Red Velvet Cake and Happy Birthday to Me!

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. 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. 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.