This slice of calories is a hybrid of a couple of things I’ve been wanting to do for a while. One was to make red velvet cake with a cheesecake filling. The other was to do a cake with really planar rough icing.
The former is a Pinterest thing. Pinterest red-velvets EVERYTHING. The latter was inspired by a Martha Stewart chocolate cake. Those big swipes of frosting are SOOO Van Gough. I think as you get more proficient at cakeing you start to move away from rustic looking cakes – after all its more of a challenge to make frosting look really smooth, but one should never underestimate the visual power of a seemingly haphazardly frosted cake… they just look so decadent!
Of course, that might be because they ARE so decadent… I know this one is. Usually you see Red Velvet cake with a white frosting, cream cheese or my personal favourite, butter roux frosting. But Red Velvet is actually a light chocolate buttermilk cake so I got to thinking… what about a velvety light chocolate frosting? Enter Chocolate Velvet Frosting, made with all the (ahem) good things: butter, cocoa, white chocolate, icing sugar and (ahem) light corn syrup. It’s gorgeous. You don’t have to worry about calories, heart attacks, diabetes, or sugar crashes when something tastes this good. It’s by far better to be happy than right.
The cheesecake centre is a simple mix of cream cheese, white chocolate and egg. It’s divinely dense and smooth. I have to say though, I think it needs to be a little thicker! Next time I make this cake I will add another egg and probably separate the whites out and beat them until foamy then fold them into the cheesecake mixture to get a little more lift.
All together? Just another slice of heaven, please.
Cheesecake Red Velvet Cake
Makes a 20 cm cake – serves 16
Red Velvet Cake
ingredients
370g flour
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp salt
125g butter
330g sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp red food colouring
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
mixing
Line the bottom and sides of a 20cm cake pan with baking paper.
Sift flour, cocoa and salt together and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in colouring and vanilla.
Add half the flour mixture and mix until just combined and half the buttermilk, again mixing until just combined. Repeat with the remaining flour mix and buttermilk. Tip the baking soda into the vinegar and quickly tip the foaming mixture into the cake batter. Stir until combined but do not over mix.
Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Turn onto a wire rack and let cool. When the cake is cold, cut the risen top off and freeze for making red velvet truffles (I’m sure there will be a recipe on the internet somewhere but when I’ve made mine I will share it!). Cut the trimmed cake into two even layers – about 2cm deep.
Place the bottom layer of the cake onto a serving plate or cake card. Spread thinly with the Chocolate Velvet Frosting.
Top with the White Chocolate Cheesecake layer. Spread the top layer of the cake with the frosting and place this, frosted side down on the cheesecake. Press gently down.
Cover the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of frosting and chill until the frosting is set (this is called a crumb coat, and it stops cake crumbs sticking into the rest of your frosting!).
When the crumb coat is set, spread the sides of the cake with a 1cm layer of the frosting, and place the rest on top. Using a flat palette knife, make planar swipes across the surface of the frosting to create the big rough frosting look.
White Chocolate Cheesecake
ingredients
250g cream cheese, very soft
120g white chocolate, melted
1 egg (though next time I would try two, and maybe beat the whites until foamy then fold in)
mixing
Line the base of a 20cm springform cake pan with baking paper, grease the sides of the pan.
Beat the cream cheese until smooth, beat in the melted white chocolate and egg. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes or until the centre of the cheesecake is set. Let cool in the pan.
Chocolate Velvet Frosting
ingredients
300g salted butter, at room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup (240g) light corn syrup ( I used Karo)
250g white chocolate, melted and cooled
mixing
Beat the butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and corn syrup until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat until pale and creamy.
Excuse me, but yum!
Enjoy!xxx
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