Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting
If you’ve eaten this cake, it needs no introduction. For those of you who haven’t, here it is:
Out of everything I make, I’m most known for four desserts - carrot cake, fruit tarts, brownies, and my red velvet. Of these four desserts, two of the recipes were created by me from scratch: Brownies, and Red Velvet Cake. I created both of these were created for the same reason - I was tired of sh*tty, dry, commercialized baked goods. Most people try to cut corners to make a recipe easier to cook, or less costly…my only goal is for my tastebuds to take me to paradise when I take a bite of anything I bake.
I didn’t start with an OK recipe and make it my own, I did a lot of research about recipes, and then just started building my own. Trial and error. There were TONS of failures along the way - cakes that didn’t rise, cakes that were too dry, cakes that were too sweet, cakes that basically tasted like garbage. Eventually though, I sorted out all of the issues. After about a year of tinkering, I finally came up with what I consider to be a perfect red velvet cake.
It’s tender. It’s moist. It’s sweet - but not sickly sweet. It' has a bit of tang, like all red velvet should. AND you can actually taste the chocolate. I used to make it with a regular cream cheese frosting; however, after my friend introduced me to an amazing mascarpone cream cheese frosting recipe, it’s the only thing I can frost it with now. Everything about this cake pure perfection in my book (except for maybe the calories).
Red Velvet Cake Recipe
500g (2 2/3 cups) All Purpose Flour
1.5 TSP Baking Soda
1.5 TSP Baking Powder
1.5 TSP Salt
3 TBSP Cocoa Powder
675g (3 cups) Granulated Sugar
300g (1.5 cups) Canola Oil
3 Large Eggs, room temperature
345g (1.5 cups) Buttermilk, room temperature
3 TBSP vanilla extract
3 TBSP Red Food Coloring
2.25 TSP White Wine Vinegar
100g (halfway between 1/3 and 1/2 cup) Hot Espresso
Instructions
Preheat oven to 320F.
Grease three 9-inch cake pans, and line with parchment paper.
Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Using electric mixer, mix oil, sugar and egg in a bowl until homogenized.
Add buttermilk and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
Add vinegar and espresso. Mix thoroughly.
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients mixture and mix till just combined.
Add in food coloring. Mix until homogenized. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Divide the batter evenly among the cake pans (~730 grams each), and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out mostly (if not completely) clean. It should take about 33-35 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan and transferring to cooling rack. Once on the rack, let the cake cool completely and make the frosting.
Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups (16 ounces) cream cheese at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 cups (16 ounces) mascarpone
Instructions
In the large bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until homogenous.
Add in the mascarpone and beat until smooth. Be careful not to overmix, as it will cause the frosting to curdle!
Stir in the vanilla extract.
Finally, while mixing on medium-high speed, slowly add in the powdered sugar. Mix until light and fluffy.
**You must follow the instruction in this order, or the frosting will come out lumpy and/or curdled.
Cake Assembly Instructions
Place first cake layer on stable surface, such as a large cutting board.
Put several large dollops of frosting on the top of the base layer. Spread it around until you have 1/4” of frosting covering the top.
Place the second layer on top of the frosting and repeat.
Place the third layer on top of the frosting.
Cover the entire cake with a very thin layer of frosting (AKA create a crumb coat). You want to see the cake below, but let the frosting “seal” the cake. You do not want any crumbs to stick to your spatula at this point.
Refrigerate to solidify the crumb coat.
Cover the cake with remaining frosting - or desired amount.
Decorate with chocolate or fruit, such as raspberries or strawberries.
Refrigerate until ready to enjoy.
