Red Velvet Cake

A red velvet cake is what it says on the tin: a fluffy, soft, and velvety cake that happens to be red in colour. It's basically a chocolate cake, but with a lot more pizzazz! It dates back to 19th century America and was considered to be a fancy dessert. Back then, it was believed that the chemical reaction between the cocoa powder, buttermilk and vinegar gave the cake its reddish-brown colour. However, it's a definite fact that the reaction between these three ingredients is what gives the cake its moist, velvety texture. By the time we came into the 20th century, beetroot was used to enhance this red colour, and now, most of us just use red food dye. I think the hardest thing about red velvet cake is finding a good quality dye. I have been making red velvet cake, cupcakes and brownies for years, but this is the first time what I've made has come out red. In the past they've come out brown, pink and even pastel red. But this one was a beautiful ruby red. Another thing you have to be careful with in regard to these dyes is their taste. You do not want a dye that will overpower the taste of your cake and leave an artificial metallic taste. Thankfully, mine didn't - although it did leave our tongues red. And before I forget, the icing for red velvet cake must always be a cream cheese frosting. This smooth, sweet and tangy icing compliments the sweetness of the cake wonderfully, and it does look beautiful against the garnet red. This recipe is from Nigella and it's actually a recipe for cupcakes, but you can easily divide the batter into two sandwich tins like I have done here. As for the recipe for her cream cheese frosting - it is too sweet! I must halve the amount of sugar because I literally cannot eat it. But if you like things sweet, you are more than welcome to add the full 500g of icing sugar. So, the next time you are craving a chocolate cake, go up one level with this delicious ruby delight. 

First step for this cake is to pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and butter and line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper.

In a medium sized bowl, I mixed all my dry ingredients: the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. 

And then in a larger bowl, I started creaming the butter and sugar.

Once this was pale and soft, I added in the food dye and vanilla extract. I used Sugarflair food dye paste and it was the Christmas Red colour. 

 

This was whizzed into the butter and sugar and transformed everything into a blushing red.

Then with the mixer still on, I added in one tablespoon of the dry ingredients, followed by an egg.

I repeated this action and then put the rest of the dry ingredients into the bowl. Last thing to go in was the buttermilk and the vinegar. I used apple cider vinegar like Nigella specifies, but she says you can use any type of vinegar you wish for this part. 

This was given a final mix until the batter was smooth and lovely. 

I also made sure to scrape all the sides of the bowl to make sure everything was mixed together properly - we can't rely on all this modern technology sometimes. Certain that everything was mixed into one red pile, I spooned them into the prepared sandwich tins.

They baked in the oven for 30 minutes. I made sure they were ready by sticking a toothpick into the middle and seeing if they came out clean.

I left these to cool completely overnight. 

When I was ready the next day, I sliced the tops off because they had peaked slightly. This happens sometimes during baking as the cake starts to rise. It's nothing to worry about, especially as you're covering the cake with icing. Just take a bread knife and carefully slice the peaks off, keeping the knife level with the top of the tins. This will give you a nice straight cake!

To make the icing, I mixed the cream cheese and butter together until they were smooth. I then added a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and the icing sugar and mixed again. I know what you're thinking - vinegar in the icing?! Yes, vinegar in the icing. This is what gives the cream cheese frosting its tang. Trust me, you will not taste it, and the smell eventually evaporates. You can also use lemon juice, I have in the past, but sometimes I can't be bothered to go into the fridge and slice a lemon just to get a teaspoon of juice out of it. Lemon juice will give you the same flavour, it's all about getting that tang. You must use apple cider vinegar if you go down the vinegar route, unlike the "any type of vinegar" you could use for the batter. This is because of the intensity of the vinegar and the colour. You want a perfect white frosting, not one that's slightly brown from the vinegar you put on your chips or salad.

Finally, it was time to assemble the cake. For this I put my bottom layer on my serving plate and slathered on half of the cream cheese frosting.

And then the final layer of cake sat on top of this. I put it on upside down just to get a perfectly flat top, but you don't have to do this. 

Finally, the rest of the cream cheese frosting was slathered on top of this. 

I then took peak bits of cake that I had sliced off, broke them into small pieces and spread them across the top. If you Google red velvet cakes, you find that some bakers do this either on the top, on the sides or even all around.

And it was all done, very easy indeed. And you know what, if red isn't your favourite colour, what's stopping you from buying another colour of dye? You could do purple, blue or green! Of course, it wouldn't be a traditional red velvet cake, but it will still be a delicious, moist chocolate cake with a lot of style. I'm really glad I got this dye, I was just flicking through one of Nigella's books, saw how she had used the same brand in another one of her recipes and I was on it! This isn't just a cake you enjoy eating, but a cake you enjoy looking at. 

Serves: 8-12 people 

Prep Time: 20 minutes 

Baking Time: 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

    For the Cake:

• 250g Plain Flour
• 2tbsp Cocoa Powder
• 2tsp Baking Powder 
• 1/2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 100g Unsalted Butter, softened 
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 1tbsp Christmas-red Food Dye Paste 
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract 
• 2 Eggs 
• 175ml Buttermilk
• 1tsp Apple Cider Vinegar 

    For the Frosting:

• 150g Cream Cheese, softened 
• 125g Unsalted Butter, softened 
• 1tsp Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon Juice
• 250g Icing Sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and line and butter two sandwich tins with butter and greaseproof paper.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix together the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb.
3. In another separate larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and light in texture. Into this add the red food dye paste and vanilla extract. Mix this together until you have a completely red mixture. 
4. With the mixer still on, add in a tablespoon of the dry ingredients followed by an egg. Let this mix in fully before adding in another tablespoon or two of the dry ingredients, followed by the last egg. Dump in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix in. 
5. Pour in the buttermilk and cider vinegar and give the batter a last mix. Spoon this into the sandwich tins, put into the oven to bake for 30 minutes, making sure to check with a skewer or knife to see if they are ready. If they come out clean, your cakes are ready. Leave your cakes to cool completely. 
6. When the cakes are cold, put the cream cheese and butter into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Add in the cider vinegar or lemon juice with the icing sugar and whisk again until it has increased in volume and is smooth.
7. When you are ready to assemble, place the bottom layer of cake on your serving plate, and spread half of the cream cheese frosting on top if this. Sit the second layer of cake on top of this and spread the remaining cream cheese frosting on top of it. Decorate the top however you wish.