Red Velvet Cake

Cake recipe adapted from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen, originally from “The Confetti Cakes Cookbook” by Elisa Strauss via the New York Times 2/14/07.
Yields 9-inch round 3 cake layers OR one 9x13 inch sheet cake and 12 cupcakes.

Note: I've modified Deb's recipe for two purposes - to use Valrhona cocoa powder (Dutch processed) and to bake a sheet cake to be layered into a rectangular block cake. If you're aiming for a standard round cake and have natural cocoa on hand, hop over to the original recipe. I couldn't find buttermilk at the store (they're stocked rather slowly this part of the world) so I mixed 1 1/4 cups whole milk with 1 1/4 tablespoons vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes before using. Since Valrhona cocoa produces much darker baked results, I used a whole bottle of this (to my horror but I took consolation in the brand and 'tasteless' claim) to get the color of this cake; so you'll have to experiment with your combination of cocoa powder and food coloring.

Dutch Cocoa Powder: While I did have a can of natural cocoa in my pantry, I wanted to use Valrhona for this cake. It's not that I'm a cocoa powder snob but for a friend who's a Valrhona fan herself, I wanted the best deal for her. It's possible that the recipe may not even require baking powder as it contains enough acidic components to work the baking soda but not wanting to risk a flat cake I replaced a quarter of the soda with baking powder. Feel free to try the recipe with just the baking soda. 

Sheet Cakes: I wanted to bake two cakes - a Swiss roll for us (or rather, just me) to savor slowly and an oblong layered cake for Najah. The rolled cake stuck to my dry tea towel as it cooled and broke when I unravelled it. At this point I'm unsure of a few things - if this recipe is suitable for a rolled cake or if using a moist tea towel and icing sugar instead of cocoa powder would help. Shall I succeed in the next attempt I'll update this section. There are other red velvet rolled cake recipes out there but I'm leaning towards the taste and texture of this one to consider a compromise, so do let me know if I'm being silly and this cake will never roll properly. In the meantime, I've modified the recipe to bake 2/3 of the cake batter into a sheet cake and the rest into cupcakes.

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (for greasing pans, I skipped this and used Pam flour spray)


• 3 1/2 cups cake flour


• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Valrhona, a Dutch process)


• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt


• 2 cups canola oil (I used corn oil)


• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar


• 3 large eggs


• 6 tablespoons/3 ounces red food coloring or 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tablespoons of water


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla


• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk


• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder


• 2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease a 9x13x1 inch baking sheet or jelly roll pan and line the bottom with parchment. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Whisk cake flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. Take care, the batter may splash. Add in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches (starting and ending with the flour). Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.

Place the baking soda in a small bowl, stir in vinegar and add immediately to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

Divide 2/3 of the batter onto the baking sheet and the rest into the muffin tin. Place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes each for the sheet cake and cupcakes. Let cool in pans for at least 20 minutes. Remove the sheet cake from the pan by flipping it over and peel off the parchment. Trim of the curved sides if necessary (doing this will yield an 8x12 inch sheet) and divide the cake along the longer side into three 8x4 inch portions. Cool completely cakes completely before frosting. (I froze the sheets for two hours before icing.) 

Mascarpone Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted barely from Joy of Baking.
Makes about 2 cups.

Note: This recipe was just enough to ice the three layered 8x12 inch cake you see here, spare a couple of tablespoons. To frost the original three layered 9-inch round cake or this cake plus the 12 cupcakes you'll need to double the recipe. The next time I do this I may just replace all the cream cheese with mascarpone. As this is a whipped cream frosting, if you, like me, live in a place blessed with natural sauna weather, fridge the frosting overnight to thicken before using to make your icing process free of traumatic meltdowns. 

• 1 block/8 ounces/227 grams cream cheese, at room temperature


• 1 tub/8 ounces/227 grams mascarpone cheese, at room temperature


• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


• 1 cup/115 grams confectioners/icing/powdered sugar, sifted


• 1 1/2 cups/360 ml cold heavy whipping cream (double cream, 35-40% butterfat)

In the bowl of your electric stand mixer or with a hand mixer, at medium speed beat the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Add in the vanilla and icing sugar and beat until smooth. Using the whisk attachment, gradually add in the heavy cream and whip at increasing speed until the frosting is thick enough to spread. Be careful not to overwhip or you'll end up with mascarpone butter. If necessary, add more sugar or cream as needed to get the right consistency. Chill to thicken before using.

To assemble the cake, remove the layers from the freezer and frost each layers with about 4 tablespoons of cream in between each layer. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake with a crumb coat and freeze uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour. Repeat with a second crumb coat if necessary before frosting the final coating. Ice the cupcakes with the rest of the frosting.

Decorate accordingly, I used some cocoa nibs on the sides and top of this cake. I find that refrigerating the frosted cake overnight keeps the frosting stable at room temperature for many hours when the cake was served the next day. Cakes keeps covered and chilled for up to 3 days.