Red Velvet Gateau

Red Velvet cake is traditionally a bright red or red brown colour layered cake with a cream cheese filling and the reddish colour is achieved by adding red food colour. Classic ingredients are buttermilk, butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and beetroot or red food coloring. The reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa and also keeps the cake moist and light. The red color would have been more pronounced before the alkaline Dutch Processed cocoa powder was widely available. The modern popularity of this cake is also credited to the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias in which the groom’s cake, which is a southern American tradition, is a red velvet cake. At present the cake again has become more and more popular in any form and shape.

Ingredients make 14 slices

250 g butter

660 g caster sugar

200 g eggs

2 tbls red food colour

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp salt

30 g cocoa powder

500 ml buttermilk

500 g plain flour

50 g cornflour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Method

Preheat oven to 160ºC normal bake. Grease a 23 cm round cake tin and cover the bottom with a piece of baking paper. Beat the butter and the sugar in a bowl until creamy. Add eggs little by little stirring well each time. Add red food colouring, vanilla, salt and the cocoa, mix well. Blend buttermilk and flour alternating into the cake mixture. Stir the baking soda into the apple vinegar and add to the cake mixture and blend until batter is smooth. Place the cake mixture in the tin and bake in the oven for approx. 70 minutes. Remove cake from the oven and allow cooling for at least 20 minutes before turning out of the tin. Allow cooling in the fridge before cutting into four horizontal layers. Sandwich the cake together with cream cheese buttercream and cut in 16 pieces. Decorate sides with dark chocolate shavings and a rosette of cream cheese buttercream on each slice. Place a chocolate flake on each slice and dust the middle with cocoa powder.

Note: Cream Cheese Buttercream is easily made by placing 1000 gram cream cheese, 500 gram butter, 500 gram caster sugar and the seeds from 1 vanilla pod in a bowl and whisked until creamy with an electrical whisk. If you wish to make the cake redder double the food coloring.