Red Velvet Birthday Cake
There are no eggs in this red velvet cake, making it completely vegan. I topped it with a cream cheese frosting that is not vegan, but you have plenty of options to make the frosting vegan, too. The cake itself is moist, rich and chocolatey.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp Red Food Color Link: https://amzn.to/3KgxVjs
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Cream Cheese Frosting (Not Vegan)
- 12 oz milk chocolate
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 16 oz cream cheese
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 ¼ cups sited confectioner's sugar
Instructions
To Make the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and then line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment.
- Place the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a food processor, and let it whir to combine for about 30 seconds.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 cups of cold water, the oil, vanilla, food coloring and lemon juice.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and whir in food processor until blended.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and firmly tap the pans against the counter several times to release any air bubbles.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a rack before inverting them.
To Make The Icing
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Beat the butter until soft and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese and beat for another 2-3 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl several times, to make sure there are no lumps. Blend in the lemon juice. Add the cooled chocolate and the confectioner’s sugar. Beat on medium low speed until spreading consistency.
To Decorate
- Start by setting the cake on a cardboard round, centering it on a Cake Stand and trimming off the top of the cake layers. You trim them if they are domed or just to remove the outer layer, which is often a different texture. It makes a great snack while your working.
- Put a large amount of icing on the top of the cake. It should be about 1/4-inch thick when spread over the entire surface of the top.
- Spread the icing out with a Spatula so that it is completely covers the top and is level, it should overhang the edge by about 1/4-inch. Flat, not smooth, is the goal.
- Now you want to cover the sides with icing. Again, you are just trying to get it covered, don’t worry about smoothing it out until all the cake is completely covered.
- Now you want to smooth out the sides. Hold the spatula straight up and down, but at a 20 degree angle away from the cake. If the spatula is flat against the cake you will end up scraping all of the icing off. At this point you never move the spatula, just turn the cake stand and the spatula will run over the surface of the cake. You are not applying any pressure, just hold it steady and it will gradually smooth out the surface.
- Once the sides are as smooth as you want, then you do the same thing on the top. Start on one side of the cake and gently smooth out the surface, stopping midway. rotate the cake and continue until the cake top is smooth.
- To create the basket weave you will need two pastry bags. One fitted with a Ateco round tip (#7) and the other with a basket Ateco basket weave tip (#47).
- Start with the round tip and create a straight line up and down. With the basket tip pipe 1-inch lines across the original straight line. Separate them with the width of the basket weave tip.
- Using the round tip draw another up and down line directly over the ends of the 1-inch basket weave. Using the basket weave tip, start by tucking the tip under the straight line, so that the piping looks as if it is coming out from under that line. Then pipe 1-inch basket weave in the spaces that were left open.
- Repeat this over and over until you have gone all the way around the cake.