This paste can easily be mixed into the dough in small pieces without the dough turning too wet or greasy. It’s a similar technique to slowly incorporating softened butter into a traditional brioche dough, but instead of butter, it’s the soft golden flour and oil paste. This is an easy and mess-free way to enrich the dough with oil and eggs, and it produces a dough that is less sticky and easier to work with than if all the ingredients were mixed at once.

Shaping and Braiding Challah

Jewish people have enjoyed fresh bread at their Friday Sabbath, or Shabbat, meal since antiquity, but, according to Gil Marks’ Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, it wasn’t until the 1400s that “Jews in Austria and Southern Germany adopted…an oval, braided loaf, modeled on a popular Teutonic bread.” The stranded bread, with its resemblance to braided hair, was said to ward off a demon-witch named Berchta, or Holle (the similarity between “challah” and “Holle” is coincidental, from what I can tell). Marks is quick to point out that “Although European Jews certainly did not worship or even to a large extent know anything about Berchta or Holle, they [nevertheless] assimilated the attractive bread.” 

While some ambitious bakers go for a four- or even six-strand braid, here I stick with the basic three-strand braid. It’s still impressive and gorgeous, but I can rely on muscle memory to make it without needing to watch any YouTube videos to remember where each strand of dough goes. Should you want to try a more ambitious braid, know that many such videos exist!

To make a great challah braid that holds its shape once baked, there are a few key steps. Start by gathering each piece of dough into a tight ball and then letting the balls of dough rest for at least 15 minutes. This allows the gluten to relax enough so that you can further flatten it to a puffy pancake. After the dough has rested, roll it into a log before continuing to roll it out further. These steps further develop gluten and form tighter air bubbles in the dough, which ensures that each braided strand will have the strength to expand with ease while holding its shape when baking. When sliced open, the baked loaf will reveal an appealingly arranged constellation of small air bubbles in its cross section, and when ripped apart, the bread will separate into a series of fine, velvety, elastic strips.

Half sliced loaf of challah on a wood board
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Proofing and Baking Challah

One of the beauties of this recipe is that you can decide: challah today or challah tomorrow? I’ve written this recipe so the dough is proofed at room temperature for just a few hours before shaping and baking, but after its first proof, the dough can be punched down, covered, and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before shaping and baking.

 Breadmakers will often insist that a longer cold fermentation produces a more flavorful and richly colored, longer-lasting loaf than one proofed in less time at warm room temperature. But I found that after making multiple loaves with both the shorter room temperature proofing and the longer cold proofing time, I simply couldn't taste or see a large difference. The reason I offer an overnight cold proof is that it allows you to divide up the tasks to fit into your schedule: Day one entails dough prep and bulk fermentation (first proof); day two is for final shaping and baking. But it’s good to know that when you want to start and serve a delicious loaf within the span of a few hours, it’s perfectly doable and will still produce a gorgeous loaf.

I’ve also included instructions for making either one very large and impressive loaf that’s perfect for larger gatherings, or two medium-sized loaves that can be served together. You can also give the second loaf as a gift or wrap and freeze it for later.

 For the Base Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the hot water, eggs, and sugar until combined and the mixture registers 100°F (38℉)—just slightly warmer than your finger. Whisk in flour and yeast. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix on low speed until a shaggy dough is formed and no dry flour remains, 1 to 3 minutes. Cover bowl loosely with a kitchen towel and let sit for 15 minutes.

dough formed in a stand mixer bowl
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

For the Golden Paste: While dough rests, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, olive oil, honey, and salt. Add the flour and, using a flexible spatula, mix well until a smooth, homogeneous dough forms; it should resemble a soft, glossy cookie dough.

