RED VELVET CAKE

What a lady! I know she appears a bit snobbish, but she really is straight forward and uncomplicated. What you see is what you get, and she would love to meet you!

INGREDIENTS

1 LARGE LAYERED CAKE (30-35 CUPCAKES)

CAKE
250ml canola/sunflower oil
700ml castor sugar
10ml vanilla essence
2 bottles red food colouring (30-40ml each)
5 large eggs
700ml buttermilk/Amazi
700g cake flour
20ml baking powder
5ml salt
10ml bicarbonate of soda
60ml cacao powder
10ml vinegar

CREAM CHEESE ICING (Tip 3)
300g butter, room temperature
500g icing sugar, sifted
230-250g cream cheese
10ml vanilla essence
pinch of salt
10ml rosewater (optional)

METHOD

CAKE
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Prepare two round cake tins (23-25cm) with baking paper and non-stick spray.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, whisk together the oil, castor sugar, vanilla and food colouring (Tip 1).
4. Add the eggs one by one and whisk until well combined.
5. Add the buttermilk/amazi and mix well.
6. Sift all the dry ingredients over the large bowl and mix until just combined.
7. Lastly, add the vinegar to the batter and mix.
8. Divide the batter between the prepared cake tins and bake in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes (Tip 2).
9. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before loosening the sides and demoulding onto cooling racks.
10. Once the cakes are completely cooled, you can assemble and serve immediately or store in an airtight container (Tip 4).

CREAM CHEESE ICING
1. In a medium bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer until light, fluffy and pale. This is the most important and time-consuming step.
2. Add the icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until well combined and creamy.
3. Add the cream cheese, vanilla essence, salt and rosewater. Mix until just combined.

TIPS
1. The red food colouring might seem a bit too much, but the cake will lose a lot of its colour once baked.
2. Whenever you test a cake with a cake testing pin or toothpick, it shouldn’t necessarily come out without a single moist crumb. You don’t want to see liquid on the pin either, but the cakes will continue to “bake” for the first few minutes after you took it out of the oven. Therefore, the secret to moist cakes is to master this fine line of baking time.
3. You can easily halve the icing recipe and not decorate the sides of the cake.
4. Don’t refrigerate the cake as it will dry out quicker. An airtight container at room temperature is the best way to go.