Red Velvet Cake.....First Wedding Anniversary Special

Every day is a celebration, celebration of life, love, family, friends and all that we are blessed with. I am indeed really very lucky coz i am blessed with the most handsome, loving, compassionate and caring husband (touchwood). And i would yet again (as mentioned in my Facebook status) say that all the words in the world would fail to describe what we share between us. 

Nov 10th: I was super excited to bake my very first cake from scratch (well i have baked cakes before but never layered cakes with all the frosting). So initially i decided to bake black forest cake. After a lot of thinking black forest seemed like meh.....hahahaha.....this was our first anniversary it had to be something special. And suddenly it clicked RED VELVET CAKE. Firstly its my hubby's fav, secondly it is red which is the color of love, hmmm love.... that is what we were celebrating after all and last but not the least it is absolutely delicious. This cake takes yumminess to an all new level, especially its frosting (its to die for). So i started with the prep work late in the afternoon so that we could cut the cake and celebrate at the stroke of midnight. The recipe i followed was the one i got from joyofbaking.com.

So my dear friends do try this recipe on any of your special occasions like anniversary, birthdays and its a very popular choice for valentines day why??.... coz its RED :P.

This is how i started off...

Ingredients for the cake:

2 1/2 cups of sifted cake flour

2 tbsp of regular unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup of unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup of buttermilk

2 tbsp of liquid red food color

1 tsp of distilled white vinegar 

1 tsp baking soda

For the frosting:

1 - 8 ounce cream cheese at room temperature

1 - 8 ounce mascarpone cheese at room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

1 1/2 cup of cold heavy whipping cream

1 cup of confectioners sugar or powdered sugar (sifted)

1) First off preheat your oven 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Then butter two round 9 inch cake pan and line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. Once done set them aside.

Do cut the parchment paper in round shape. Else it would spoil the shape of the cake. I was just too excited to do that hahaha....

 2) Sift together flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl and set that aside.

I had newspaper spread all over the countertop....to avoid any kind of staining from the red color

3) In a large bowl, beat the butter using electric hand mixer or stand mixer until soft. Add sugar and beat for about 2-3 minutes until nice and combined. Once that is done add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Add vanilla extract and mix until combined.

4) In a separate bowl or cup mix the buttermilk with the red food color.

5) Slowly combine the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture in to the butter, sugar and egg mixture alternately in batches until thoroughly combined.

6) In a small bowl combine vinegar and baking soda. As soon as this is done the mixture will bubble, immediately mix it with the cake batter. Once combined quickly transfer the cake batter onto the two cake pans and divide them as equally as you can. Smooth the edges with a spoon or a spatula. Bake for about 25-30 mins or until a toothpick or a small knife inserted comes clean.

7) Let the cake cool for about 10-15 mins, remove the cakes from the pan and let them cool completely on a wire rack. Once cooled refrigerator the cake layers for about an hour. This will help in easy frosting.

I inserted a small knife in the centre of cake instead of a toothpick...lol

Cream cheese frosting:

In a bowl beat the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until nice and smooth. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and combine. Next add the heavy cream gradually until the mixture is thick in consistency. 

Cream Cheese

Cream cheese + Macarpone cheese

Whisk

Vanilla essence

Powdered sugar

Heavy whipping cream

Whisk whisk whisk

 Assembling the cake:

With a knife cut each layer of the cake into half. So that you will have 4 layers of cake. Take one layer of the cake and place it facing down onto a serving plate. Spread the some of frosting onto the first layer of cake. Repeat the same with the rest of the layers. Finish off with frosting the top and sides of the cake with the frosting. You will end up with a white cake eventually hehehee...

What i did was i only used three layers and i used the forth layer to decorate the cake. You can garnish the cake as per your desire.

Gently cut both the layers of the cake

See how the edges of the cake are....i wish i had been more careful

Thats our homemade serving dish....hehehehe.....line the edges with parchment... so the frosting that falls off can be cleaned up easily...once done just pull them out. So you will end up with clean edges.

First Layer

Second layer

Third

Third layer done and cake is frosted completely

Decorating the cake with the crumbled fourth layer of cake.... we both ate what was left of the fourth layer after that :P

All done....i know its not perfect....but looks good enough :)

Final touches done :)

Refrigerate for 4 - 6 hrs before serving or you can do that overnight as well

Nov 14th Midnight:

Time for celebration......


And we had fabulous dinner in the evening.... maybe i can tell you more about it in my next post....

Until then....Happy cooking and oh.. happy baking as well :)