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Red Velvet Cake

Red velvet cake , originated in North America , has got it’s popularity beyond the boundaries of it’s origin of birth because of it’s alluring dark , bright red or brown-red color and of course for the moist, soft texture of the cake . Though considered to be a Southern specialty , the cake and it’s original recipe are made well known by New York City’s famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel .

Traditionally, the cake is made as a layer cake with any white icing/ frosting , cream cheese frosting being the most popular. The bright red color is made either by the food coloring or by the boiled beet juice , if you consider yourself health conscious !! 🙂

All the recipes of red velvet cake are somehow same , though can differ in use of shortening, butter or vegetable oil and also as to the quantity used .

Ingredients:

2 eggs ( room temperature)
1/2 (Half a cup) a cup, vegetable oil + 1/4th cup ( softened)
1 and 1/2 cup sugar ( crushed in a grinder, which we call caster sugar)
2 and 1/2 cup + 2 tbl spoon all purpose flour
3 tbl spoon of cocoa
1/4 th teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk* ( see the note , plz)
Red food coloring
Vanilla essence , 1 tea spoon
1 tea spoon baking soda
1 tea spoon white vinegar

For Cream Cheese Frosting :

Cream cheese 4 oz ( room temperature) ( half of the packet)
Butter 2 oz ( room temperature, softened)
Icing sugar 6 tbl spoon / 1/3 rd cup
2 tbl spoon of chilled evaporated milk/ fresh cream ( start with 1 tbl spoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cake Syrup:

1 tea spoon of vanilla essence
1/4 th cup of water
2 tbl spoon of sugar

Procedure:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two round pans. ( I made , a layered caked and few cup cakes , so took two 6”round pan)

2.In a large bowl, sift together the flour salt, and cocoa powder. Don’t use the baking soda now . We will use it later .

3. Mix the food color in the buttermilk . It took me a bottle ( around 2 tbl spoon of liquid red food color) . Those who are using other colors , use generously otherwise the color won’t come and you will end up with a pink colored velvet cake .

4.Beat vegetable oil , butter and 1 and 1/2 cups of caster sugar( powdered sugar) with the electric hand beater at high speed until very light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

5. Now alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing at low speed . That is , put some flour , mix , then add buttermilk , mix . Continue like this . Flour , then buttermilk . Don’t over mix or over beat . The speed of the electric beater should be at the lowest , just to incorporate well .

6. Now in a small cup combine baking soda and vinegar and quickly mix in the cake batter . Don’t beat or overmix now . Just fold in to the cake batter. This is the trick that would make your cake softer and very moist . But you have to work quickly , so divide the cake batter into the greased pans and put them immediately inside the pre-heated oven to bake . If you don’t bake them immediately , the cake will fall flat and the trick will fail . So if your oven is not big enough to put two cake pans at the same times, a little trick to share with you . When your cake batter is ready , before you put the vinegar-soda mixture , divide them equally in two bowls , and mix half of the vinegar and soda ( half teaspoon each ) to one mixture, pour into one greased pan and bake. After taking them out from the oven , take remaining batter and add vinegar-soda mixture , that is half teaspoon of vinegar and half teaspoon of soda ( since the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of soda and vinegar) and pour it into the greased pan and bake .

7. Bake the cake at 350 FH in a pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes clean . Don’t over bake .

8.Cool the cakes and then cut them into halves horizontally . Now you have four layers of cake . Moisten each layer with cake syrup. Don’t use too much , just enough to moisten . Frost one layer with cream cheese frosting and cover it with another layer . Repeat with other layers . Now cover the whole cake with remaining frosting . But frosting should be done when the cake completely cools .

Cream cheese frosting:

In a bowl take cream cheese , butter , icing sugar and vanilla essence . All the ingredients should be of room temperature . Don’t take chilled butter and cheese . Beat them together with electric hand beater until light and fluffy . If you find them too stiff , add 1 tbl spoon of evaporated milk or fresh cream . Beat again . If needed add 1 tbl spoon more .

Note:

1. If you don’t get buttermilk , take 1 cup of luke warm or room temperature milk . Add 1 tbl spoon of white vinegar and keep it aside for 15 minutes . After 15 minutes the thing you get is your buttermilk . 😀

2. The measurement is very important . I used the US measuring cup , where 1 cup= 240 ml . Those who are using a measuring cup , where 1 cup= 250 ml , please don’t add the extra 2 tbl spoon of flour as mentioned in the ingredients . Just take 2 and 1/2 cup flour .

3. After adding the baking soda- vinegar mixture , don’t beat with beater or over mix . Just fold in to the cake batter gently .