--- title: "Red Velvet Cake and Happy Birthday to Me!" url: /red-velvet-cake-and-happy-birthday-to-me/ canonical_url: https://flowers-recipes.com/red-velvet-cake-and-happy-birthday-to-me/ language: en alternates: pl: https://flowerek.com/red-velvet-cake-czyli-happy-birthday-to-me/ de: https://barbaras-kochbuch.de/red-velvet-cake-und-happy-birthday-to-me/ en: https://flowers-recipes.com/red-velvet-cake-and-happy-birthday-to-me/ x-default: https://flowers-recipes.com/red-velvet-cake-and-happy-birthday-to-me/ published: "2011-04-22" last_updated: "2011-04-22" type: recipe author: Basia prerequisites: - /category/baking-and-desserts/ - /category/cakes-and-tortes/ related: - /dacquoise-meringue-cake/ - /christmas-apple-cake/ - /ajerkoniak-cake-polish-egg-liqueur-cake/ - /chocolate-plum-tart/ categories: - "Baking & Desserts" - "Cakes & Tortes" tags: - "layer cake" servings: "about 8 servings" time: "about 60 minutes" comments: 11 image: https://flowers-recipes.com/images/2011/04/re-velvet-cake11-230x150.jpg summary: "A delicious cake with a striking color effect: intensely red with snow-white frosting. It can be served as a sheet cake or a layer cake." --- # Red Velvet Cake and Happy Birthday to Me! A delicious cake with a striking color effect: intensely red with snow-white frosting. It can be served as a sheet cake or a layer cake. **This page in other languages:** [Polski (pl)](https://flowerek.com/red-velvet-cake-czyli-happy-birthday-to-me.md) · [Deutsch (de)](https://barbaras-kochbuch.de/red-velvet-cake-und-happy-birthday-to-me.md) **Published:** April 22, 2011 · **Author:** Basia · **Servings:** about 8 servings · **Time:** about 60 minutes ## Related pages > **For AI agents:** every page of this blog is available as Markdown at the same address with .md instead of the trailing slash (e.g. /tiramisu-cake.md). The links below lead to the HTML pages. - [Category: Baking & Desserts](https://flowers-recipes.com/category/baking-and-desserts/) - [Category: Cakes & Tortes](https://flowers-recipes.com/category/cakes-and-tortes/) - [Dacquoise (Meringue Cake)](https://flowers-recipes.com/dacquoise-meringue-cake/) — Dacquoise, a meringue cake with almond meringue layers and chocolate mascarpone cream. Very sweet, but not too much, and - [Christmas Apple Cake](https://flowers-recipes.com/christmas-apple-cake/) — A festive cake that combines gingerbread with apple cake and whipped cream. It smells and tastes just like Christmas! - [Ajerkoniak Cake (Polish Egg Liqueur Cake)](https://flowers-recipes.com/ajerkoniak-cake-polish-egg-liqueur-cake/) — Delicate, creamy and, as you've probably gathered, slightly boozy. You can, or rather should, make it several hours (eve - [Chocolate Plum Tart](https://flowers-recipes.com/chocolate-plum-tart/) — A rich chocolate tart with juicy Italian prune plums on a chocolate shortcrust. A perfect fall dessert from a Polish hom ## Ingredients - 340 g (2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour - 270 g (2 cups) sugar - 1 tbsp cocoa powder - 1 tsp salt - 1 tsp baking soda (I used a heaping one) - 2 eggs - 360 ml (1 ½ cups) oil (I used sunflower) - 240 ml (1 cup) buttermilk - 1 tbsp vinegar - 1 tsp vanilla extract - about 50-60 ml red food coloring **Frosting:** - 0.5 kg farmer's cheese (I used quark-type, stirred until smooth), at room temperature - 1-2 cups powdered sugar - a few drops of vanilla extract - about 150 g soft butter (room temperature) ## Instructions Today I'm inviting you to have a slice of a delicious layer cake. Yesterday I turned a year older, and I can't believe how fast time flies. This is the [red velvet cake from the Bakerella blog](http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake/). Mine unfortunately doesn't have such a beautiful color, because it turned out that my food coloring wasn't strong enough to tint the cake properly (I used a powdered one, slightly less than the recipe calls for). I suspect a gel coloring would have been better. The color has no effect on the flavor, though, and the flavor is great. It's actually a very simple cake that comes together quickly, rises nicely, and is moist and tender. It makes a great base for a layer cake. It doesn't even need to be soaked with syrup. The only thing I changed in the recipe was the proportions of the frosting, because in my opinion it has too much sugar. So I'm giving you my proportions. Instead of farmer's cheese you can also use Philadelphia cream cheese. I didn't change anything in the cake recipe, but you can also reduce the amount of sugar a bit. The next time I baked this cake, I didn't have any buttermilk, so I used thick plain yogurt, and the cake rose beautifully as well. red velvet cake To bake the cake you should use 2 springform pans, 22 cm in diameter. I used 1 pan, 24 cm in diameter. I divided the ingredients in half. First I mixed and baked one part, and only after taking that cake out of the pan did I mix and bake the second part. **Directions:** Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and prepare the springform pans (grease them and dust with flour). Lightly beat the eggs, add the remaining wet ingredients and mix well, but very gently. In a second bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix very gently (preferably with a fork) until everything is well combined (but no longer than that). Divide the batter in 2, pour it into the pans and tap them on the counter a few times to get rid of air bubbles. