I've been using a great Red Velvet recipe from CC but I've noticed that on cake boards and surfaces it seems to be fairly oily. Is there a way to make it less oily? Can I cut back on the 1 1/2 cups of oil and if so how much would I use instead?

this is the recipe i use:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7464/carolyns-red-velvet

JanH, any ideas or help?

Thank you all so much!

I don't know if this will help or not, but I substitute applesause for oil or butter in cakes and they come out fine and are very moist. I use the same amount of applesauce as oil needed in recipe. HTH

holy cow! 1 and 1/2 cups is a lot of oil! the recipe you posted actually calls for 1/2 cup of crisco...I don't use that. but the recipe that i use is with a box mix and an extender recipe...only calls for 1/3 cup of oil and I use sour cream in the recipe so i could cut it down to 2 tbsps if i wanted.

Yikes!!! That is a lot of oil for a recipe!

I would test other recipes...Try this recipe:

http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/red-velvet-cupcakes-2/

There are a bunch of great recipes on this site that you can test and enjoy!!

There are many other red velvet recipes, you might even want to search for butter based cakes and not oily ones

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I made a mistake on which recipe I used... Chef Stef's

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7366/chef-stefs-southern-red-velvet-cake

I looked at the cupcake link and if you double the recipe you get a lot of oil... I'm only doubling because chef stef's has 2 1/2 cups of flour to their 1 cup.

But none the less... I think it's way too oily. I just made a batch and I cut it by 1/2 cup. We'll see how it turns out!

I'll report back!

Thank you again!

please do...STILL very oily for regular measurements

Ok I used 1 cup instead of 1 1/2 cup yesterday. It's still oily to me... though not nearly as much.

Maybe I am expecting something not possible? The cake is cooked and cooled and I set it on a paper plate. When I pull it off the paper plate there is oil that has soaked into the plate.
Or if I use it for cupcakes, the paper cups are oily on the bottom. Is that normal? Does everyone's turn out that way and I'm thinking my are wrong?

I use a butter based Red Velvet as, all the oil ones (even cakeman raven) I did not like. I use this for cupcakes (24) but I would think if you adjust baking time it should work for cake:

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I prefer dutch processed for deeper color and better flavor)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 ounce red food coloring
4 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla.
Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended.
Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.
Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

60g unsalted butter (room temp)
150g caster sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring
½ tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 ½ tsp white wine vinegar

Oven 170c(325 F) Gas 3 for 20-25 mins
Makes 12 cupcakes
Double recipe and divide between 3 x 20cm tins for a cake

Beat butter and sugar til light and fluffy
Beat in egg.

In separate bowl mix cocoa, food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick paste then add to the butter mixture.

With mixer on slow speed, pour in half buttermilk, beat till well mixed then add half flour, repeat until all buttermilk and flour is added. Turn speed to high until you get a smooth even mixture.

Turn mixer down and add salt, bicarbonate and vinegar. Beat until well mixed then turn up to high and beat for a couple of minutes.

Thank you both so much! I'm going to try them!

Dav... any chance of having a US conversion? LoL ... If not I will convert it!

Thank you again!