Red Velvet Cake
Though cream cheese frosting is typically used nowadays on red velvet cake, classic whipped cream frosting makes for a more balanced sweetness. This recipe first appeared in our March 2012 issue, with Ben Mims' story Sweet Southern Dreams.
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Credit: Todd Coleman
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE:16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pans, sifted
2 tbsp. Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. red food coloring
1 tbsp. distilled white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
FOR THE FROSTING:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Butter and flour two 8″ cake pans, and set aside. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Whisk together buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in a bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, alternately add dry ingredients in 3 batches and wet ingredients in 2 batches. Increase speed to high and beat until batter is smooth, about 5 seconds. Divide batter between prepared pans, and smooth top with a rubber spatula; drop pans lightly on a counter to expel any large air bubbles. Bake cakes until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cakes cool for 20 minutes in pans; invert onto wire racks, and let cool.2. Make the frosting and assemble cake: Whisk together sugar and flour in a 4-qt. saucepan; add milk and whisk until smooth. Stirring often, bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook, stirring constantly, until very thick, about 5 minutes. Remove pudding from heat; cool. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter and 1/4 of the pudding on medium-high speed until fluffy and smooth, about 1 minute. Add half the remaining pudding, beating until smooth, and then add remaining pudding and vanilla. Increase speed to high and beat frosting until white and fluffy, about 3 minutes. To assemble, place one cake on a cake stand, and spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting. Place second cake over frosting; cover top and sides with remaining frosting; chill to firm frosting. Serve at room temperature.
Also for the frosting, you really should use confectioner's sugar and not granulated. Makes all the difference
It is a fantastic icing, how cannot it not be, but I appreciated the confirmation
that to get to "fantastic" I would have to put some mileage
on my Kitchen Aid! But that icing was really, really nice.
I do think the cake could have been lighter, but I'm a novice,
do I really replace the same quantities with Baking
Soda and the vinegar?
Will make the icing again! Thanks for advice all.
The frosting needs to be beaten for 10 to 15 mins with the wire whip in your KA mixer. I cream the butter and sugar separately, then cook flour or half as much cornstarch (I use cornstarch) and the milk (whisking constantly) til it thickens, let it cool, then beat it about 1/3rd at a time into the creamed sugar and butter. Do not beat at a high speed as this will cause excess heat which will melt the butter and make the frosting denser than it should be. I've been known to beat it for about 5 mins then let it rest, then beat it some more, etc, until it's fluffy enough to suit me. My recipe for this type of frosting tastes just as good with Parkay as with butter.
Look at the picture - a good cake should not have tunneling like that. That's caused by overmixing and/or too much baking powder. This recipe shouldn't have any baking powder at all in it, just 1 tsp baking soda.
Haven't checked the proportions against my recipe for this type of frosting, but it's basically just a cooked buttercream frosting. It tastes lousy (to me) by itself, but it's always just fine when it's actually ON the cake.
Do not overmix this batter. Once you start adding the flour, STIR, do not beat, only to mix. Add 1 tsp vinegar and 1 tsp baking soda (NOT, I repeat NOT, 1 T baking powder) sprinkled over the batter at the very end and just stir to mix it in, then immediately pan it and bake. I do drop the pans but just to level the batter, I don't know where the idea of "expelling air bubbles" came from. Looking at the picture this batter was over beaten hence the tunneling and it should not be anything like that dense. It probably only fit in the 8" pans she used because it didn't rise as it should have. Done properly RVC is super moist, extremely light, and very very tender and even.
reduce baking powder/soda by 40%
increase flour by 4%
increase eggs by 9%
decrease sugar by 6%
increase liquid by 15%
It's easier to do this if you're measuring by weight and not by volume.
I would apply these to a different RVC recipe - the one published will not give you good results even at sea level.
I would agree to make sure you wait until pudding is 100% cool before adding to butter, to make sure you get lift and do not 'melt' room temp butter.
The 3 to 5 minute frosting was as expected, a 20 minute process, but piped on beautifully.
The end result, I thought, was a heavy, tough cupcake which did not rise as I had hoped, and just a little bit dry, however I served these at a family party brunch and everyone thought they were the best they had ever had...so go figure.
I am going to make another batch again tonight, using cider vinegar, baking soda, full-fat buttermilk, and replace 1/2 the butter with canola oil. I'll let you know my result.