Red Velvet Cake

A few days ago, I was thinking about the making something for the upcoming Chinese New Year. During Chinese New Year, the most prominent color is Red. We like red because it provides good fortune and joy, so I decided to make something red for this Chinese New Year. This isn't the most traditional dessert for Chinese New Year, but it is red so it works. I researched a lot of recipes before I decided, and I came across a recipe from the #1 YouTube Pastry Chef, Crumb Boss! She is a certified pastry chef and owns a bakery that sells a lot of Red Velvet Cakes and Cupcakes. Since the Crumb Boss and her community says it's good, then it must be worth a try. 

For those who may not know what a Red Velvet Cake is; it is a chocolate cake dyed with red food coloring.   A simple cake with the basic ingredients of flour, eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, buttermilk, and vinegar. These ingredient with the right proportion will create a sweet, moist, and slightly bitter (from the cocoa powder) cake. The Crumb Boss has created a fabulous recipe. 

Red Velvet Cake Recipe: http://www.crumbboss.com/red-velvet-cake/

Traditionally the Red Velvet Cake would have a Cream Cheese Icing, but I decided against it because some cream cheese icing recipes are too tangy for my taste. Instead of a Cream Cheese Icing, I made Homemade Vanilla Buttercream for the first time in my life and it turned out GREAT! The meringue base was stiff enough to hold on to pockets of butter and shortening. Additionally, it has the right sweetness for an icing of any cakes. I got this recipe for the Crumb Boss and she uses buttercream in almost all of her cake decorating videos. 

Vanilla ButterCream Recipe: http://www.crumbboss.com/drum-roll-buttercream-is-here-tada/

Now I didn't want to leave out the Cream Cheese Icing entirely, because it wouldn't taste like a traditional Red Velvet Cake. I decided to take a small batch of Cream Cheese Icing and use it as a filling. The end product has a great balance of sweet and tangy, it is very enjoyable to the palette. 

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe: http://www.crumbboss.com/cream-cheese-icing/

The three links were the 3 recipes, I've used to make this 1 two layered 8 inch cake. 

Here are some photos that I've taken during the process:

This cake is what is known as a Crumb Iced Cake 

(which prevents crumbs from appearing in the end product)

Learn how to crumb ice a Cake from the Crumb Boss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VW3y_Hs3AA

Leftover crumbs that I removed from the tops of the cake; you'll see what I do with them.

 The end product with an extra layer of buttercream on the outside and a Shell Border with leftover crumbs adhere to the side of the cake. 

At the end, I wanted this cake to be for Chinese New Year, so I took the cream cheese icing and dyed it yellow (because I didn't have any red dye left). I wrote in yellow the Chinese characters for Happy Chinese New Year. 

I will admit that my piping skills needs more practice, but I'm willing to learn. In addition to that, I wished I had a Turning Cake Stand, so I have easier time handling the cake and there wouldn't be such a mess at the end. All in all, the cake looks good for an amateur cook looking for a job or an education to evolve my knowledge of food. Hope you like the look of this, I'd say I've improved from my previous works, but I wouldn't have improved if I didn't stumble into #1 YouTube's Pastry Channel Crumb Boss. Thank you Crumb Boss! 

Let me know what you think by commenting in the box below! 

As you can see, I didn't cut into this cake yet. My next post will consist only of the photos of the cut cake. Stay tuned or Subscribe to me for more tasty recipes!