Red Velvet Dream Cake

This cake is one of the most decadent I’ve made – combining a red velvet inside with a fluffy whipped cream outside. I actually made it a few months ago, but am just getting around to writing up the post on it because so much has happened in the last few months. To re-cap, I graduated from medical school, got married, traveled for a month with my family and husband, and started residency. I’m doing my intern year in general surgery right now, and it’s a whirlwind. My first month I was on nights, which meant I went to work at 5 PM, the day residents signed out their patients to me and I took care of them overnight until 6 AM when I signed them back to the day resident. Two weeks were covering the surgery floor patients from nine surgical services, and two weeks were covering the current inpatient trauma surgery patients and any incoming trauma patients. The two weeks of trauma felt more interesting, since you get to run the minor traumas, and you’re not paged non-stop the way you are when you cover nine surgical services. But I have one more month of nights at the end of the year…so maybe the 9 services will grow on me, or not.

After that month, I’m on pediatric surgery now. I’m really liking pediatric surgery so far – the surgeries range from outpatient procedures to longer complex cases, and it’s always a plus to round on patients who look super duper cute. And since it is 24 hour call every three days, it means most of the time I’m on a day schedule! After one month on nights, I’m loving working during the day plus the 24 hours off after 24 hours on 😉 Because of this amazing 24 hours on + 24 hours off business, there’s quite a bit more baking this month so you’ll be seeing a few new recipes soon. Sometimes people ask if I regret not doing a medicine or transitional year since they are easier, but I don’t! Although the hours are longer in general surgery, you learn so much about the acute management of surgical patients, and you can scrub into cases, and sometimes you actually get to do the entire case for smaller cases and it’s simply an amazing experience when that happens. If you like the OR, surgical patients, then it’s worth all the other things that come along with a surgical year.

Back to cake! If you were wondering, the brown stuff on the top of this cake is chocolate powder. The little flowers and leaves are made out of 1/2 gum paste and 1/2 fondant. I made them a while back, and keep them in a box to adorn cakes. Fresh cream frosting is pretty soft, so unfortunately it is hard to do a lot of frosting designs with it. When I use fresh cream frosting, I try to go for a really simple frosting design and adorn it with either fruit, cookies, or fondant flowers like here. That way I simply put the decoration on instead of having to rely on a sturdy frosting (like buttercream) that can hold shape.

Red Velvet Dream Cake

Savoring Spoon

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

Dry

• 3¾ cup all purpose flour
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ teaspoon kosher salt

Wet

• 3 cups soy milk
• 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon of gel food coloring dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water or alternatively 2 tablespoons liquid food coloring
• 4 tablespoons vanilla extract
• ¾ teaspoons almond extract
• 3 teaspoons chocolate extract

Frosting

• ¼ cup white sugar for taste only, you can even omit it
• 4 cups heavy whipping cream 1 quart
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons 1 packet gelatin
• cold water and hot boiling water

Decoratins

• Fondant flowers fondant leaves
• Round sprinkles
• Silver star spirnkles

Instructions

 

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease three 9 inch baking pans by melting about 3 tablespoons of vegan margarine (or butter if not vegan!) in the microwave and brushing it on the pans. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper (I use pre-cut parchment rounds).
• Whisk the soy milk and vinegar quickly, and set aside for 15 minutes to let it curdle. Meanwhile mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add oil, food coloring, extracts to the soy milk and vinegar mixture. Whisk to combine, and fold wet ingredients into dry. Mix till well combined. A few small lumps is good.
• Pour batter into the greased and lined cake pans. About 3 cups of batter per pan.
• Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted to the center comes out clean.
• Let cool in pan for 20 minutes. Then flip cake out onto cooling racks to cool completely.

Frosting

• First prepare the stabilizer for the frosting (makes it not melt so fast): Boil hot water in a kettle. While boiling, add 2 teaspoons gelatin (1 packet) to 3 tablespoons cold water and whisk - the mixture will look like a sticky jelly. Add the hot boiled water (about 4 tablespoons is enough) and whisk until the jelly is all dissolved ~ about 1 minute.
• Add 4 cups heavy whipping cream into a bowl.
• Whisk using a hand or stand mixer until stiff peaks form. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla as you whisk. If you choose to add sugar, you can add it in while you whisk. Make sure not to over-mix, do not want it to look "clotted" at the end, but rather just able to hold some peaks.
• Add the stabilizer mixture once the cream starts to thicken.

Decorating

• Level each slice of red velvet cake with a cake leveler or a sharp serrated knife. To do so, cut the rounded top off.
• Place first layer on a cake board (8 "), with a thin layer of frosting between the board and cake to stick it all together.
• Place the second and third layers on, with frosting in between each layer. Flatten the frosting with a off-set spatula while spinning on your cake turn table.
• Crumb coat cake and place in fridge for 30 min.
• Frost the remainder of the cake, with your turn table and off-set spatula. You can also use a straight spatula here, but I prefer to use off-set ones in a large 10" size and a smaller 4.5" size since the off-set makes for better control as I frost.
• Take a star tip, fill with rosting, and pipe on top of the cake. Fresh whipped cream frostings do not hold shape as well as buttercream, so it is best to choose a simpler design for these cakes.
• Dust with powdered chocolate.
• Add fondant carnation/peony/leaves and sprinkles to your liking. These flowers I made a head of time and put onto the cake as decoration. Sometimes when I have free time I make fondant+gum paste flowers and store them in a box to use for decorating cakes. It frees up a lot of time the day of!

Enjoy!