Ruby Red Velvet Cake & French Cream Icing
I posted these recipes earlier in another thread (are you going to bake with us on Thursday coming?), but thought I would also put them in here for everyone else...
Not sure how many people have heard of red velvet cake, it seems to be a relatively popular thing in the US. If you haven't seen it, yes, it is a red cake. The taste? Hard to describe, aside from divine.
Everyone that I have shared rv cupcakes with are intrigued when they first see these gorgeous little red creations, topped with a white creamy icing (French Cream Icing), then come back for seconds. And thirds. And you get the idea... A layered cake covered in the white icing makes quite a statement when you take out that first slice....
Ruby Red Velvet Cake
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
2 tblsp cocoa powder
4 tblsp (or 60mLs) red food colour
115g butter, soft
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
Preheat over to 175c (or 155 fan forced). Grease and flour two 9inch cake tins.
Sift together flour and salt. Set aside.
Carefully combine cocoa and food colour together in a small bowl, until smooth. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat for at least four or five minutes until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating for about 30 seconds after each.
At low mixer speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk and vanilla. Scrape down bowl sides as necessary.
Add cocoa mixture, continue mixing until batter is uniform colour. Do not overbeat.
In small bowl/glass, mix vinegar and baking soda (it will foam!). Stir briefly to mix, then fold into cake mix (do not beat).
Pour equally between prepared pans, bake 25-30 mins or until baked when tested. Allow to cool in tins for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely. Fill and ice when cool.
Or, makes 24 cupcakes; bake 15-20mins,
bundt pan (you know, the fluted ring pan); 55-60 mins,
9x13inch pan; 45-55mins.
Use a glass bowl to combine the cocoa and food colour in, and be aware it will stain almost everything! I use Queen brand "pillar box red" food colour. I also mix the cocoa and colour in with a spatula, it seems to mix in quicker than using the electric mixer.
I used baking powder as I didn't have baking soda. It works, not sure if the cake is a bit more dense than it should be, but it works for me.
Strange, but from half the quantity mix, I get 12 cupcakes. From the usual quantity, I get 27 cupcakes (which are a little bigger than the 12. Confused? Me too!). :dunno:
French Cream Icing
5 tblsp plain flour
1 cup milk (not sure if you can use skim milk?)
225g butter, soft
1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
Whisk flour and milk together in small non-stick saucepan over low heat. Stir with whisk continually until thick and starting to boil. (mine never boil, they just seemed too thick, but I do cook them for a few minutes). Remove from heat, spread over a cold dinner plate to cool faster, stirring and turning over with a rubber spatula to speed things up a bit. Give the odd stir and turn while whipping the butter. It must be completely cool before adding to the rest of the ingredients.
Whip butter until fluffy.
Add sugar and vanilla, beat until mixture is smooth and sugar is dissolved.
Add the cooled flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat until smooth and stands in peaks.
Spread over cupcakes (makes more than enough for 24 cupcakes, maybe even 36), or use to fill and spread over the two round cakes.
Delicious! Don't be put off by the 'cooked' aspect of this icing. I think this is MUCH better than cream cheese icing. One of our friends said it tasted like ice cream, and seemed to be wondering how this ice cream icing wasn't melting at room temperature.
Both recipes found on the internet, but can't remember where!
