All of me

All of me (14/02/2015)

It’s been such a long time since I’ve uploaded anything, my sincere apologies! Because my blog gets visitors from all around the globe, I’ve decided to continue in English. 

 What a better way to spend your Valentine’s Day than with a homemade Red Velvet Cake? I’ve wanted to bake this cake forever and this week I had this idea in my head that I absolutely had to try! I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!

As I said, I had this idea in my head that I really wanted to try out. I have a heart-shaped cake pan, two actually: one complete heart and one with a heart cut out in the middle of it. I knew I wanted to use these pans and that I wanted to create a ‘secret middle’. 

So this is what I did. I made the batter and then baked one third of it in the complete heart-shaped pan and one third of it in the one with a heart cut out in the middle. When they were done, I took them out, let them rest and I baked the final third in the complete form. When they were all done, I first place one ‘complete half’ on a plate, then the one with a heart cut out in the middle and finally I placed the other complete half on top of the cake. I used the topping as glue, to keep it all together. This way I had a secret, heart-shaped middle, which I filled with raspberries, dipped in white chocolate. As sweet as a secret can get, right?! :) 

The ‘problem’ with my Red Velvet Cake was that it wasn’t red. In order to really give your batter a red colour, you have to add a big amount of red food colouring. I like to use food colouring, but not too much of it. I’m still finding an alternative solution, maybe mixing a bit of food colouring with a mixture of cherries, raspberries etc. But for now I had a brown ‘Red’ Velvet Cake.

Making the batter wasn’t so difficult. Other than not being able to give my batter the right colour, everything was perfect. Making the topping wasn’t that hard either. I really love this topping, because it has a bit of a sweet-sour flavour. It is a unique type of topping, using both cream cheese and butter as well as white chocolate. I thought the topping really balanced out the cake. :)

Making it an even, heart-shaped cake was less easy. A lot of crumbs from the cake got mixed in with the topping, so I had to apply lots of coats (which luckily I was able to, due to a lot of topping). It wasn’t easy making the sides of the cake completely even, I think practice and patience are important factors here.

I then decorated the cake and plate with the raspberries I had left and viola, my cake was done.

I made this cake for my parents, who came home from holiday that morning.

My mother first thought it was for my boyfriend (which does make sense, but he requested a tiramisu, but because I really wanted to try this one as well, I made both that weekend! :))

My parents liked it very much (although they normally don’t really have a sweet tooth), as did my sister’s boyfriend, who enjoyed a piece. Enrico and Julie, my sister, however didn’t like it, probably because of the unique flavour of the topping.

I ate a piece as well (after all the chef has to get a taste as well, doesn’t she?) and I really enjoyed it! So see for yourself if you like it or not.

In any case it was a fun experience to bake this cake and I’m certainly gonna try it again, perfecting my technique (or at least trying to). But maybe next time I’ll do something different, who knows!

Recipe (for 8 people):

(Attention: the measures given are both according to American and European standards, but they may vary.)
Ingredients: 1) For the cake:

- 2, ½ cups flour (325 g), - 1, ½ cups sugar (300g), - 1 teaspoon baking soda, - 1 teaspoon fine salt, - 1 teaspoon cocoa powder, - 1 cup (butter)milk (240 ml), - 2 large eggs, 2 tablespoons of red food colouring (this should be enough to colour it red, but as I said before, I didn’t use that much), - 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar, - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2) For the filling and the topping:

- 1 pound cream cheese, softened, (400g)

- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (240 g)

- 2 cups and 1 tablespoon white chocolate (330g)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

(180°C). Lightly oil or butter your cake pans.

2) In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

3) Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

4) Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes.

5) Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

5) Slowly melt the white chocolate. I find it’s best to use the ‘au bain-marie’ – technique. Place a small bowl into a bigger bowl filled with water. Make sure the bottom of the smaller bowl is completely under water. Put the chocolate into the smaller bowl and start heating the water. This way the chocolate won’t burn.

6) Meanwhile, mix the cream cheese and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. After you melted the white chocolate, gradually add it to the mixture of cream cheese and butter.

7) Frost the cake. Using a palette knife or offset spatula spread some of the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake. Carefully set another layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Top with the remaining layer and cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting.

8)  If you’re interested in filling the cake with a ‘secret’, you can always melt a little extra white chocolate, dip the raspberries (or strawberries) into   the melted chocolate and let them ‘dry’ for a couple of minutes. When frosting the cake and placing the layers on top of each other, fill the open space with your berries and then place the top layer on top of it!

Veel bakplezier en smakelijk eten!

Song suggestion: All of me by John Legend