I'm strictly a cake mix baker, although I tweak and doctor it up to make it make it a little more "mine". I have made Red Velvet cake with great results, but I start with the boxed mix. I have a request for a BLUE Velvet cake. Any suggestions for how to go about this? I'm not an expert on Red Velvet to begin with. Would using a white cake mix and substituting buttermilk for the water in the instructions be an acceptable rendition? (Of course adding enough blue for the desired effect) I could use any and all advice ASAP as the ckae is for this Saturday. Thank you all for your support!

I googled recipes for Red Velvet Cake with box mix. There were a lot that used white or yellow cake mix with added ingredients. You could use one of those and, of course, substitute blue coloring for the red.

Thank you dawnybird! Why didn't I think of that!? I always come here first for answers....didn't even occur to me to look elsewhere! Great bunch of cakers here!

Hi I know you said your strictly a box cake baker but maybe this recipe can be used as a reference point for you. I got it on a great cake blog. Addapinch.com I posted the Link below. Hope its useful
http://addapinch.com/cooking/2012/08/20/blue-velvet-cake-baby-shower-for-picky-palate/

Break down and ditch the mix. There's nothing hard about a from scratch red velvet cake. Plus, the basic cake can be changed to fit so many different orders - white velvet (sub white chocolate powder for the cocoa and leave out the coloring); blue velvet, green velvet, or red, white and blue (for July 4th). Most recipes are easy to follow. Mine uses real butter and I use buttermilk powder instead of buttermilk. I also use fresh high quality vanilla. Don't be intimidated. It is an easy cake to learn.

I'm mostly a doctered mix person too (I do some scratch, but the doctored mix cakes are by far my most popular) and have done many red velvets this way, and have even done a purple velvet (bride really loved purple!).

I usually follow the WASC format and use 2 white cake mixes, 1 box chocolate pudding mix, 1/4 c. cocoa powder, and use buttermilk in place of water, then add 1 tbsp gel food coloring or to desired color.

For larger cakes (I have a 10 qt mixer) I've done 3 white mixes, 1 choc mix, plus 1 box choc pudding mix, and 1/2 cup cocoa powder, plus the buttermilk and rest of WASC ingredients.

Hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.