Two image collage. Top: adding flour into egg yolks, olive oil, honey and salt in a bowl. Bottom: golden paste mixture in a smooth dough
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

For the Challah Bread: Mix the now-rested base dough on medium-low speed and add the prepared golden paste, 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each portion of paste to incorporate before adding the next, and scraping down bowl and dough hook as needed, about 7 minutes. Increase mixer speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is elastic, smooth, and sticky, 5 minutes, scraping the sides and bottom of bowl as needed to incorporate everything. Remove the dough hook and, using a bowl scraper or spatula, gather and tuck the dough under itself to form a round mass at the bottom of the mixer bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with a large plate or plastic wrap and let proof at warm room temperature (70 to 74℉; 21 to 23℃) until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

2 image collage. Top: Adding the prepared golden paste into base dough in stand mixer bowl. Bottom: Dough in a a round mass at the bottom of the mixer bowl
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

For Shaping Two 3-Strand Braided Loaves: Line a 13 x 18-inch baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Press down on dough to deflate and transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Use a bench scraper or sharp knife and divide dough into 2 equal pieces (about 555g each). Divide each dough piece into 3 equal portions for a total of 6 portions that are about 185g each.Set aside and cover with a kitchen towel. (See below for instructions on how to make one large loaf.)

2 image collage. Top: Cutting the deflated dough into 2 equal pieces with bench scraper Bottom: dividing each dough piece into 6 equal pieces
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Working with 1 dough portion at a time, cup dough with your palm and roll against the counter into a smooth, tight ball. With the dough ball seam-side down, use the heel of your hand to press and flatten the dough ball to resemble a thick pancake, measuring about 5 inches in diameter. Use your fingers as needed to stretch the dough out to 5 inches, if needed.

@ image collage. Top: Rolling dough into a tight smooth ball. Bottom: Heel of hand flattening the dough
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Flip over, then, starting away from you, roll it down towards you into a spiral, forming a fat 5- to 6-inch log. Pinch the 2 ends of the log to seal and set the log aside on the prepared parchment, seam-side down, and repeat with the remaining dough portions. Once all logs are formed, let rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

4 image collage. Top left: flattened pancake of dough, Top Right: rolling flattened dough into a spiral form. Bottom Left: Pinching the 2 ends of the dough log. Bottom Right: Rolling dough into a tight smooth ball.
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Working with 1 rested log at a time, transfer to a clean work surface (avoid flouring your work surface, as a slightly tacky surface is needed to create enough tension for rolling the strands). Starting at the center of the log, use the fingers and palms of both hands to roll the log into a thin long strand, leaving ends slightly tapered, that measures about 12 inches long by 1½ inches in diameter if making 2 medium-loaves. Return shaped strand to baking sheet and repeat with the remaining logs.

2 image collage. Top:Rolling dough into long strand. Bottom: finished long strand with tapered ends.
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Lightly flour the work surface and roll each strand in the flour for a thin flour coating. (This will help maintain the definition in the braid later during shaping.)Set 3 floured strands aside and place the remaining 3 strands on the work surface with length perpendicular to the counter’s edge and spaced about 2 inches apart. Pinch the far ends of the 3 strands together.

2 Images collage. Top: 3 long strands of dough side by side. Bottom: Pinching together top ends of stands
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Begin to braid the challah by lifting the dough strand on the right side, passing it over the center strand. The strand that had been on the right is now the center strand. The original center strand is now the right strand. The rope on the left has not moved.

Moving dough stand on the right, over to the center of stands
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Lift the dough strand on the left and pass it over the center strand. The rope that was on the left is now the center strand. Continue braiding the challah by alternately placing the right rope over the center rope, then the left rope over the center rope. Try to keep the braid tight while working down the loaf, while also avoiding pulling and stretching of the strands.

4 image collage. Top left:Lifting the dough strand on the left side and placing over center. Top Right: 1/3 braided dough Bottom Left: Half Braided doough Bottom Right: Fully braided dough
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Once the braid is complete, press and pinch the open ends together. Tuck both pinched ends of the braid under to form rounded ends of the loaf. Gently transfer the braided loaf to the lined baking sheet, placing it at a 45-degree angle to fit, leaving enough space for the second loaf.

