I'm baking a wedding cake for this saturday and I am quite surprised at how crumbly my red velvet cake is I'm doing to tiers this flavor and normally I add an extra box of pudding to my mixes but this time I didn't know what to add in so I didn't. Should I have? What flavor could I add? I don't want to take away from the red velvet taste

also, I don't want to go out and get another box and rebake these layers...i'm pretty certain these layers are very crumbly! any ideas of what I can do to them other than wait to frost them before i DO frost them to keep them together??? I just had the hardest time flipping them

Because a normal red velvet homemade cake has cocoa powder in it I usually add regular vanilla pudding to it. I don't like to add chocolate and make the color look too dark or make the chocolate flavor too intense either. I've noticed for some reason even with the pudding added the red velvet cakes seem to no hold up as well as the vanilla/chocolate either. ???
As for the "what to do now?" ugh, if you had the time I would rebake If not then maybe try to get them almost frozen and frost them. But even when they go to cut the cake and eat it it will crumble everywhere too which is another reason to rebake. Also....being a wedding cake I don't skimp on anything!! It's a very special day and the cake needs to represent that. I guess what I'm trying to say is you should really rebake it. You will be glad you did.

I agree to the rebake. I also put a little (1 spoon) of vinegar, it give the flavor of the real red velvet and help to make it more firm.

I agree to the rebake. I also put a little (1 spoon) of vinegar, it give the flavor of the real red velvet and help to make it more firm.

I would be a little nervous about putting the vinegar in my cake pps:

but the cake batter is fixed and I'm re-baking! we'll see how they turn out now

If you are using a mix I don't think the pudding is going to help much with be crumbly. I have sculpted cakes with Duncan Hines red velvet and it's always crumbly. Just wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. It helps keep in the moisture and helps with the crumbs. It's just one of those crumbly cakes we have to deal with. I use Wiltons cake icing tip to frost my red velvet cakes. I don't crumb coat. Just place a nice band of frosting using the tip and smooth. This way you don't have to deal with the crumbs.

Yes, sweettreat101, Duncan Hines cakes for me are always crumbly even with the pudding added. I prefer to doctor up Betty Crocker but unfortunately I have never seen a Betty Crocker red velvet cake mix.

I use DH red velvet cake mix and this is how I "doctor" it. I don't use any oil in mine...The more oil you add to a cake recipe the more "crumbly" it will be....or that's MY experience anyway.

1 Box Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons (level) cocoa powder
1 4 ounce box White Chocolate instant pudding mix
3 eggs plus 1 egg white
1 cup sour cream
1 cup strong cold coffee (or 1/2 c. cold coffee and 1/2 c. water)
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients in bowl and set aside. Combine eggs, sour cream,
coffee and vanilla and add half the sifted dry ingredients. Mix just until blended...scrap sides of bowl and add remaining dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes.
Bake at 325 until done.
Makes enough batter for four 6" pans, two 9" pans or one 12" pan.
(with DH mix anyway...it always yields more batter than BC or PB)

Use chocolate cake mix then add super red color. You will have Red V. Oh and add some sour cream it will improve the taste.

oh wow! Thanks for all the advice...I will have to try these things next time. The pudding and putting some extra cocoa powder did the trick

Thanks mamawrobin!!! I will have to try this one! One question though, I can only seem to find the white chocolate pudding that is sugar free. Is that the stuff I need or do you actually find the regular white chocolate pudding??

I used to use DH mixes and doctored all the mixes the same as the white almond sour cream recipe. Duncan Hines does have a red velvet mix, hopefully you can get it in your area. When I doctored the mix, just never with pudding. I always added 1 cup each of sugar, flour and sour cream and maybe 1 or 2 tablespoons of cocoa. Then add the same amount of oil, water and eggs that the box calls for. I never had an issue with the cake being crumbly, ever but instead I always got rave reviews on how moist my cakes were.

I just made Paula Deen's Red Velvet cake recipe into cupcakes. They're so soft and crumbly that I cannot frost them without having them disintegrate. Good thing this was just an experiment.