LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS RED VELVET CAKE - MICROWAVE
Ingredients
Red Velvet Cake
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 210 g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 120 g (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
- 180 g (3/4 cup) buttermilk or 180 g milk + 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 tsp vinegar
- red food coloring in paste or gel
- 240 g (2 cups) all purpose flour
- 10 g (1+1/2 tbsp) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 500 g (1 pound) cream cheese chilled
- 410 g (1+2/3 cup) whipping cream chilled
- 220 g (1+2/3 cup) powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
Decoration
- Fresh red currant
- egg white
- granulated white sugar
- fresh rosemary
Instructions
Red Velvet Cake
- In a large bowl place eggs, sugar, vanilla and mix with a hand mixer for few minutes or until pale (you don't need to reach the ribbon stage).
- Add Buttermilk, vinegar, oil, red food coloring paste and mix quickly just until combined.
- Sift in flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and mix just until combined: don't overmix!
- Divide the cake batter into 3 lined 20cm-8inch microwave cake pans (I've used just one silicone pan in three times and I lined it with parchment paper to easily unmold any cake layer).
- Cook every layer in microwave for 2 minutes and 50 seconds (I've used 800W microwave, depending on the power your microwave may need less or more time, so check it: the cakes are ready when top is dry and a tootphick comes out clean).
- Cool down the cakes completely onto a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl place cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar, whipping cream and mix with a hand mixer until fluffy and thick-creamy: don't overbeat! You'll get a smooth and creamy frosting.
- Spread less than 1/3 of frosting on top of each cake layer, then use the remaining frosting for the cake sides.
- Refrigerate the cake before serving (at least 20-30 minutes).
Decoration
- Decorate the top with red currant dipped into egg whites, then dried and coated into sugar and fresh rosemary.
Video
Notes
Hello, I am Valentina! Welcome to How Tasty!
I am an Italian girl in love with baking and cooking. I’ve been raised in a cooking family, baking since I was a little girl and learning from my mom and my professional chef grandma.
I created the Youtube channel How Tasty in 2017 to share with you my passion.
You don’t need to be a professional cook to follow all my recipes thanks to the video tutorials and the tips & hints you can find here.
Let’s cook!
Tips:
To get a bright red color when you make Red Velvet desserts like this cake, you should use a gel or paste food coloring, not liquid food coloring.
My favourite food coloring brand is Sugar Flair (no sponsored!) in the color Red Extra or Christmas Red.
Every microwave is different, so check out your cake to know when it’s done. Microwave cook fast and keep your cakes so moist and fluffy, more than traditional oven. Moreover, the cakes turn out very flat, perfect for layering!
But if you don’t have microwave you can use traditional oven: I suggest no fan preheated electric oven, upper+lower heat, at 180°-350°F until a toothpick comes out clean (I suppose about 15 minutes for every layer).
This Cream Cheese frosting recipe is incredibly quick and easy to make! You can use chilled ingredients right from the fridge, just mix them together with a hand mixer until fluffy and a bit thick (do not overbeat or the whipping cream turns into butter).
Don’t worry if your cream cheese seems a bit lumpy when you start mixing, it’s turning out soft, smooth and creamy just in few minutes mixing all the ingredients together with a hand mixer!
