Can I Make A 20cm Red Velvet Layer Cake?

Asked by Ranmark. Answered on 5th June 2026

Full question

I made the Red Velvet Cupcakes today and they were superb. I wish to make 2 Red Velvet Cakes for my Granddaughters and cousin’s Christening next Saturday. I was practicing today but I found that the Cup Cake ingredients are not enough and so the sponges are too small for my needs.

Can you give ingredients for two sandwich tins (20cm rounds 5cm deep) plus cooking times please? How deep should the two sponges be approx. Thank you as always.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's Red Velvet Cupcakes (from KITCHEN). The recipe makes 24 cupcakes or, as mentioned in the introduction, it can be used to make two thinner layers for a 25cm cake. If you are using 20cm cake pans or sandwich tins then you should get two fairly standard depth sponge layers (about 2-2.5 cm deep) from the single recipe. The baking time for these layers is usually 20-25 minutes.

You could slightly increase the amount of batter for deeper sponge layers, but we would caution at increasing the ingredients too much as there is a risk that the batter will overflow from the pans during baking. You could use 1.5x the cake ingredients but when you fill the cake pans or sandwich tins with batter, make sure that you do not fill each one more than half full. Any excess batter can be used to make cupcakes. The baking time for deeper layers is likely to be 25-30 minutes, but keep a careful eye on the cakes after 20 minutes. The sponges should be risen, firm to the touch on top, slightly shrinking away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester inserted into the centre of the sponges should come out clean. Please note that as we have not tried this particular version of the Red Velvet Cupcake recipe, we are unable to guarantee the results.