2 image collage. Top: Pinching the bottom ends of braided dough. Bottom: Tucking the dough tip under the braid
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Repeat braiding and shaping the second challah loaf with the remaining 3 strands and transfer to the baking sheet with the first loaf, arranging both at a 45-degree angle to fit.

two rad dough loaves on parchment paper on sheet pan
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Loosely drape loaves with kitchen towels or greased plastic wrap and let proof at warm room temperature until doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours. (When you press a finger into the dough, it should bounce back only halfway, leaving an impression on the surface.)

pressing finger onto loaf to test proofing
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

While challah is proofing, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃). In a small bowl, beat the egg with 1 teaspoon water until fully combined. Using a pastry brush, gently brush loaves all over with egg wash, being careful to avoid excess dripping at the bottom of the loaves; you do not want a moat of egg surrounding your challah. Refrigerate the remaining egg wash and let loaves rest at room temperature, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes. (This rest allows the egg wash to dry before applying the second coat.) Brush with a second coat of egg wash. Sprinkle all over with sesame or poppy seeds, if using.

2 image Collage. Top: Brushing loaves with eggs wash. Bottom: brushing second coat of egg wash
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Bake, rotating sheet halfway through baking, until challah is fully baked, registers 200°F to 210°F (93℃ to 99℃) with an instant-read thermometer, and braids are glossy and deep amber in color, 30 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 1 hour. Slice and serve.·

Baked challahs cooling on wire rack
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

For Making 1 large 3-Strand Loaf

In step 5, Use a bench scraper or sharp knife and divide dough into 2 equal pieces (about 555g each). Divide each dough piece into 3 equal portions (about 370g/13 ounces each). Continue shaping as directed above, and in step 8 roll the dough strands out to 18 inches long by 1 inch in diameter. Continue with the recipe as written.

Special Equipment

Digital kitchen scale, stand mixer with dough hook attachment, pastry brush

Make-Ahead and Storage

To bake the loaf the next day, make and proof the dough through step 4, then deflate dough as instructed in step 5 and leave the deflated dough in the bowl, cover the bowl tightly with a silicone bowl cover or aluminum foil and refrigerate for the next 8 to 24 hours. When you’re ready, proceed with step 6.

Store baked challah at room temperature, wrapped in a kitchen towel or in an airtight container, for up to 4 days. Or the challah can be sliced and frozen in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Toast individual slices straight from the freezer. Toast with caution, as challah browns quickly.

This Red Velvet Cake Is Undeniably Delicious and Unapologetically Red

Flavored with bittersweet cocoa and tangy buttermilk, then stacked with tart cream cheese frosting, this red velvet cake will keep you coming back for more.

Overhead view of slice
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

With its signature red hue and swoops of downy white frosting, the red velvet cake is an iconic American dessert. But when commercially produced or made from a boxed mix, it has the tendency to be overbaked and bone-dry, with a saccharine flavor that lacks complexity and a garish hue that calls to mind a self-conscious teenager armed with a big bottle of hair dye. However, step into a bakery that takes its craft seriously, and you’ll find that a properly made red velvet cake can be a thing of beauty: layers of moist scarlet cake flavored with bittersweet cocoa and tangy buttermilk stacked with thick, tart, and buttery cream cheese frosting, each bite as lush as…well, velvet. Think of it more like Lucille Ball’s red hair—the vivid color serves only to enhance the charisma of a star that already has plenty going for it.

With careful attention paid to the ingredients and method used, anyone can make a red velvet cake that’s a feast for both the eyes and the taste buds. The star ingredients of red velvet cake—natural cocoa powder, buttermilk, and baking soda—help to leaven the cake, but are also responsible for the chemical reaction that first gave the cake its iconic color. A few drops of red food coloring help to further enhance the natural color of the cake, ensuring a crumb that is inarguably red. Buttermilk and brown sugar keeps the cake moist, while creaming the butter at room temperature helps to aerate the batter, resulting in a fine, tender cake. 

If the thought of assembling and decorating a layered red velvet cake feels too daunting, have no fear. We’ve included an option for cupcakes, too—which are easier to decorate and just as delicious.

