Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recently when I was hanging out with a friend of mine, he showed me this one TV show about really really expensive cakes. It was part documentary, part reality TV, the producers always tried to create tension with the bakers not having the cakes ready minutes before the deadline and since cakes aren't exactly exciting, there were three teams making crazy cakes for their clients, all edited so the deliveries happened at the end of the show with success music playing in the background.

Anyway, I noticed that the show wasn't really that much about baking cakes as about decorating them. They used little variety of the cake corpuses and focused on what was sitting on them. They used Red Velvet a lot and it reminded me that I haven't baked Red Velvet cake yet even though I had come across it couple times in the past.

It's more popular in the English speaking countries while in the Czech Republic it is practically unknown. No wonder, it's traditionally an American dessert. It has a chocolate flavour due to cocoa powder being used but the batter is coloured red. I imagine it being a gimmick as to differentiate one cake from other chocolate cakes.

Still, a red colour is something not many people expect to find under a white thick layer of frosting and the chocolate flavour comes as a secondary surprise. Red Velvet isn't too difficult to make but it took me some time as the recipe I used suggested putting the cake in the fridge for some time. I'm glad I did, the eventual cutting was a piece of cake (ha!) but it took longer than preparing a standard cake. However, from now on if a cake should be in layers, I will put it in the fridge for some time.

Red Velvet Cake

Could be redder

for the cake you will need:

• 250g all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder
• 125g butter
• 300g white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 250ml buttermilk
• a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• a teaspoon of a very mellow vinegar (apple works fine)
• a teaspoon of baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• red food coloring

for the frosting you will need:

• 500g heavy cream cheese
• 125g confectioners' sugar
• 350ml cold heavy whipping cream (I used 40% and it was ideal)
• a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• shredded coconut

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a medium bowl. Pour the buttermilk in a separate bowl and whisk in the red coloring.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Take a round cake pan (23cm) and butter and flour it and lock parchment paper over the bottom piece.
3. In a different bowl beat the butter and when it's soft, add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Then add eggs one at a time and beat it well after each addition. Scrape down the sides regularly so that everything is nice and incorporated. Once everything is done, add the teaspoon of vanilla extract or slightly more and incorporate it well into the mixture.
4. Add alternately the flour mixture and the red buttermilk in small batches into the large bowl with the butter and egg mixture.
5. Put the baking soda in a small cup and pour vinegar on it. It will fizz but don't worry, that's ok. Wait a while and then fold it into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the pans, even the distribution all over the pan. Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes of until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake. Then let the cake cool down in its pan on a wire rack. Take it out of it after a while and let cool down completely. After that, the cake will still need some more chilling down so wrap it in a cellophane and place in the fridge for at least an hour or yet better, overnight. A cool cake will be easier to cut and the frosting will stay on it with no problems.
7. To prepare the frosting, take the cream cheese and beat it until nice and smooth. Add the sugar and the vanilla extract and beat some more. Then add the heavy cream and whip it until it is thick and holds shape (you might want to use an electric mixer for this if you haven't been using it so far). Don't forget to regularly scrape the sides of the bowl. If you find the frosting too runny, you may add more sugar to thicken it.
8. Cut the cake in layers. Three or four is traditional but two is okay as well. Spread the frosting on the top of the bottom layer and carefully place the next layer on it. Repeat until you have laid all the layers on top of each other and then spread the remaining frosting on top of the cake and of the sides. Once that is done, sprinkle with shredded coconut. Then it is ready to serve :)

All the imperfections will be hidden by the white coat