A message on a cake for my one and only…
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients:
For Red Velvet Cake:
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Valrhona cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For Vanilla Bean Frosting:
- 3 sticks and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 3 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
- 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 1 vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Directions:
For Red Velvet Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Line bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment paper and oil the sides of pan with vegetable oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder and then sift ingredients.
- With a whisk attachment on standing mixer, whisk the vegetable oil and buttermilk together on low speed. .
- In a small bowl, beat each egg with a fork and add one at a time to the oil and buttermilk mixture.
- Once fully incorporated, add food coloring, vinegar and vanilla extract.
- Slowly add the flour and sugar mixture until just combined.
- Pour batter into pan so it fills up about half of the height of the pan. The rest of the batter can be put into another pan or made into cupcakes. This recipe yields three 9-inch round cakes to make a three-layer cake.
- For 9 x 13 pan, bake for approximately 30-40 minutes (use toothpick to test and if little crumbs are attached, it is ready to take out of the oven) and allow the cake to sit for 20 minutes before flipping it onto a cooling rack. For 9-inch round pan, bake for 20-25 minutes and use toothpick to test.
- Once the cake is fully cooled down, wrap with saran wrap and freeze for 5-10 minutes for the crumbs to stay in tact.
For Vanilla Bean Frosting:
- With paddle attachment on standing mixer, whip softened butter for 8 minutes on medium speed (occasionally scrap down the sides of the bowl).
- Once butter is pale and creamy, at a low speed setting on the mixer, slowly add the sugar, then heavy whipping cream, vanilla and lastly the pinch of salt.
- Increase speed back to medium for 5-6 minutes – frosting will become very light and fluffy.
Assembly:
- Use either a heart-shaped cutter or use a white piece of paper to cut out a heart shape – make sure that either one being used is no larger than 4 x 6 inches.
- If using the white piece of paper, cut out desired heart shape and use as a stencil to cut the cake into two heart-shaped cakes.
- If using the heart-shaped cutter, create two heart shaped cake cut-outs.
- Place one heart-shaped cake on the serving plate or cake stand and place at least 1/4 cup of vanilla bean frosting and spread evenly on the first layer.
- Add second cake layer on top and frost then top and the sides of the cake.
- To write a message on the cake, I used bought the Betty Crocker decorating red gel.
Enjoy your special Valentine treat!
Red Velvet Cake recipe adapted from Food Network by Cakeman Raven