Overh head view of cake with two slices
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Why the Red: The Story of Red Velvet Cake's Origins

In her award-winning cookbook BraveTart, former Serious Eats editor Stella Parks documents the evolution of the red velvet cake and traces the origins of the dessert to the marriage of two other popular sweets from the late 1800s—the velvet cake and the devil’s cake. These recipes formally merged in name and ingredients when a recipe for “Velvet Cocoa Cake” was published in a 1911 issue of Ohio’s Elyria Chronicle. A few things distinguished this cake that live on in today’s red velvet cake. 

The most notable is the use of a mixture of natural cocoa powder and buttermilk in the batter. Unlike the Dutch-process cocoa powder most bakers rely on today, natural cocoa powder contains higher levels of anthocyanins, water-soluble pigments responsible for the reddish-purple hues in fruits and vegetables. As cookbook author and Serious Eats contributor Nik Sharma wrote in his guide to pomegranate molasses, “when mixed into an acidic solution like lime juice or vinegar, [anthocyanins] turn red.” The combination of acidic buttermilk and cocoa powder produced a batter with a reddish hue, albeit one closer to mahogany than crimson.

Soon after the introduction of the buttermilk/cocoa powder combo, maroon cakes like “Red Chocolate Cake” and “Red Devil’s Food” were showing up in newspapers and cookbooks across the country, and by the 1940s, the red velvet cake was well established in the American baking repertoire; it even appeared in the 1943 edition of Irma S. Rombauer’s iconic Joy of Cooking. And while not a red velvet cake in name, the chocolate devil’s food cake tinted red with dye in Freda DeKnight’s 1948 Date With a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes sounds just like one.

As for the “red” in the name, Stella suggests that as some recipes included proportionally more buttermilk and less chocolate, using “red” simply distinguished the cake from the “inky-black crumb of a proper devil’s food.” Many readers of those recipes, however, were disappointed when they weren’t able to create the crimson color of the cake promised by the name. 

“Presumably frustrated with results that didn’t live up to the hype,” writes Stella, “Lynn Chambers popularized doctoring buttermilk-cocoa cakes with a teaspoon of red dye in her syndicated kitchen column in 1942.” Around the same time, Texas-based Adams Extract Company began promoting their dyes with a recipe for mahogany cake colored with red dye. 

These days, red velvet cake has become one of the most iconic American desserts. Notably, it’s an essential part of many Juneteenth celebrations today, as the color red is symbolic of Black resilience and sacrifice. “I do think that’s one of the reasons why red velvet cake is now a food that people now associate with the Juneteenth holiday,” Nicole A. Taylor, author of Watermelon and Red Birds, tells GastroObscura. Though the dessert wasn’t part of the celebration in its early days, it quickly became a part of the Juneteenth table as people thought of more red foods to include in their celebrations of the holiday.

In addition to Juneteenth, red velvet cake is wonderful for Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, and birthdays, but of course there’s no need to wait for a specific holiday to make this fabulous cake.

Side view of finished cake
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

The Key Techniques to Making Red Velvet Cake

The recipe that follows is the result of rounds of testing and tweaking to produce what I believe is the ideal red velvet cake: one with a luxurious, velvety crumb that’s flavored with brown sugar, buttermilk, cocoa powder, and vanilla. While not necessary, a few drops of food coloring lend the cake an undeniably vibrant shade of scarlet. I considered using more "natural" colorants like beets, pomegranate juice, and freeze-dried red fruits for the red color, but each of those options adds flavors that are not typical for a classic red velvet cake. I think it's fine to simply lean on food coloring for that color, to the degree achieving a truly red tone is important to you; it may not be, in which case, feel free to leave the food coloring out. 

One of the keys to achieving the perfect crumb lies in the choice of cocoa powder. You’ll want to use natural cocoa powder and not Dutch processed; the higher acidity in natural cocoa reacts with the cake’s baking soda and buttermilk to properly leaven the cake. Natural cocoa is also lighter in color than Dutch processed cocoa, making it easier for the red to show through the chocolate's brown.

