I’m sure you’ve all eaten far too much chocolate this Easter, but in case you still have a little gap in there somewhere and fancy baking up a storm then look no further. This Red Velvet recipe is quick and easy to follow. Topped with a delicious cream cheese icing, it’s hard to go wrong with this classic chocolate cake.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 free-range eggs , lightly beaten
- 4 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
- 1-2 drops red food colouring
- 150g self-raising flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
For the icing
- 100g butter
- 200g cream cheese
- 500g icing sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
This recipe makes a three layer cake and takes less than 30 minutes preparation time with 1 – 2 hours cooking time.
Step 1
Pre heat the oven to 170C/325F/gas 3. Grease and line a deep, round 15cm/6in tin.
Step 2
First beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. In a separate bowl or jug whisk one egg at a time and add to the mixture, whisking as you go. If the mixture starts to curdle add a spoonful of the flour.
Step 3
In another mixing bowl add four tablespoons of Greek yogurt and a generous glug of food colouring. You want it to look very, very red since the mixture will fade once cooked. Next beat the yogurt into the cake mixture.
Step 4
Sieve the flour and cocoa powder and fold into the mixture, followed by a tablespoon of semi-skimmed milk. Beat the mixture until well combined.
Step 5
Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until well risen and golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Step 6
Whilst the cake is baking in the oven you can start making your cream cheese icing. Mix softened butter and cream cheese together in a bowl, I recommend using an electric hand whisk here as it can be hard to get the butter to a smooth consistency. Start adding the icing sugar in bit by bit, I learnt (after making quite a lot of mess!) that it’s best to slowly try and fold it into the mixture. Once you’ve mixed all the icing sugar in, add the lemon juice and beat the icing for five minutes or until paler in colour.
Step 7
Once the cake is cooked, remove from its tin and leave to cool for five minutes. Take the cake out of the tin and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Step 8
The next part is tricky as you want to carefully slice the cake into three equal layers and sandwich back together with the icing. I recommend using a bread knife and just going for it! Finish with a layer of icing on top (click the image below to enlarge).
Finally you can be as creative as you like when it comes to decorating the cake! I used these edible rose petals from Uncle Roy’s Comestible Concoctions.
Just another London foodie 