Red Velvet Cake

Happy late Valentine's Day! :-)

Even though I'm not a fan of this date, this year it was a good excuse to bake something cute and RED!

Been wanting to try this recipe for months and I finally have a day off to enjoy at the kitchen and bake a heart shaped Red Velvet Cake. I took the recipe out of Pancracio's website, it's a famous chocolate and other delicatessen manufacturer from Spain. Their truffles are a must!

I'm pretty happy with how it came out and will try my customized version very soon! Maybe I change the cream for a coat of chantilly cream or a white fondant, dunno...that cream chesse frosting is too sweet for my taste, I was full after the third bite, hehe.

Hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day or at least a quick and not too-stressing monday (cause we all hate mondays!).

Click aquí para la receta en español!

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients

For the cake

40g pure cocoa powder.

300g flour.

16g baking powder.

a pinch of salt.

225g softened butter.

380g sugar.

4 eggs.

2 greek yoghurt.

125ml milk.

2 tsp vanilla essence (optional).

30ml red food colouring (I used Wilton's Christmas Red).

For the cream

335g cream cheese, softened.

225g butter, softened.

1/2 greek yoghurt.

3 tsp vanilla essence (optional).

600g confectioner's sugar (I only used 200g).

Directions

Preheat oven to 180ºC (356ºF).

Grease two pans and pour some flour into them (I used a heart shaped silicone pan so I skipped this step).

Mix together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and sift it. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with the electric whisks to medium velocity, 5 minutes approximately or until the mixture is light, fluffy and pale colored.

Add in eggs, one by one, without stopping whisking.

Once the eggs are well blended with the mixture add in the yoghurt, the milk, the red colouring and (optionally) the vanilla essence, mix well.

Keep beating to medium velocity but be careful of not over beat the mixture.

Finally pour into the bowl the previous mixture of dry ingredients (flour, cocoa and baking powder).

Divide the mixture in two pans and bake each one for about 30 to 40 minutes, do not over cook.

For the cream cheese frosting

Whisk cream cheese, butter, greek yoghurt and vanilla essence (remember this one is optional) until it gets a pale color and a fluffy texture.

Gradually add in the confectioner's sugar, stop when the mixture is sweet enough for your taste.

Note: I only used 200g out of the 600g from the original recipe.
Spread the frosting atop the first cake layer and then top with the second cake layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Chill the cake overnight in the fridge so the cream cheese frosting hardens and it gets a more taste flavour.

...I also made some Red Velvet cupcakes with the leftovers. ;-)