Today, I am happy to share what I did for my niece birthday. I made her a Red Velvet Cake for her 7th Birthday. Though some ingredients was not around like the butter and some decorations and even a candle to light her cake, the outcome means a lot to me.
Just a quick story, my sister told me that she wanted me to make a cake for her one and only daughter. My niece favorite color was violet so I decided not to use a cream cheese frosting for this but instead a butter cream frosting would be more cheaper. Sadly, my sister wasn't able to bought butter, she only had a margarine and that would be a big risk for me to try to use a margarine for Swiss Meringue Butter Cream when the recipe requires a butter. I have no choice to take that risk and try it.
Before taking into the frosting, I also struggle on finding a baking pan. Honestly, I don't have any baking pan so I have to look for alternative replacement for it otherwise my cake can't be cook on time. What I have was a steamer (a smaller one) but I don't have any aluminum foil to cover the whole steamer. As i look around and thought that I can replace it with a plastic food bag. I grab one of it and insert the steamer inside the plastic food bag. That choice may not be advisable when you are baking using gas or electric. This method can only be use for steaming only.
If you are interested on how I made this, follow my ingredients and simple instructions. Along side of that, I will share do's and dont's that I encounter while baking this cake. Hoping you can read it more.
Here's what you need:
Batter
2 ½ cup All Purpose Flour
1 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
½ cup butter or margarine
½ cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of milk + 1 tbsp. of vinegar=buttermilk
¾ cup of water
2 tbsp. of milo or good quality cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp. of baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. of salt
1-2 tbsp. red food color (liquid)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Frosting
5 eggs medium egg whites
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup of margarine / 1 bar of butter
2 tbsp. violet red food color (liquid)
How to do:
1.Sift the dry ingredients; (flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa/milo.
2.On a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients; whisk the margarine/butter, oil, sugar, eggs, water, vanilla and red food coloring.
3.Combine the wet on dry one at a time. Make sure to gently fold in all the ingredients and scrape the sides and the button. At this stage you can taste or do some adjustment if you wanted to add more sweetness.
4.Prepare your baking pan; I used improvise baking pan (steamer) pour the batter at least half of the steamer and the rest of the batter, you can put into a cupcake liners which I have here.
If you wanted to make a 4 layers of cake, you need to separate the steaming for better result. This recipe can bake for 2 baking pans on medium size. (Ps. I really don't know what is the exact size of my round steamer :D)
5.Pre-heated your steamer or make it boil before placing your cake inside the caserole. You can bake this too but the cooking time will depend. I haven't tried to use a regular gas range oven or electric type oven so I cannot give the exact cooking time and temperature sorry.
6.Cook the cake over meduim to low heat and cover with towel to prevent water drops on your cake. Do the toothpick test for doneness. My steaming time reach from 15 to 30 minutes. If you have a thicker cake your cooking time will take much longer.
7. Do the same method for the cupcakes, this one can take up to 10-15 minutes only so keep an eye while cooking.
8.Rest your cake and allow to cool to circulate the remaining heat from the cake. Once it is cool you can now cut your cake in half. I just use a long knife for this and with a circle motion slowly cutting the sides then to the middle.
9.Put generous amount of frosting in the middle so your cake can have a visible layers. Cover your whole cake with frosting design whatever you wanted it.
10.You can place the cake on fridge and let it chill for ½ to 1 hour. At this point you can add additional touch for designs like candy sprinkles, loli pops, wafers or nips and chocolates. Be creative and enjoy the fruit of your labor!
My advice for everyone like a beginner like me in baking, you must prepare your ingredients ahead of time. It will be a time consuming if you will just look for the ingredients to that very moment. Make some notes to be your guide and trust your instinct when it comes to some parts that you are hesitant to do it. Sometimes that feeling make sense.
Note: For my next blog, I will share how I did my frosting that I use here. Stay tune for that!
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