The temperature of your ingredients is crucial, too. Butter is most pliable at room temperature, making it ideal for aerating your cakes when beating it with sugar until fluffy. Be careful not to overmix once your flour is added, though, as overbeating the batter will develop too much gluten and make the cake tough.

As for frosting, my personal preference is to enhance the buttermilk tang of the cake with a cream cheese frosting, but there’s a long history of topping velvet cakes with starch-thickened Ermine frosting, so I’ve included that as an option as well.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two 8-inch round cake pans with butter and cover the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Lightly dust the insides of the cake pans with cocoa powder and discard any excess by tapping the pans upside down. (For cupcakes, line a muffin pan with baking cups.)

Overhead view of dusting cake pan with cocoa powder
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, 50g cocoa, and baking soda together and lightly whisk to combine. Set aside.

Overhead view of shifting flour
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla extract on low speed to roughly incorporate; then increase speed to medium and beat until soft, fluffy, and pale, 5 to 7 minutes, using a flexible spatula to scrape as needed.

Two image colalge of ingredients before and after being mixed in a stand mixer
Serious Eats / Jen Causey

With the mixer running on its lowest speed, drizzle in the food coloring (if using). Gradually increase the speed to medium and mix until the coloring is evenly distributed, about 30 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one by one, briefly increasing the mixer speed after each addition until each egg is fully incorporated. Once fully mixed, stop mixer and use a flexible spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Two image collage of adding dye and egg to stand mixer
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Add a third of the flour-cocoa mixture to the butter-egg mixture, then start mixer on low speed and gradually increase to medium speed, until no dry flour remains, about 30 seconds. On low speed, slowly add a third of the buttermilk and beat until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl as needed, and repeat adding and alternating with half of the remaining flour mixture, half of the remaining buttermilk, then finally the remaining flour mixture, and the remaining buttermilk.With a rubber spatula, scrape the paddle clean and give the batter a final stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl.

Two image collage of adding flour and buttermilk
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

For Cupcakes: Line standard-size muffin pan with baking-cup liners. Distribute the batter evenly among the baking cups so each is about 3/4 full. Bake for 24 to 26 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Repeat with remaining batter. Let cool completely before frosting. Once cool, use an offset spatula to spread the frosting on top of each cupcake.

For a Layer Cake: Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into cake center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool cakes in their pans on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Run an offset spatula or butter knife around edges of cakes, then invert cake onto a plate and transfer back to the rack to cool completely, at least 1 hour.

Two image collage of adding cake batter to pan and overhead view of cooked cakes
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

To Crumb Coat the Cake: Using a serrated knife, level cakes. Place one layer on a turntable. If you like, a waxed cardboard cake round can first be placed underneath, secured to the turntable with a scrap of damp paper towel. Top with 1 cup frosting, using an offset spatula to spread it evenly from edge to edge. Top with the second layer and cover the sides of the cake with 1 cup frosting, spread into an even and smooth layer. (Tutorial here.) Refrigerate cake until frosting is firm to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Four image collage of assembling cake
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

To Finish the Cake: Spread the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting to decorate as desired. Allow the cake to come to room temperature before serving.

Side view of finishing the cake
Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Special Equipment

Parchment paper, two 8-inch aluminum cake pans or muffin pan, stand mixer, whisk, rubber spatula, wire rack, turntable, offset spatula

Notes

Make sure to use natural cocoa, and not Dutch processed cocoa in this recipe. The higher acidity in natural cocoa reacts with the cake's baking soda and buttermilk to properly leaven the cake. Natural cocoa is also lighter in color than Dutch processed cocoa, which ensures the red velvet cake retains its signature red color.

4 teaspoons of red liquid food coloring can be substituted for gel paste coloring.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The frosted cake can be covered with a cake dome or a large inverted pot and held at room temperature for up to 1 day, or refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Cupcakes can be transferred to an airtight container and held at room temperature for up to 1 day or refrigerated for up to 3 days.