Red Velvet Cake

This is an American thing. I had to make this cake twice today. In the morning, I was in such a rush to get the cake done I forgot to take pictures. Then I made the recommended icing, and it did not work at all, although it tasted very good. The entire thing was so structurally unsound I had to throw it out (after eating half a layer with my fingers, I have no regrets).

This is the one that made the cut

Red Velvet Cake

This is Florence Fabricant's recipe for Red Velvet Cake from the New York Times online recipe collection. I have not altered the recipe, but I have made allowances and amendments for UK ingredients and measures. It makes enough for one 3 layer cake. Instead of a 3 layer cake, I made a 2 layer cake and 12 cupcakes out of the remaining batter (although if anyone asks it only made 10).

Although it's not traditional of a Red Velvet Cake, I will be using a classic buttercream, because dammit I need this to work! I am making 1.5x the amount to account for the extra cake layer. The vanilla buttercream is the same Williams Sonoma recipe I have posted previously, but I have amended the quantities in this post to fit this cake.

Cake:

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing pans

3 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 cups (470g) vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups granulated or sugar

3 large eggs

6 Tbsp (105ml) red food colouring

liquid not gel

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup plain yogurt

the cheapest supermarket brand you can find, and remember to include that gross yogurt water at the top

2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 tsp white vinegar

I used white cyder vinegar and this worked fine

Frosting:

6-9 cups icing sugar, sifted

24 Tbsp (375g) butter, softened

6 1/4 Tbsp whole milk

3 Tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C

Grease and flour 3 x 9 inch layer cake pans and set aside

I don't know if I've shown a step by step to grease and flour pans, but you can see below that it is quite simple. Grease pan, put in flour, tap flour around so it covers the pan:

In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt and set aside

Using a whisk attachment in a stand mixer or a handheld mixer, beat together sugar and oil at medium speed until well blended

Beat in the eggs one at a time

These three steps are pictured below. Dry ingredients, oil and sugar, oil sugar and eggs:

At a low speed, slowly beat in the food colouring, and the the vanilla extract

be careful with the food colouring, because boy does that stuff stain

Behold, the stages of adding food dye and the deep red colour of the batter:

Beat in roughly half the flour mixture, then the yogurt, then the rest of the flour mixture

Notice that in this process the batter shifts from deep red to maroonish brown:

In a small dish, stir together the vinegar and baking soda

Add to batter and beat for 10 seconds

I counted to 10 Mississippis

Below you can see the baking soda mixture and the final batter:

Divide evenly between the prepared pans

Or two cake pans:

And one cupcake pan, or muffin tin as they're known round these parts:

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until they pass the clean knife test

These were my cakes, as you can see I have some edge trimming to do before frosting:*

Bake 20 minutes for cupcakes

I was trying very hard not to waste batter, and in hindsight I have definitely overfilled some of the muffin cases, there is some edge trimming to do here too**

Let cool in pans 20 minutes

Remove and cool completely on parchment or baking paper before frosting

Frosting:

Combine 6 cups icing sugar and the rest of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer

Using a flat beater, beat until combined and smooth

The pictures below show the steps of making frosting, and a trick I use to avoid what I call the icing sugar billows, which is when icing sugar sprays out of the mixer and coats all nearby surfaces. To stop this from happening, tear off two pieces of cling film, and secure the first one between the mixer attachment and the mixer itself and the second one between the mixer attachment and the front of the bowl. Begin beating on low speed, and hold the cling film down. As the ingredients blend you can increase the speed for a smoother lighter frosting. The cling film ensures all ingredients stay in the bowl and not on the counter

Add sugar to taste and adjust consistency

Assembly:

I use a rotating cake platform for icing cakes, and it has been massively helpful

Spread a little bit of icing onto a cake board or plate to secure the first layer of cake

Place the first cake layer on the cake board, and spread icing over the top

Put the second layer on top, and if making 3 layers, repeat again with the third

Next, spread a thin layer of icing over the whole cake to secure any crumbs and even out any cracks between layers. This is called a crumb coat

Refrigerate c. 20 minutes so the icing hardens, making it easier to spread the main layer

Evenly spread frosting over the surface of the cake, and decorate as desired

I chose not to decorate this cake at all and just leave it a simply iced cake

I had enough icing left to ice the cupcakes as well

Notes:

*As you can see, these cakes are darker than a traditional red velvet cake and look closer to chocolate. This is because I used cheap generic food colouring since it was the only thing available in a liquid form. The flavour is definitely red velvet.

**I will be eating all of the edges.