Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients
Cake

  • 125 g butter

  • 300 g caster sugar

  • 3 medium eggs

  • 30 g cocoa powder

  • 1 tsp Red food colouring

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 250 ml buttermilk*

  • 300 g glutin free bread flour

  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

  • 2 tsp cider apple vinegar

*for the butter milk I made this myself with 250ml milk and 1 table spoon of lemon, freshly squeezed

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 150 g butter (room temperature)

  • 150 g icing sugar

  • 300 g full fat cream cheese

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
Cake

  • Preheat your oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan and line/grease two 8" cake tins.

  • Beat together the butter and caster sugar until smooth and fluffy and then gradually beat in the egg so that it doesn't curdle (if it doesn't curdle, beat in a little flour to bring it back)

  • In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring, and vanilla extract to a thick dark paste (if it is struggling to become a paste, then add in a little milk to make it runnier and mix better - it needs to be smooth!) - it may take a couple of minutes but this will make it easier to add to the rest of the mixture if you do it this way - and the sponge will be more red!

  • Add this mixture to the butter and caster sugar mixture and beat until combined and evenly coloured.

  • Pour in half of the buttermilk and beat to combine.

  • Add in half of the plain flour and beat again, and then the other half of the buttermilk & beat, and then the other half of the flour & beat (this way works!).

  • Beat in the bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar.

  • Beat again for a couple of minutes until everything is smooth and incorporated well.

  • Separate into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes until the middle of the cake comes out clean when poked with a skewer!

  • Once the cakes are baked, leave to cool fully on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Make sure your butter is at room temperature. I leave mine out overnight when it's cold weather, but in the hotter months this can take as little as 30 minutes!

  • Beat your butter on it's own for a few minutes to loosen it.

  • Add in the icing sugar, and beat again - I beat this for about 5 minutes, to make it really smooth.

  • Make sure your cream cheese doesn't have any excess water - I find it best to add it to a bowl first just to make sure.

  • Add in the cream cheese, vanilla and beat. At first, it may look a little weird, but just keep on beating.

  • I end up beating it for a few minutes - it can go through a lumpy stage first, but eventually the lumps beat out and it's smooth and thick!

  • Once beaten - it should be lovely and thick.

  • Pipe/spread 1/2 of the frosting onto the top of one sponge.

  • Add the other sponge on top, then pipe/spread the other half of the frosting onto the top and decorate with sponge crumbs or grated chocolate if you fancy!

Tips

  • I use salted butter you can use unsalted.

  • Mine took longer than expected to bake but as long as the skewer comes out clean its done.

  • The better the red food colouring the better the colour but any will work.

  • I use Glutin free flour as the cakes seam to come out lighter.

  • For the cream cheese I use Philadelphia

  • to make butter milk I added 1 tbls or lemon juice to 250ml of semi skimmed milk and leave for 5-10 min, full fat will work (maybe even better)

Original Idea taken from Jane's Patisserie