The biggest thing I’ve ever baked
Red Velvet cake with cream-cheese filling & swiss meringue butter cream.
My friend, Robyn was getting married and I was one of her bridesmaids. We used to work together and every day I would pop over to her desk and ask how the planning was going. One day, the discussion turned to wedding cakes.
“Wedding cakes are ~so~ expensive!” she said. We talked about how more often than not, people didn’t eat the cake either. I wanted to help her out.
“I could make it,” I said. “I mean, I have never made a wedding cake or anything that big for that matter. But I could make it for you and David (her fiancé)”. She believed that I could do it and agreed. Robyn and David asked for a red velvet wedding cake and thus began my journey into making the biggest thing I have ever baked.
Did I know what I was getting myself into? No. Was I scared? Yes. Did I cry a few times? Definitely. I was terrified that I would ruin their wedding but they never doubted that I could make a wedding cake for over 200 people. It was a lot of people.
About a month before the wedding, I made a test version for Robyn and David to try. They approved of the recipe which thankfully gave me some confidence that I could do this. I decided to keep the cream cheese filling on the inside of the cake and use a swiss meringue butter cream on the outside of the cake. I figured this would help the cake hold its shape better for pictures. The colour scheme of the wedding was shades of purple so I found a purple gel food dye to tint the buttercream.
So much cake!
My washer and dryer are in my kitchen so they became de facto shelves for the cake layers. I frosted and stacked some of the layers and then assembled them at the venue the night before the wedding.
It took me two days to assemble everything but I am really proud of how it turned out. Because I was a bridesmaid in the wedding and had to start getting ready early in the morning, I assembled the cake the night before. My boyfriend’s car was in the shop so my friend (and the wedding’s officiant, Jay) drove us to the venue so I could assemble get it to the venue and stick the four layers together. If you can imagine, the cake itself weighed probably 80-100 pounds. I had a container of buttercream, a variety of spatulas and two piping bags filled with buttercream with me. My boyfriend and I each held onto two tiers as Jay drove us as carefully as possible to the venue.
Thankfully, we got there without issue. I was able to put the four tiers together, added a little buttercream around some areas and left the rest with the kitchen staff in case they needed last-minute touch-ups when they transferred it onto the serving platter.
The finished cake!
The wedding was absolutely beautiful. And, thankfully the cake must have been good because people were eating second and third pieces of the cake! We later found out that the venue served the whole thing: even the top layer! The recipe below is for a normal-sized cake!
Photo courtesy: Valerie Pike
Recipe: Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese filling and swiss meringue buttercream
Cake Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cake flour *if you don’t have cake flour, see note
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk *if you don’t have buttermilk, see note 2
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons white vinegar
Red gel food colouring *see note 3
Cake Directions:
1- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your baking plans by spreading butter on two 9-inch round cake pans. Sprinkle with cocoa (or flour) and tap the sides of the pan to distribute it over the butter. Tap out the excess and set aside. Alternatively, you can grease with a cake-release product or spray.
2-In a medium bowl, shift together the cake flour, salt, and cocoa and set aside.
3-In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, oil and vanilla. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until well-combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a few drops of red gel food coloring until you achieve the shade of red you like and beat until combined. Add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula a few times. You can add a bit more food colouring with the buttermilk if you want to punch up the colour a bit more. Be careful to not overmix! In a small bowl, mix baking soda and vinegar until combined. Add the foamy mixture to the batter and beat until just combined.
4-Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Transfer the cakes to the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes, rotating the cakes from left to right and front to back about halfway through. Check for doneness using a wooden skewer, it should come out of the centre with a few moist crumbs stuck to it. Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Release from the pans onto the wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Filling:
Ingredients:
8 ounces or one block of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Directions:
1-In the bowl of an electric mixer, add softened cream cheese, butter, vanilla and salt. Using the whisk attachment, whisk on medium speed until they are well-combined; scraping down the bowl with a spatula a few times.
2- Once the cream cheese-butter mixture is combined, add the sifted powdered sugar a half-cup at a time and whisk on low speed until all the sugar is added. You can add up to a 1/2 cup more powdered sugar if you like your frosting a little sweeter. If you find it too sweet, you can add a 1-2 tsp of lemon juice.
3-This will be enough frosting to generously spread between the layers of the cake. Double the recipe if you want to cover the whole cake using the frosting.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
Ingredients:
5 large egg whites (I use the pasteurized egg whites in a carton)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 pound unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized cubes, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Gel Food colouring
Directions:
1- Combine egg whites, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer set over a pot of simmering water. Make sure the bowl is heatproof and that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the surface of the water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and sugar has dissolved. The best way to test if it is ready is to rub the mixture between your fingers, if it feels gritty, keep whisking it over the heat. If it is smooth, it is ready to go. I like to keep the pot of water simmering on the stove (more on the reason why in a minute!)
2-Attach the bowl to your mixer. Using the whisk attachment, start whisking on a low speed and gradually increasing to medium-high speed. Whisk until stiff peaks form. The mixture should be fluffy and glossy, it should take about 10 minutes. The mixture should be cool; you can test this by touching the bottom of the mixer bowl (it shouldn’t be warm anymore).
3-With mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter a few cubes at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all butter has been added, whisk in vanilla. If the mixture looks like it is curdled, it has gotten too cold. If this happens, place the bowl back over the simmering pot of water and whisk by hand until it comes together again and looks smooth.
4-Scrape down the bowl. If colouring the buttercream, this is a good time to add some gel food colour. Switch to the paddle attachment, continue beating on low speed until the frosting is silky and smooth and the colour is fully incorporated. Keep buttercream at room temperature if using the same day. If not, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. If using on a later day, bring the buttercream to room temperature, beat with paddle attachment on low speed until smooth again, it should take about 5 minutes to bring it back.
Assembly:
1-Slice the cooked cakes in half as evenly as you can! The assembly is a little easier if you have a cake decorating stand but you can assemble right on the platter. Place a blob of the buttercream or cream cheese frosting on the platter and place one of the cake halves on top. This will help keep the cake in place on your patter. You can totally make this cake with either the buttercream or the cheese cheese frosting if you want to save time.
2- Cover the cake half in the cream cheese frosting and add the next layer on top. Add the second cake on top layering the cream cheese frosting in between.
3-It’s time for a crumb coat! Apply a thin layer of the swiss meringue buttercream to the outside of the cake. There will be some crumbs so I like to separate a bit of the buttercream in a different bowl so that the crumbs don’t get into the rest of the buttercream. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before applying the rest of the buttercream. I also like to poke a skewer or a cake dowel through the middle of the cake to make sure it doesn’t fall over in the fridge.
4-Take the cake out of the fridge and apply a generous coating of the buttercream to the outside. Be creative, you can get some piping tips and make stars or swirls in the icing or add sprinkles and/or silver dragées. Enjoy!
Note: If you don’t have cake flour hanging around, you can substitute with 2 cups plus 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and 5 tablespoons of cornstarch.
Note 2: I rarely have buttermilk in the fridge so I make it by taking a scant cup of regular milk (I usually have 1% or 2%) and add a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. Swirl it around in a measuring cup or bowl and let it sit on the counter for 5 minutes or so. It will curdle (that’s how you know it’s working!).
Note 3: I like using red gel food colouring because the colour is concentrated. I like to be able to control the colour without adding extra liquid. It is easy to find in baking supply stores or bulk food stores. You can absolutely use the liquid food colouring but you might need a good amount to achieve a deep red.