Red Velvet Cake

By stancec44

Super easy to make Red Velvet Cake is similar to the original recipe that started it all! Made entirely from scratch with a few tips and tricks, this is one cake that takes centre stage! Softer than most cakes with a mouthwatering velvet-like texture in each bite.

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 cups (300g) caster sugar (or fine white granulated sugar)
• 2 2 2 large eggs
• 1/4 1/4 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 3 3 1 tablespoons (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon extra for dusting
• 2 1/2 2 1/2 1/2 tablespoons (45ml) red food colouring (liquid, not gel)
• 2 2 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
• 1 1 1 tablespoon (20ml) white vinegar
• 2 1/2 2 1/2 1/2 cups (350g) plain cake flour, sifted (or all purpose/plain flour)
• 1 1 1 teaspoon baking soda (bi-carb soda)
• 1 1 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk*
• 1 1 to 5-10 buttermilk, mix 1 cup of full cream milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar before baking. Allow the milk to sour for 5-10 minutes.)
• Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 14 14 14 ounces (400g) cream cheese (not spreadable), at room temperature
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup (120g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 2 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 4 4 4 cups confectioners (or icing) sugar
• 1 1 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional -- adds subtle hint of lemon)

Preparation

Step 1

For Cake:
Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two 8-inch cake pans with butter or nonstick oil spray and lightly dust with 1 tablespoon of the sifted cocoa powder.

Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition to combine well.

In a smaller bowl, mix together oil, remaining 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla until smooth. Stir colour mixture and vinegar through the creamed sugar mixture to combine.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk to the wet ingredients; mix well. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk.

Divide batter among the 2 prepared pans and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack completely.

For Cream Cheese Frosting:
Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth lighter in colour (about 3-4 minutes). Beat in icing sugar until frosting is light and fluffy (if frosting is too thin, add more icing sugar and beat again until reaching your desired consistency).

Optional if using: mix in the lemon juice.

Assemble Cake:
Transfer 1 cake onto a serving dish/plate, flat-side down. Trim the top dome off of the cake to create a flat bottom later. Scoop about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of frosting onto cake and spread evenly over the top.

Place second cake layer on top and use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
Crumble trimmed pieces of cake to decorate.