As fancy and loved this cake is, it was born out of the need to work with “cheap” ingredients but get a wow end result. The recipe is close to what devil cake is but instead of actual chocolate it uses cocoa powder. It all started in the Great Depression times in America when the bakers needed to keep the sales up so they used beetroot to make the cakes red and they substitute the chocolate with cocoa. It is known to be a recipe from the south (Maryland) but it went famous when the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York introduced it in the menu and and end up doubling their orders.
I first discovered the red velvet cake when I visited New York. I remember standing in a very long queue around the block at the famous Magnolia bakery not knowing what to choose from all the cakes that were in front of me. It will always be one of the most sweet memories of mine, next to the food trip I took in Paris.
In this recipe, despite the original recipe, I used food coloring and if you want a very vibrant red color and a more fluffy sponge use a non Dutch cocoa powder.
Ingredients
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Cream cheese frosting
- Red Velvet Sponge
- Decoration
Instructions
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Frosting
- Mix until there are no lumps the butter and the cream cheese and after add the sugar and vanilla essence and continue until is white un fluffy. Set aside (in a cold place but not the fridge) until the sponge is baked and cooled. Red velvet sponge
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Start by lining your cake rings with baking paper on the bottom and on the sides and preheat the oven to 185 degrees Celsius. (For the cake I made, I used an 18 cm and a 24 cm diameter cake rings.) Cream the butter, salt and sugar until white and fluffy (10 minutes approx.) and add the eggs bit by bit. At this point you can add the food coloring and you can increase the quantity at the end if the color is not as intense as you like.
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Sift together all the dried ingredients and mix the vinegar with the buttermilk. Start adding them to the butter starting and finishing with the dry ingredients, mixing well after each time. In the end add the food coloring until you reach the desired color. Pour the batter in the cake rings and bake them for approximately 30 minutes or until a probe comes out clean. Once they are out of the oven take them out from the rings and let them cool upside down
Putting it together
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Wait for the sponges to be cold and cut each in two. fill the middle of the bottom layers with a very thin layer of frosting and after that put a layer of frozen berries. top it with cream and add the other half of the sponge
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Stack the two cakes an put another thin layer of cream on the top and sides. Leave it in the fridge for 2 hours for the frosting to get hard.
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Decorate with slices of fruits.
