The 2010s were all about millennial pink, then the Barbie movie ushered in a bright and bold era of Barbiecore. But honestly, Americans’ adoration of all things pink is nothing new. Flash back to the 1940s, and the Pink Squirrel cocktail was like that era’s Aperol Spritz.
In the food space, pink is typically reserved for strawberry and pink lemonade-flavored fare, as well as grapefruit, watermelon, fresh fig flesh, beets, and salmon. But in the past few months, we’ve been seeing growing momentum for pink popping up in a place we haven’t seen it much before: velvet cake.
A year ago on social media, Mandy Merriman highlighted a “hidden gem” from her cookbook, I’ll Bring the Cake: a three-tier Pink Velvet Cake that garnered more than 13,000 likes on Instagram alone. In the year since, a handful of other recipe developers have dropped pink velvet-inspired desserts. Then Crumbl, a dessert company that shares its supersized cookies and other treats in an iconic pink box, recently debuted a Pink Velvet Cake Cookie as well as an adorable two-tier mini Pink Velvet Cake.
According to trend-watching baker Alisa Woods, owner of Sift n Sprinkle Bakery in Des Moines, Iowa, “due to Barbie, pink had a major moment in 2023 and hasn’t lost much steam since. With whimsy and fairytales as some of the trend inspirations for 2025, I would not be surprised if we cut into our pastel and floral cakes to find a pink hue.”
Those with a sweet tooth (consider our hands raised high) love riffs on the classics, adds Dan Langan, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based content creator and the Author of Bake Your Heart Out, “and pink velvet seems like the perfect example of a familiar dessert with an appealing twist.”
Read on to learn more about the velvet cake category and Pink Velvet Cake specifically. Of course we couldn’t leave you hanging without a Test Kitchen-perfected Pink Velvet Cake recipe that’s so delicious, it will have you ready to “Dance the Night” away.
- Sarah Brekke, M.S., Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen brand manager
- Dan Langan, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based content creator and the Author of Bake Your Heart Out
- Alisa Woods, owner of Sift n Sprinkle Bakery in Des Moines, Iowa
What Is Velvet Cake, Anyway?
Popularized by showstopping ruby-and-white Red Velvet Cakes, “velvet” is actually a type of cake that has a characteristic texture featuring a crumb that’s fine, tight, tender, and lofty. When you take a bite of velvet cake, it should offer a melt-in-your-mouth sensation, Langan explains.
You can achieve a velvety texture in a cake from any number of strategies, Langan and Sarah Brekke, M.S., Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen brand manager agree, including adding any of the following ingredients or employing these techniques:
- Baking soda and vinegar rather than just baking soda
- Buttermilk in place of of regular cow’s milk
- Cake flour instead of all-purpose
- Using the reverse creaming method (beating softened butter directly into the dry ingredients, rather than creaming it with sugar first)
- Using a high ratio cake formula (where there is a higher ratio of sugar than flour by weight)
“In comparison, a pound cake or butter cake may be denser with a slightly coarse crumb,” Langan tells BHG. “Calling a cake a ‘velvet’ cake is more a term of endearment than technicality; one that a baker bestows upon a cake to convey its luscious and light texture.”
What Is Pink Velvet Cake?
As you might expect, a Pink Velvet Cake is one of these velvet-style cakes that’s pink.
“A typical red velvet cake utilizes a special kind of cocoa with buttermilk and vinegar to create a reaction that turns your cake a dark shade of red. For Pink Velvet cake, you’ll leave the cocoa out, but still include that sweet tang of buttermilk to compliment the vanilla,” Woods says. “The pink usually comes from a few drops of good-quality food coloring” (or pink or red fruit juice or freeze-dried fruit powder, Brekke adds).
The result: A moist, tender vanilla cake with a slight tang of buttermilk that’s pretty in pink—and ready to be dressed up with your favorite frosting. As far as that frosting goes, “I think the classic cream cheese icing is still the best choice for both flavor and color contrast,” Brekke believes.
Pink Velvet Cake Ingredients
Besides baking staples like salt, baking powder and soda, sugar, and vanilla extract, our Test Kitchen’s Pink Velvet Cake recipe calls for a few budget-friendly ingredients that make all the difference as you create your light and lovely velvet dessert:
- Buttermilk: As we hinted to above, this is key for the signature tang that helps keep this cake from tasting too sweet. If you have extra after making this dessert, check out other ways to use buttermilk.
- Vegetable oil: By calling for oil and softened butter, you get the best of both worlds: a moist crumb courtesy of the oil, plus the rich flavor that butter provides.
- Egg whites: Whipped egg whites add loftiness to the cake batter. Reserve the rest of the eggs to use in these sweet and savory egg yolk recipes.
- Pink gel food coloring: Our Test Kitchen prefers gel food coloring because it’s more concentrated, meaning that, compared to liquid food coloring, you can use less to land at the color intensity you desire. If you’re looking for a natural coloring, seek out beetroot or hibiscus powders. Experiment with the amount you sprinkle in until your Pink Velvet Cake batter reaches your desired hue.
- Cake flour: This type of flour has less gluten (wheat protein) than all-purpose, bread, and whole-wheat flour, which aids in the overall luscious consistency mission.
