I'm in love with red velvet. Like, literally, in love. And while red velvet 'anything' is basically made of a sh*tload of red food coloring poured into batter and hence pretty tasteless -- i taste 'something' extraordinary. I do believe it's the subtle addition of cocoa powder into the batter, which also helps darken the deep deep bloody crimson that red velvet is so well-known for. Whatever the reason though, I'm a sucker, and here I am -- giving you my prized recipe on probably the most important day of the year for any baker or cook; you guessed it! World Baking Day :). The thing is, this cake was made in celebration of a friend's birthday in absentia -- she lives in Geneva while i'm here in Cairo (and if you've been following the recent influx of cakes on this blog you'd have noticed that the Fluffy Wuffy cake was made in her honor on my last visit to Gevena :)), and the only way to really say happy birthday was to bake something and tell the whole world about it over Instagram and Facebook. Now, her birthday was last October and YES it's taken me that long to perfect the recipe, but hey -- no time like the present! Enjoy this wonderfully aromatic homey bake, and here's wishing you a very very very happy World Baking Day!
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup (120g or so) butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 90g tub yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 eggs
1/3 cup coco powder
1 tablespoon of red food coloring
icing sugar (for dusting)
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180.C.
Melt butter, and beat in sugar, followed by each egg and yogurt.
Once well-combined, stir in vanilla extract, salt, and baking powder.
Add milk, and stir, followed by flour. Fold ingredients together until fully combined.
Bring in another bowl, and pour half your batter into it. To the batter, add food colouring followed by coco powder and fold until fully incorporated.
In a buttered and floured bundt pan, drop in a payer of plain cake batter. On top, drop in red cake batter. Repeat layering red onto white until your batter is finished.
Bake for about 50 minutes, checking at 35-40 minutes to make sure the cake is on track. Once the top is hardened, insert a skewer into the centre - if it comes out clean, you’re done.
Leave the cake to cool for 15 minutes or so, and then invert onto a wire rack or serving platter. Dust with icing sugar, and serve warm or cooled. Enjoy!
