Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cake with cream and Mixed Berry Coulis
 
 A Red Velvet Cake i believe is a perfect and ultimate sweet treat for your sweetheart for valentine.
Who can say No to a sweet which is so gorgeous, so romantic and is the perfect excuse to show your loved ones how much you care - and what better way than a handmade Valentine's cake? 
 
INGREDIENTS:

For Cake

All purpose Flour(Maida)- 1cup
Baking Powder- 1 teaspoon
Baking Soda- 1/2 teaspoon
Cocoa Powder- 2 tablespoon
Salt- Less than a pinch
Condensed Milk- 1/2 can (approximately 200 ml)
Powdered Sugar- 2 tablespoon
Oil- 1/4th cup
Fruit Puree- 1.5 cup
Vanilla essence- 1teaspoon
No Taste Red Food Color (Wilton)- 1 teaspoon
Christmas Red Color (Wilton)- 1/4th teaspoon
 

DIRECTIONS:

For baking, I have used two cake pans of 6" each.
With the above mentioned ingredients I got two cakes of 6" in diameter and approximately 1.5" in height.

Start by preheating the Oven at 180*C.
Prepare the cake pans by greasing them with oil or butter and dusting them with flour or else you can generously spray non-stick spray too. 

Meanwhile Mix and sift twice All purpopse flour,baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.

Mix well Condensed milk,Powdered sugar, Oil, Fruit puree, colors and Vanilla essence.

Now start adding the wet mix to the sifted dry mix.
Mix well by using a hand blender or Stand Mixer's Whip attachment.
Do not overbeat.
If you feel that the batter is towards thicker side adjust it by adding 1-2 tablespoon of milk. The batter should be of dropping consistency.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
They should be 1/2 to 2/3 full.
Do not overfill them.

Tap the pans 2-3 times for the batter to settle down evenly and to remove any air bubbles.

Place the pans in the preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes at 180*C.

After that check by doing Toothpick test. Insert a toothpick in the cake, if it comes out clean they are done, if you see some batter is still sticking to the toothpick place them again in the oven.

Once baked, take them out and allow them to cool down completely before doing any frosting.

INGREDIENTS:
For Icing:

Whipping Cream- 300 ml
Icing Sugar- 2 tablespoons
Canned Cherries- 7-8 (optional)

Keep the cream, bowl and whip attachment in fridge for about 2-3 hours.
They should be chilled.
Next, take them out and start whipping the cream by putting cream in the chilled bowl.
Start at the lowest speed. In between add icing sugar too.
Gradually increase the speed to the maximum to get stiff firm peaks.
Keep it in the fridge for some time.

Meanwhile, drain and chop the cherries.
Reserve few whole cherries for garnishing.

By the time our cream will get chilled let's prepare sugar solution for moistening the cake layers.

Moisten the layers with SUGAR SYRUP.
In a pan put 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup Sugar.
Just warm it till the sugar melts and gets completely dissolved.
Let it cool.
When its completely cooled add 2 drops of Vanilla Essence.

Now coming to the part which I love the most- Assembling of Cake

Cut the dome on the cake if there is any. Or just level it.
On the cake board apply some cream in the center and place one layer of the cake.
Moisten the layer with some sugar syrup.
Next apply a generous layer of whipping cream.
Add some chopped cherries.
Place next layer over it repeat the process.
Next apply a generous coat of cream on the outside of the cake as we have to cover our full cake with cream.
This is called CRUMB COATING.
After doing the crumb coating keep the cake in fridge for 3-4 hrs or preferably overnight.

Next you can give your cake one more layer of cream and keep in the fridge.
Or else let your creative juices flow.
I have drizzled some thick Coulis on the sides. And needless to say the dripping effect of this coulis is looking so gorgeous.
Coulis and Cream combo is taking this Red Velvet to another level of velvetiness n deliciousness.
To go with the mood of the season I have decorated it with hearts, which I made just by melting few Choco chips.