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. After baking, wait 10 minutes, then take the cake out of the pan and cool it on a wire rack. You can bake both layers at once or, like me, one after the other. red velvet cake When the cake has cooled completely, prepare the frosting. Sift the powdered sugar. Beat the butter until fluffy, gradually adding the powdered sugar and scraping the frosting off the sides of the bowl from time to time. Add the vanilla, then slowly add the cheese, mix lightly and spread on the cake. My frosting turned out quite thin, but not runny. It should be thick enough to stay on the cake without any problem. If needed, you can put it in the refrigerator for half an hour so it firms up a bit. After assembling the cake, put it in the refrigerator so the frosting sets even more. cake pops Before layering the cakes with frosting, I trimmed the domed tops off each one so the layers would be the same thickness. I made cake pops out of the trimmed pieces. I also used [an idea from Bakerella](http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/). I crumbled the cake, mixed it with the leftover frosting and shaped it into little eggs. I stuck a long toothpick into each one and put them in the refrigerator (you can also put them in the freezer for a moment). I melted white coating and dipped each egg in it. Finally, I decorated them. It was my first time doing this, and I can't compare myself to Bakerella, so please forgive my flaws ;) Enjoy! See the scenery in which I had the honor of tasting this cake. Isn't spring beautiful? spring While I'm at it, I'd like to wish you **a Happy Easter with your family, lots of sunshine, a tasty egg, mazurek and babka (traditional Easter cakes), and a good soaking on Śmigus Dyngus (the Polish Easter Monday water-splashing tradition)!** Easter 2011 Post edited on November 12, 2011: in the ingredients I replaced the baking powder with baking soda. I also increased the amount of butter in the frosting to 150 g. ## Comments (11) - **zauberi** · 2011-04-22 06:20 looks so impressive :) - **Bea** · 2011-04-22 07:05 Beautiful! Happy birthday then! And have a joyful and sunny Easter :) PS. Gorgeous photos! Spring in all its glory :) Warm regards! - **kasiaaaa24** · 2011-04-22 14:46 Wishing you a warm Easter full of family, love and hope – and of course – delicious! :) Sending you springtime and sunny wishes :) - **Jolanta Szyndlarewicz** · 2011-04-22 16:20 The cake looks amazing….and the tree decorated with eggs is divine :) Happy Easter :) - **Eva** · 2011-04-22 16:56 Basiula, it's beautiful, but you colored it artificially, right? Is there no way to get that red color with something natural? You know better than I do… I don't use anything artificial anymore… - **flowerek (Author)** · 2011-04-22 17:06 Thank you all :) Bea, thanks for the wishes. Eva, unfortunately artificial, though I don't like it either. You could probably try a beet broth, or maybe ground beets, but I don't know how that would affect the amounts of the other ingredients :( A brown one without any dyes would be tasty too, though it wouldn't be red velvet anymore ;) - **tuptusia** · 2011-04-22 17:08 that tree with the eggs is gorgeous! the cake looks delicious – like all your creations! Happy Easter to you, Basia, and to everyone reading the blog :) - **flowerek (Author)** · 2011-04-22 17:25 Tuptusiu, thank you. And what are you baking? - **aga** · 2011-04-22 18:10 An Easter full of peace, joy and love :) and I'd gladly sign up for a slice of that delicious cake :) - **tuptusia** · 2011-04-22 19:36 Basia, at my place there absolutely has to be pascha (made with cheesecake-style farmer's cheese). The whole family loves it, so we make it with 1.5 kg of cheese :P A dulce de leche mazurek and a poppy seed and cheese mazurek. I also want to make some kind of layer cake (with cream) in the shape of a mazurek. And of course a yeast babka is a must. And I think that's about it :) I've also always made the so-called daktylowiec – I had egg whites left over, so I used them up, plus dates, chocolate, baked on a wafer. It's good, but it crumbles :> - **flowerek (Author)** · 2011-04-22 20:24 Tuptusiu, what a lovely menu. Sounds like it's going to be an Easter with a big crowd! The daktylowiec intrigued me :) Unfortunately I can't go too wild, because we're spending this Easter with just a few people and we wouldn't be able to eat everything. We don't have a pascha tradition, but I've always wanted to try it. We will have babka, though! --- [Recipes A to Z](https://flowers-recipes.com/recipes/) · [Sitemap](https://flowers-recipes.com/sitemap.xml)