Red Velvet Three Layer Cake

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• 

  Step 1

  Preheat oven to 150 (gas mark 2).

  You will need:

  3 bags of chocolate sponge mix (400g each)
  6 eggs
  12 tbsp Buttermilk (I needed 2 cartons of St Ivel Buttermilk)
  300ml milk
  Red food colouring
  Black food colouring
  1-2 tbsp cocoa powder
  1 tub vanilla flavoured buttercream icing
  500g ready fondant icing
  Icing sugar to dust

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  Step 2

  Grease and line 3 cake tins.

  First layer:
  Mix 2 eggs in a jug with 4 tbsp buttermilk, 6 tbsp milk and 1 tsp red food colouring. Pour into a bowl with the chocolate sponge mix and beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute.

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  Step 3

  The mixture should be this lovely colour halfway between pink and chocolate. If your mix feels too thick, you could add a little more milk.

  Bake on the top shelf of your oven for 30 minutes at 150 (gas mark 2).

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  Step 4

  Second Layer:
  For the next layer make up the same quantities of egg, buttermilk and milk, but this time use 3/4 tsp black food colouring instead of red.

  Add 1 or 2 tbsp cocoa powder to the cake mix before mixing for a darker chocolate sponge.

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  Step 5

  Third Layer:
  Make up one last layer, either velvety red or dark chocolate.

  Be sure to skewer the cakes as they come out of the oven. 150 is a low heat for a sponge, but 30 minutes was perfect timing in our oven and the sponge was beautifully moist.

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  Step 6

  Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes before popping it out of the tin. Be careful not to burn your hands!

  Turn out onto a cooling rack and use a pallet knife to remove the base of the tin from the cake.

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  Step 7

  Place an upside down cooling rack onto the cake, press the two racks together and turn over so that you can slice the rounded top side off with a bread knife.

  Having flat cakes makes sandwiching them together so much easier (especially when working with 3+ layers).

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  Step 8

  Preferably use a cake board or flat plate to piece your cake together. Here I'm using the base of a cake storer thingy, which isn't ideal for presentation or helpful while icing/decorating. Use what you have ^_^

  Wait until all of your cake layers are completely cool and then spread on the butter icing. Work layer by layer.

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  Step 9

  Once tub of Betty Crocker's icing was just enough to cover my cake. The icing looks a bit odd because there are crumbs all mixed in from slicing the cake flat, but this isn't at all noticeable after the next step...

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  Step 10

  ... Which is to cover the cake in fondant icing.Rolling was a messy process, but be prepared and patient and you should get a good result.

  My tips are:
  1) Have plenty of icing sugar to dust the surface and rolling pin, this prevents the icing from sticking.
  2) Roll outward, rotate often.
  3) Be 100% sure you have rolled the icing big enough to cover your cake before you pick it up.
  4) Use a pallet knife to free the icing from your surface before picking it up.
  5) Transfer onto your cake with a rolling pin, be careful but work quickly.

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  Step 11

  After covering the cake with fondant icing, trim the excess at the bottom with a knife. If you have any odd seems, creases or bumps, work them out with your hands or use a pallet knife dipped in a mug of hot water.

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  Step 12

  I wish I had taken more photos of decorating my cake for you, but it was a very sticky process.

  I used a Silverspoon designer icing tube for the red edging and a heart shaped cookie cutter for the icing hearts. I coloured the icing for the hearts with food dye, just add a couple of drops at a time.

  It's a really simple design but I think the symmetry works.

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  Step 13

  As you can see my decorating skills aren't perfect, but if you do your best that's what matters. It's still going to taste great!

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  Step 14

  Here is my cake all finished and cleaned up.

  The most beautiful part is definitely the next step...

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  Step 15

  Share out...

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  Step 16

  And enjoy!

  (You can see my buttercream ran, I sandwiched the layers before they were cool enough. Also these final pictures didn't do my red/dark layers justice, but trust me, it's worth it ^_^)

Comments

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MintMintMooMoo · Chatham, England, GB · 32 projects 17th September 2011

NOM!

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