The Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting

My epic red velvet that failed because it fell.
It looks like pac man now.

Yesterday it was my cousin's birthday and I decided to make her a cake. I debated what to make, an ice cream cake, or a red velvet cake. She loves ice cream so that would be a sure winner, but I really wanted a classic birthday cake therefore I chose the red velvet. I found an amazing recipe from one of my favortie bloggers, Joy the Baker. Thing is, I didn't want just a plain red velvet cake with white icing, tossed coconut, and what not. So I decided to look for a cream cheese icing, it would go really well with the cake I decided. A tad rich maybe, but overall beyond pleasing.

Red Velvet Cake- Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

makes 2, 8 inch or 9 inch cakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

4 tbsp red food coloring mixed with 2 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup buttermilk (See substitute for buttermilk)

2 1/4 cup all purpose/plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 tsp white vinegar


Preheat the oven to 175 C. Grease and flour your baking pans.

Cream your butter and sugar until its light and fluffy- around 3 minutes or so. Turn your mixer on high then add the eggs. Make sure to scrape down the sides and make sure everything is well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa, vanilla extract, and red food coloring very well, it will be a paste. Add this to your batter and mix very well, make sure every bit has that blush of red.

Turn mixer on once again and slowly add half of the buttermilk proceeded by half of the flour and salt mixture. Mix until combined then repeat process with remaining buttermilk and flour. Beat on high until smooth. Add the baking soda and vinegar then beat for a few more minutes.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 25-35 minutes, just until a skewer stuck in the middle will come out clean.

Let the pans rest for 20 minutes or so then take the cake out of the rack and let it rest on the cooling rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter at room temp

230 grams cream cheese, full fat is better!

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

4-6 cups powdered sugar

2-4 tbsp milk

Cream the cheese on on the mixer for 1 minute then add the butter mixing again for 1-2 minutes until well incorporated. Add brown sugar, salt, and vanilla.

Turn mixer off add 2 cups of powdered sugar and turn on low so that you won't have a white kitchen from all the splattering. Alternate the powdered sugar with milk until you get the consistency that you want.

Time to top the cake with the icing. Make sure that the cake is completely cooled down or else the icing will melt and the whole thing will just fail miserably.


I had fun making this cake, and I pretty much slaved on it the whole afternoon along with cooking other things. The thing is, I forgot to transfer the cake on a plate before icing it, little did I know I was icing it while it was on the wire rack. How careless and stupid really. When I was attempting to transfer the cake, 1/5 of it ended up getting smushed, and I decided to cut that part out. WHAT A FAIL.

The cake itself was good though, the cocoa came in real strong and the colour was so vibrant. The icing was impeccable. It brought the whole thing together.

SHAMEFUL.