My Red Velvet Cake

I like to take a recipe and make it my own. That is where one's creativity comes in. The last recipe that I made "my own" is yesterday's Red Velvet Cake. Miraculously there is still some left, which yes, I have had some this morning.
I do like this cake because it is super easy to make, it is moist, light, smells delicious and tastes great. 


The whole history around the Red Velvet Cake is American. Legend has it, a woman went to eat at a restaurant in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York during the 1920's. She ordered this cake for dessert and was smitten by it! Later on she asked for the chef's name and for the recipe. She received the recipe in the mail with a hefty bill! (Nothing is for free dear!). She paid the bill, but I can imagine that she felt cheated by the chef. As a typical woman, she thought a way of getting even.  She published the recipe. 


This cake recipe uses oil instead of butter. Oil prolongs the 'life' of cakes. Therefore you can make this cake 2/3 days in advance and it will still taste great! Then ice your cake on the day you want to serve it. I also added some spices in there, it is Winter after all.


I used two 25 cm baking tins for this recipe:


2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice
250 ml buttermilk
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar (or I used lemon juice)
5 tsp red food colouring 
1/2 vanilla pod


Sift all the dry ingredients together
In a mixer, combine the eggs and oil. Whisk until combined. Add the buttermilk, red food colouring and vinegar. Add the vanilla seeds.
Add the dry ingredients at a time and whisk until well combined.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg for 20 - 35 minutes until cooked.
Take out and cool on cooling racks.


A lot of recipes call for cream cheese icing, but I used cottage cheese instead.
For the icing:
150 g butter, softened
7 tbsp icing sugar - until it is sweet enough for you.
200 g smooth cottage cheese


Whisk the butter until it becomes lighter, add the icing sugar tbsp at a time. Whisk until it is light in colour and becomes fluffy.
Add the cottage cheese and whisk just until combined. Do not over mix it, the cottage cheese will then get an uneven texture.
Cover the cake with the icing one it has cooled down.


It's so exciting to slice into the cake, you do not expect it to be 'that' red! Love it!