Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup veggie oil
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 5 teaspoons red food colouring
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 tub cream cheese
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C. In a large mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together.
- In a separate bowl. mix the buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar, vanilla essence and oil.
- Mix the flour into the buttermilk mixture. Pour into a greased pan and bake for approximately 30 to 40 minutes
- In another bowl. mix the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth
- Ice the cake as desired
- I decorated mine with white rose petals
The recipe is from one of my favourite cake recipe books, Cakes by Calie Maritz.
8 comments:
Interesting take on a red velvet recipe. That's not the "authentic" red velvet that I'm familiar with - for starters, you only had 2 separate mixes, which sounds pretty easy. Real red velvet isn't easy to make...
To start, you mix the red food colouring with the cocoa powder and make a paste. Separate to that you have to cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs until the mixture is light. You add the colour-cocoa mix to it and beat it into oblivion. While that's being thoroughly pummelled, you mix the flour and salt in another bowl, and then add it to mixture in spoonfuls at a time, alternating spoonfuls with buttermilk. So, spoon floursalt, spoon buttermilk, etc.. all the while still mixing.
When you're done with that, you stand at the ready with the hot oven and baking pan. In yet another bowl, you mix baking soda with vinegar, it will fizzle like crazy - you chuck this into the mixture and beat it quickly but thoroughly and then pop it into the pans and into the oven.
Yours sounds much simpler... it would be very interesting to make both and do a side-by-side comparison of the result in terms of thickness, taste, colour etc. Hrm.
Of course, I've never successfully managed to make red velvet cake. Or cupcakes. One, my oven is borked, so it doesn't heat properly, and two - didya read the instructions I just gave you? It's a juggling act of multiple sets of mixes with precise timing.. or it flops.
I am thoroughly intruiged now. Will have to ask all my bakemates if they think your recipe and method qualifies as "real red velvet".
:)
Hey Anibug!
OMG. Where did you get that recipe from?? :-)
I must be honest, I've searched high and low for an easy recipe and this is the best one I've come across so far.
It also turned out light and fluffy which I prefer. Most red velvet cakes I've tasted tend to be heavy-ish - This has to do with the fact that you use oil instead of butter in the batter.
I think a taste test would be great. I'm going to try out your method with butter soon and update you. If you beat me to it, please let me know how yours turns out.
Happy baking!
I got it from a friend who got it from a recipe book called "The Ultimate Book of Baking" by Heilie Pienaar. :)
As someone who is primarily a decorator (and not so much a baker) the heaviness of the red velvet is a winner. It is dense and strong, and when you're making multi-tiered cakes you want a dense, heavy consistency that you can rely on not to sag when you stack weight on it.
The heavy red velvet freezes really well, settles really well, carves really well (for shaping the cakes) and doesn't sag under the weight of 2 upper layers. Light and fluffy sponge doesn't do that as well - it's good for an upper layer or top tier. When I make a light sponge cake recipe, I end up putting weights on the cake and chilling it under pressure to compact the sponge before using it to build layers.
My friend (the one who gave me the recipe) has red velvet down to a fine art. She makes the heavy recipe like a pro. I've never had red velvet more delicious than hers.
Will post the full recipe in a separate comment for you. Let the bake wars begin! :D
Interesting. I bake more than I decorate so I guess that's why the density has never been much of a consideration. Thanks for that.
I'd love try out your friend's red velvet and to know more about your decorating. Send me more info or an email when you have time (think we could talk about this for days!) ;-)
Here's the recipe:
125g Butter
210g Castor Sugar
2 extra-large eggs
45ml Cocoa Powder
40ml Red Food Colouring (yes, it's a lot. A whole little glass bottle, and then some).
280g cake flour
2ml salt
300ml buttermilk
5ml bicarbonate of soda
15ml Vinegar
5ml Vanilla Essence
Pre-heat oven to 180*C. Prep pans or 2 muffin tins.
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat until mixture looks light.
Mix the red food colouring with the cocoa. Add to the mixture and beat well.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour and the salt. Add to the mixture, alternating spoonfuls with the buttermilk.
Mix the soda with the vinegar (beware fizzing!) and add to the mixture, along with the vanilla. Beat well and pour into pans. Bake at 180 for roughly 15-20min for cupcakes, or 30min for a cake. Watch until it starts looking ready, then test for yourself with a skewer. You know the drill :)
Have fun, and I will try out your recipe too and see how I like it compared to the heavy red velvet.
Will email you a link to my baking photo gallery.
Super! Thanks Ani!!
I look forward to the feedback
Hi!
Did you try the recipe? Ani and I tried yours! It's a delicious cake.. Is it wrong that I like mine better?
Please try mine and let me know how it goes? I wanna know if I'm just horribly biased! Here's the link:
http://happykitchentreats.blogspot.com/2011/09/chocolate-chocolate-chocolate.html
Hey Olga!
Gosh, my life has been a little manic the last 2 months so I haven't had a chance to cook or bake much (as you can see from my posts :-( )
After this weekend, I'll be back on track again so I'll definitely get baking again.
I also need to get back to Ani as well about something we've been chatting about.
I'll get back to you soon. Thanks for checking in (I checked out your blog - way cool) :-)
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