There is much more to this recipe than adding red food colouring to a chocolate cake. Buttermilk and vinegar tenderize the meat, resulting in a velvety, tangy texture. Also, you only need one bowl for this dish, making it a breeze to clean up afterward. To make it your new favourite cake recipe, top it with cream cheese icing or Ermine butter cream.
Due to the unpleasant taste of red food colouring, it is not necessary to over-colour this cake; the cocoa powder and food colouring will provide the desired depth of colour.
Bake a Traditional Red Velvet Cake
- Vinegar, White: This may seem like an unusual addition to a cake, but it aids in the leavening process via baking soda and is thus necessary. Historically, beet juice was used to tint red velvet cake. However, beet juice turns blue when cooked. Thus vinegar was added to prevent this. Any acid, such as lemon juice, will do the trick to produce the same chemical reaction as vinegar.
- Cacao Powder: You may be mistaken about the role of cocoa powder in this dish. Natural cocoa powder, buttermilk and vinegar helps tenderize the flour, resulting in a finer, softer crumb.
- Whisk together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, vinegar, butter, vanilla extract, and red food colouring in a medium bowl.
- Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda) in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir for a few seconds at moderate speed to blend.
- The batter is ready when all the liquid components have been added and mixed up at medium speed (about 1 minute). Make sure everything is well combined by scraping the basin.
- For best results, bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Put the cake layers in the freezer for an hour if you want to layer and frost the cake the same day; there’s no need to wrap them beforehand. However, you may freeze the layers for up to a week if you cover them in plastic wrap ahead of time.
- Put the butter in the bowl of your stand mixer and use the paddle attachment to beat it until it’s fluffy. To avoid lumps, mix on low speed for many minutes.
- The cream cheese should be softened before being added. Mix everything on low until it is thoroughly combined and smooth. Make sure everything is connected by scraping the basin. Slowly add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, so that none of it is thrown out of the bowl.
- Distribute a generous amount of cream cheese frosting over the first cold cake layer and spread it evenly around the board. The cream cheese frosting should be applied on a cold cake for the best results.
- The next layer of the cake should be stacked on top of the first, and the filling and stacking processes should be repeated.
- Apply a crumb coat of frosting around the outside of the cake to seal in the crumbs of red food colouring. Before adding the final glaze, chill the cake for a few minutes.
- Make crumbs out of the leftover cake scraps and press them into the cake’s edges; sprinkle some crumbs on top of the cake.
- Set oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Coat three 9-inch cake pans, each measuring 1 1/2 inches in diameter, with oil and flour.
- The flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder should all be sifted together in a large basin. Combine the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar, and vanilla in a separate large basin and whisk to combine.
- Blend the dry ingredients into the wet ones with a stand mixer until everything is just incorporated and the batter is smooth.
- Evenly disperse the cake batter among the pans. Spread out the pans inside the oven. In a preheated 350°F oven, bake the cakes for 30 minutes, rotating the pans midway through baking or until the edges of the cakes have pulled away from the pans and a toothpick inserted into the centres of the cakes comes out clean.
- After the cooking time has elapsed, take the cakes out of the pans and use a knife to remove the edges from the pan. Turn the cakes upside down onto a dish, then back right side onto a cooling rack. Cool down before handling.
- Put the icing on top. Arrange one cake layer, rounded side down, in the centre of a cake stand that can spin. Spread some of the Cream Cheese Frosting on top of the cake using a palette knife or offset spatula. (Apply a layer of frosting between a quarter and a half an inch thick.) Lay another layer on top, rounded side down, and repeat. Frost the whole cake, add the final layer and decorate. Dot the dish with chopped pecans.
- Combine the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed in a large bowl, stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or handheld electric mixer. Turn up the mixer’s speed to high and continue mixing until the mixture is bubbly and light, approximately 5 minutes. (Stop the mixer every so often and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides.)
- Turn the mixer down to low. When you’ve added the vanilla, turn up the mixer’s speed to high and beat for just a few seconds until the mixture is light and airy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Please put it in the fridge and use it once it has become fairly stiff. Stays fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Conclusion
Traditional cadbury red velvet is far more involved than adding red food colouring to a chocolate cake. The reddish hue of the cake is a result of the combination of buttermilk and vinegar, which bring out the rosy undertones of the cocoa powder. The gluten in the wheat is also broken down by these ingredients, making for a more soft cake. In contrast to a classic chocolate cake, the mild cocoa taste here doesn’t overpower the others.