Red Velvet Cake

One of my first posts on BMTB was about Red Velvet Cake.  Since making it for the first time just over two years ago it has become a favourite amongst my friends and family.  It was Shane’s birthday yesterday and his birthday cake request was for – you guessed it – Red Velvet Cake!  I haven’t changed much from Bakerella’s recipe but will share with you my way of doing things as my first post was just pictures on my attempt and a link to the Bakerella site.

Ingredients:
2½ cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1½ tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1½ cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
50ml liquid red food colouring (less if using gel colouring)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease two 20cm cake pans.
Lightly whisk eggs in a medium-large bowl. Add remaining liquid ingredients and mix together with whisk or whisk attachment on an electric mixer until blended. Set aside.
(Yes, it is shockingly red! BUT you do need to add all 50mls of food colouring otherwise you will end up with a rusty/brownish coloured cake. If using gel colouring add a teaspoon to start and go from there.)
Place all the dry ingredients in another mixing bowl and stir together to combine with another wire whisk.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
Mix on medium-high with an electric mixer for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After 15-30 minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
Then make the frosting.

To make the delicious cream cheese frosting frosting you will need:
250 grams cream cheese, room temperature
200 grams butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
5 cups icing sugar

Sift icing sugar and set aside.
Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy.  Add vanilla.
Then, add the sugar in batches.  I add two cups the first time and mix before scraping down the sides of the bowl and adding one cup at a time after that.
Place one of your cakes on a cake stand or serving plate and evenly cover the top with frosting.  Place your other cake on top and frost the rest.

A few more tips:
To ensure that your cake sits flat level each of your cakes, this is best done with a serrated knife.
To keep crumbs out of your frosting do a ‘crumb coat’ this is a thinner layer of frosting that acts like a glue keeping crumbs in one place.  The crumb coat needs to be dry to the touch before you put the final layer of icing on.  I was a little over eager to get my cake finished and my crumb coat wasn’t completely dry when I put my final layer of frosting on.  If you don’t have time or are just too eager to dig in and eat your cake you can flag the crumb coating.

If you haven’t tried red velvet cake yet, you must!  If you have, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.