Peppermint Red Velvet Cake

Can you believe it’s almost holiday season!? This year has absolutely flown by (don’t they all??), but at least we can enjoy delicious cake together!

In order to do that, I’m excited to be teaming up with my friends at Crisco again this year to bring you a holiday cake worthy of all your Christmas parties and family gatherings. It’s festive, a little minty, and evokes a dreamy wintery scene (which is as close to a snowy Christmas as I’ll ever get here in the South!).

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you probably know that red velvet cake is one of my absolute favorites. I get one for my birthday every year! Red velvet is also naturally festive for this time of year thanks to the “red” part, which is super fun for me too.

So how do we make the perfect red velvet cake for the holidays? Hot girls don’t gatekeep so here’s the tea.

We’re using all the best ingredients, like Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening (fluffy frosting), Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil (moist cake), Clabber Girl Baking Powder (for lift and tenderness), and Spice Island Pure Vanilla Extract (delicious flavor). We’re also using Baker’s Joy Non-Stick Baking Spray because the cake layers come out of the pans cleanly literally every time. There’s no stressful holiday baking happening here!

I received a comment on Instagram once from someone who was surprised and a little weirded out to see shortening in a frosting recipe. A bakery I worked at in college always used a combination of butter and shortening, and I’ve done it that way ever since. It helps create a super creamy and smooth frosting, and it also makes it a little easier for other flavors to shine through. It doesn’t just taste or smell like straight up butter, you know? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

Crisco is the obvious choice for many reasons. I’ve been using it for years, so I can always trust that my frostings are going to come out with the best texture. If you grew up baking and always had some Crisco in your house, this isn’t news to you!

It’s also plant-based, making it a great dairy-free and vegan option. In many cases, you can sub it right in for butter. It’s super versatile and can adapt to many different cooking and baking styles, so you can use it in a variety of recipes (cookies, pie crusts, biscuits, etc.) and be confident your recipe is going to turn out the way you want.

Now for the recipes! I love an oil-based cake because they come out moist with soft and delicious texture. They’re also super easy to throw together because it can be done all in one bowl. (This is important to me because I hate dishes.)

So, after prepping our cake pans with Baker’s Joy, we start by combining all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Clabber Girl Baking Power is my go to for leavening because it’s double-acting, meaning it starts doing its thing when it’s introduced to liquid in the cake batter and then again when it meets the heat in your oven. This means your cake layers are going to rise beautifully in the oven and also have the best texture.

After whisking together the dry ingredients, we add oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and a little splash of vinegar. Vinegar helps create a fluffy texture here too, but it was originally used in red velvet cakes because it helped cause the chemical reaction that made red velvet cakes red. (The acidity in vinegar and buttermilk combined with cocoa powder.) Cocoa powder is made with an alkalizing agent these days (balancing out the acidity), so no more fun culinary science for us red velvet lovers (unless you’re using raw cocoa powder). Which leads us to our last ingredient: red gel food coloring. I always get the “no taste” red.

After all that is mixed together, the cakes bake up in the oven. Once they’re completely cool, we can start on our frosting.

For this Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting, we’re going with a combination of cream cheese, butter, and shortening. Cream cheese frosting can be a little on the thinner side, making it hard to pipe. The addition of shortening helps in that regard, so you end up with a fluffier, pipeable frosting that you can use to decorate your cake to your heart’s content.

If you’re not much of a peppermint fan, don’t worry! My goal here was to have a cream cheese frosting with a lovely little hint of peppermint. Nothing overpowering. If you happen to really love peppermint, I think you’ll love this cake too. And you can add a tiny bit more if you’d like.

Peppermints or candy canes make the perfect garnish for this cake, and I couldn’t resist adding some fresh rosemary pieces to look like little Christmas trees.

And there you have it! A festive and sweet cake to celebrate the holidays. If you happen to give this cake a try, I’d love to know how it turned out and hope you enjoy!

Head over to Crisco.com to find more recipes, explore tips, and tricks! You can also find this recipe on their site here!

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Peppermint Red Velvet Cake

Prep Time: 1 hour hr

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Cool time: 4 hours hrs

Total Time: 5 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Servings: 12

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake:

• 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp Clabber Girl Baking Powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp Spice Island Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tbsp no taste red gel food coloring

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 8-oz block cream cheese, room temperature
• ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening 1 Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening Stick
• ½ tsp peppermint extract
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• Peppermints or candy canes for garnish
• Fresh rosemary for garnish

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F and spray three 8-inch cake pans with Baker’s Joy baking spray.
• To make the cake: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Add vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and vinegar. Using an electric mixer, mix on low speed until all ingredients are incorporated. Add food coloring and mix again.
• Divide batter evenly among the prepared cake pans and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
• Let cakes cool in pans for 10 to 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 4 hours.
• To make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer, add cream cheese, butter, and shortening. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add peppermint extract, cream, and half of the powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until mostly combined, then medium-high speed until completely combined. Repeat with the rest of the powdered sugar.
• Assemble: When the cakes are cool, use a serrated knife to remove the domed tops and create even layers. Place one cake layer on a cake stand or cake plate; spread a layer of frosting on top. Repeat with the second and third cake layers.
• Cover the cake in a thin crumb coat to seal in any red velvet crumbs. Refrigerate cake for 20 to 30 minutes. (Place frosting back in the fridge too.) When the crumb coat is firm, spread remaining frosting around the outside of the cake and over the top. There should be enough frosting to pipe decorations around the top as well. Garnish with peppermints and small pieces of rosemary to look like Christmas trees.
• Store cake loosely covered in the refrigerator.

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