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Red Velvet Cake

Simply delicious Red Velvet cake

Written by Published on in Baking, Cakes, Desserts, HowTos
10-12 Servings ~ 40-45 minutes
  • 1 cup butter/margarine
  • 2 cups old fashioned brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 250ml lacto/buttermilk
  • 10ml vanilla essence
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp red food colouring
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

The red velvet cake is one of the cakes that some Zimbabweans love, together with others such as black forest, carrot cake, chocolate and many others. A lot of people have been wondering and asking how to make this cake so II hope this will help. The thing that makes this cake be coined red VELVET is basically because of its velvety texture.

This texture’s acquired by the reaction between bicarbonate of soda, also known as baking soda and apple cider vinegar as well as the use of buttermilk/lacto as we shall see in the instructions which are shortly following. Therefore, this means that if you do not have red food colouring you can use and colour you have, say blue and name the cake blue velvet cake 😀

*I know buttermilk is difficult to find in Zim So to make your own buttermilk, add a tablespoon of lemon juice to 250ml fresh milk and allow it to stand for 5-10minutes before using it. However, you can still use lacto in place of buttermilk.

Let’s get to it now….

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Quick Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit/ Gas Mark 4. Gather all the ingredients you’ll need to use together, ensuring that everything’s at room temperature. Put the sugar (2 cups) and butter/margarine (1 cup) in your mixing bowl and beat until light and creamy.
  2. Add eggs (2 large) one at a time, mixing well after each addition and set aside. Sift flour (2 1/2 cups cake flour) and salt into a separate bowl. Take set aside bowl with creamed margarine and eggs. Add about a third of the flour and mix.
  3. Add half of the buttermilk/ lacto (250 ml) and mix. Add another third again of the flour and mix. Add the last half of the buttermilk/lacto and mix again. Add the final third of the flour and mix. Add vanilla essence (10 ml), mix and set bowl aside.
  4. Take cocoa powder (1 tbsp), add it to the red food colouring (2 tbsp) and mix to make a paste using a fork which will break any lumps that may be in the cocoa powder. Take set aside cake batter, add the cocoa and colouring paste to the batter and mix until well combined.
  5. Put the bicarbonate of soda (1/2 tsp) in a jug/small bowl. Add the apple cider vinegar (1 tbsp). You will notice a chemical reaction taking place, immediately add it to the cake batter whilst it is still effervescent.
  6. Mix well but be careful not to over-beat the mixture. Get your cake tin ready and grease it. Pour the red velvet cake batter into the greased tin.
  7. Level the batter in the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. When it is done, place on cooling rack and allow to cool before icing it. Cut the cake into half and put some icing in order to join the two halves. I used fresh cream frosting here. Follow the link to learn how to make it. Enjoy!
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Pictorial Detailed Instructions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit/ Gas Mark 4. Gather all the ingredients you’ll need to use together, ensuring that everything’s at room temperature (a). Put the sugar and margarine in your mixing bowl (b) and beat (c) until light and creamy (d).

 

Step 2
Add eggs one at a time (a), mixing well after each addition and set aside (b). Sift flour and salt into a separate bowl (c). Take set aside bowl with creamed margarine and eggs. Add about a third of the flour and mix (d).

 

Step 3
Add half of the buttermilk/ lacto and mix (a). Add another third again of the flour and mix. Add the last half of the buttermilk/lacto and mix again. Add the final third of the flour and mix (b). Add vanilla essence (c), mix and set bowl aside (d).

 

Step 4
Take cocoa powder (a), add it to the red food colouring and mix to make a paste using a fork which will break any lumps that may be in the cocoa powder (b). Take set aside cake batter, add the cocoa and colouring paste to the batter and mix (c) until well combined (d).

 

Step 5
Put the bicarbonate of soda in a jug/small bowl (a). Add the cider vinegar (b). You will notice a chemical reaction taking place (c), immediately add it to the cake batter whilst it is still effervescent (d).

 

Step 6
Mix well but be careful not to over-beat the mixture (a). Get your cake tin ready (c) and grease it. Pour the red velvet cake batter into the greased tin (d).

 

Step 7
Level the batter in the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes (a). When it is done, place on cooling rack and allow to cool before icing it (b). Cut the cake into half (c) and put some icing in order to join the two halves. I used fresh cream frosting here. Follow the link to learn how to make it. Enjoy!

 

Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cake

 That’s all there is to the red velvet cake! Give it a go and let me know how it goes. Don’t be alarmed when you cut it in half and it appears to have “air-pocket”/holes, that’s how it’s supposed to be! Alternatively, in place of one 10 inch tin, you can use two 9 inch pans.