Before I made this recently I had completely forgotten about how much I love Red Velvet Cake. The texture is so soft and well, velvety and the colour is always so enticing. The cake is not overly-sweet but the cocoa powder creates a wonderful hint of chocolate.

Because there are only two of us at home – although I love the idea of eating half of a huge cake, my health-conscience feels very different – I only made half a cake. I made the batter using the measurements below, but only poured it into one cake tin. I cut the cake in half vertically and layered it. I’m sure cutting the cake horizontally and layering it that way would work, too, but I’m just not that confident with my cake-cutting abilities and less-than-razor-sharp knives.

Traditionally, Red Velvet Cake is topped with delicious Cream Cheese Frosting, but if any of you guys remember my rant from last week you could probably have guessed that wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, I can make whipped cream frosting without any problems, so I thought it would make a good substitute – it’s wonderfully light and white just like Cream Cheese Frosting.

Not that I’m making excuses, but my Official Treat Taster says he prefers Whipped Cream Frosting to Cream Cheese Frosting anyway. But looking back at my attempts at making Cream Cheese Frosting... I can’t blame him!

Red Velvet Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Ingredients

Cake

125g sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

10g cocoa powder

57g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g granulated white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

120 ml buttermilk

1 tbsp liquid red food colouring

1/2 tsp white distilled vinegar

1/2 tsp baking soda

Whipped Cream frosting from Joy of Baking

120ml double cream

1/2tsp vanilla extract

1tbsp sugar

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 175C/350F and grease a round cake tin. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.

2. In another bowl, beat the butter until soft then add the sugar and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

3. Separately, whisk the buttermilk with the red food colouring.

4. Add half of the flour mix to the butter and sugar, followed by all of the buttermilk then the rest of the flour mix and fold together until just incorporated – do not over-mix!

5. In a small bowl combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz before quickly fold into the cake batter.

6. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. When ready, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Whilst the cake is baking, make the whipped cream frosting. Pour the milk, vanilla extract and sugar into a bowl and place in the freezer along with the whisk you’re planning on using to whip. This may sound strange, but the cooler your ingredients and equipment are, the more voluminous your frosting will be.

8. After about 10 minutes, remove from the freezer and whip whip whip until you have a suitably thick frosting for coating your cake. Make sure your cake is completely cooled before you go anywhere near it with your frosting. You can pipe your frosting on, or just spread it with a blunt knife like I did.

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