Continuing in what has become an annual tradition, what would valentine’s day be without a red velvet cake?
This year I decided to mix it up (no pun intended) and try a different recipe – red velvet cake made with… beetroot! The color is a great natural alternative to the normally used red food colouring, and the texture of the beetroot makes the cake lovely and moist. The recipe I used is this one from All Recipes.
I’ll be honest I’m not a massive beetroot fan, so have never cooked with it before. So I nearly fell at the first hurdle, the ingredients list, of boiled and grated beetroot! A few googles later and I gave it about 20 minutes boiling, before cooling and grating. It was easier than it sounded although a little messy :-)
The rest of the recipe was really easy to follow, and filled up by bundt tin perfectly.
Once baked, the cake smelt amazing although I was a little disappointed by the lack of, well, red-ness! Maybe it could have done with less cocoa?
But if you can’t paint a cake red on valentine’s day, then when can you? I applied a light glaze all over, using a couple of drops of red food colouring, 2 tablespoons of icing sugar, and enough water to make a light paste. Much more satisfyingly red!
To ice, there really was no question. Red velvet cake without cream cheese icing is like… valentine’s day without red velvet cake :-)
I made my cream cheese icing thick and plentiful, drizzling it all over the top of the bundt.
To finish, I used a thin silicon mold to create some hearts out of dark chocolate and red candy melts. These ones were actually Renshaw Colour Melts – I like these ones as they don’t taste as artificial as some of the others.
Adorned with hearts – et voila, my red velvet cake masterpiece!
Happy valentine’s day <3"><3"><3 x