November 11, 2016
Fabulous Friday Flavour: Red Velvet Sponge Cake
Red velvet anything is a great bake-off for any occasion.
Cookies would be the easiest to start with and with my past attempt at making Red Velvet Crinkled Cookies proved to be a resounding success, I decided to step up and do something cakey. Or at least something that resembles a cake.
Cupcake and cookies were not my goals this time. I was thinking more along the lines of a cake, quick and good enough to be made for a special occasion. It also has to be spongy, fluffy, one that preserves its red velvety look and taste; yet distinctively chocolatey but not a chocolate cake.
If I’m a baker at a cake shop and someone had given me all that criteria, I would have fired the bugger and give him/her the middle finger. But! Considering that I’m neither, I decided that I’ll go have fun and deal with the consequences of having a ridiculous-looking-probably-inedible cake later.
About an hour later, lo and behold my heart:
With the exception of the stupid crack on top of the cake all around (!), it is everything that I wished for. It’s got that chocolatey but not decadent chocolate cake taste. Enhanced by really tiny bits of fine chocolate bars shavings it still bears the distinct watermark of a red velvet with its deep dark red hue.
With icing sugar sprinkled lightly on top , the rest went down very well into the tummies in practically an afternoon. Will I make this again? Hell yeah!
- 5 large eggs, separate whites and yolks at room temperature
- 120g + 90g castor sugar
- 86ml canola or sunflower oil
- 64g whole fresh milk + 4g of fresh lemon juice (substitute for 68g buttermilk)
- Two-third cup cocoa powder, sifted
- 160g cake flour
- 1 tspn baking powder
- 1/4 tspn salt
- Slightly less than 1 quarter tspn cream of tartar
- Red colouring
- Half a cup of thin chocolate shavings
- Half a cup icing sugar
- Heat oven at 180°C.
- Mix and sift cocoa powder, cake flour, baking powder and salt al l together. Set aside
- In a big bowl, beat yolks and 120g sugar until the mixture turns light and fluffy
- Add oil and milk+ lemon juice then continue mixing.
- Add the sifted dry ingredients in #2 in two batches, mix well. Then add in chocolate shavings and set aside
- In a clean and dry bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites.
- Add cream of tartar once egg white turns foamy. Then gradually add sugar
- Keep whisking till a stiff whisk is formed.
- Fold 1/3 of the egg white into the egg yolk batter.
- Add in red colouring and gently fold the remaining egg whites in till the streaks disappear. Mix well but do not over fold
- In an ungreased tubed pan, pour in the batter
- Bake at 180°C for about 60-70 minutes. Adjust the baking time according to your oven
- Insert a wooden stick into the cake to check if cake is cook. Wooden insert would come out clean.
- Cool the cake upside down on a wire rack until it is completely cooled. Then remove from mould.
- Dust the top with sifted icing sugar. Cut and serve!
- Run out of red colouring? No worries. Use lots of orange instead and you'll still get the desired deep red effect.
- When baking, place a piece of aluminium foilover the cake and continue baking if the top gets too brown. Or adjust your oven to only use the bottom
Oh, yum. I’d like to try this when the oven gets fixed.
It’s frustrating when the oven is broken! YIkes. I hope it gets fixed soon and let me know how that works out for you, Lux; specifically if you manage to bake it without the cracks all around like I did. 🙂