About 30 years ago my father introduced me to Patricia, the most glamorous woman I’d ever seen. She wore a light blue polyester pantsuit with eyeshadow to match and had a pile of perfectly coiffed blond hair. She was lovely and clearly not from Connecticut, where we lived at the time.
Just one word from her mouth and you could hear the south, Alabama in fact. Patricia is my stepmother and in honor of her Southern roots I made her a Red Velvet Birthday cake. Her mom used to make them for her when she was a kid. I wish I had her mother’s recipe, but I found one that was fascinating and dated back to WWII. The milk chocolate cream cheese frosting done in an elegant basket weave adds to the romance of the cake.
When I read the ingredients for the cake I immediately assumed that it had omitted a key ingredient: eggs. In fact, this cake is completely vegan; no eggs, butter or milk. Eggs act as a binder, a kind of glue that holds things together. When they are baked, the proteins set and hold everything else in place. So when I saw that this cake didn’t have any at all I wondered what the texture would be like, paste came to mind. In fact, I was so doubtful I had a back up recipe all ready to go. But, what do you know, it was fantastic. Moist, rich, despite the lack of any butter or eggs and absolutely delicious. Why?
Created during a time when things like eggs and butter were hard to come by, this cake relies strictly on the gluten (protein) in the all-purpose flour to create the structure. The water in the recipe interacts with the proteins in the flour, with a little help from acid (lemon juice, cocoa powder) and some salt to work its magic. Both the acid and salt give the protein a little boost of strength and it all comes together in a truly remarkable cake. It gets its rise and lightness from just a touch of baking soda, no baking powder at all. The soda interacts with the acid and produces carbon dioxide bubbles. Essentially, you are making your own baking powder; baking soda + acid. Ok, maybe that is more food science than you wanted, but it is absolutely fascinating, at least to me!
Vegan Red Velvet Cake
From Something Warm from the Oven: Baking Memories, Making Memories
To make the cake:
preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and then line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment.
Place the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a food processor, and let it whir to combine for about 30 seconds.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 cups of cold water, the oil, vanilla, food coloring and lemon juice.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and whir in food processor until blended.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and firmly tap the pans against the counter several times to release any air bubbles.
bake for 25-35 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a rack before inverting them.
To make the Milk Chocolate icing:
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
Beat the butter until soft and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese and beat for another 2-3 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl several times, to make sure there are no lumps. Blend in the lemon juice. Add the cooled chocolate and the confectioner’s sugar. Beat on medium low speed until spreading consistency.
To decorate the cake:
Start by setting the cake on a cardboard round, centering it on a Cake Stand and trimming off the top of the cake layers. You trim them if they are domed or just to remove the outer layer, which is often a different texture. It makes a great snack while your working.
Put a large amount of icing on the top of the cake. It should be about 1/4-inch thick when spread over the entire surface of the top.
Spread the icing out with a Spatula so that it is completely covers the top and is level, it should overhang the edge by about 1/4-inch. Flat, not smooth, is the goal.
Now you want to cover the sides with icing. Again, you are just trying to get it covered, don’t worry about smoothing it out until all the cake is completely covered.
Now you want to smooth out the sides. Hold the spatula straight up and down, but at a 20 degree angle away from the cake. If the spatula is flat against the cake you will end up scraping all of the icing off. At this point you never move the spatula, just turn the cake stand and the spatula will run over the surface of the cake. You are not applying any pressure, just hold it steady and it will gradually smooth out the surface.
Once the sides are as smooth as you want, then you do the same thing on the top. Start on one side of the cake and gently smooth out the surface, stopping midway. rotate the cake and continue until the cake top is smooth.
To create the basket weave you will need two pastry bags. One fitted with a Ateco round tip (#7) and the other with a basket Ateco basket weave tip (#47).
Start with the round tip and create a straight line up and down. With the basket tip pipe 1-inch lines across the original straight line. Separate them with the width of the basket weave tip.
Using the round tip draw another up and down line directly over the ends of the 1-inch basket weave. Using the basket weave tip, start by tucking the tip under the straight line, so that the piping looks as if it is coming out from under that line. Then pipe 1-inch basket weave in the spaces that were left open.
Repeat this over and over until you have gone all the way around the cake.
I finished the top off with a very simple star tip pattern on top and some pansies from my garden!
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups cold water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp Red Food Color Link: https://amzn.to/3KgxVjs
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Cream Cheese Frosting (Not Vegan)
- 12 oz milk chocolate
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 16 oz cream cheese
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 1/4 cups sited confectioner's sugar
Instructions
To Make the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and then line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment.
- Place the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a food processor, and let it whir to combine for about 30 seconds.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 cups of cold water, the oil, vanilla, food coloring and lemon juice.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and whir in food processor until blended.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and firmly tap the pans against the counter several times to release any air bubbles.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a rack before inverting them.
To Make The Icing
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Beat the butter until soft and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese and beat for another 2-3 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl several times, to make sure there are no lumps. Blend in the lemon juice. Add the cooled chocolate and the confectioner’s sugar. Beat on medium low speed until spreading consistency.
To Decorate
- Start by setting the cake on a cardboard round, centering it on a Cake Stand and trimming off the top of the cake layers. You trim them if they are domed or just to remove the outer layer, which is often a different texture. It makes a great snack while your working.
- Put a large amount of icing on the top of the cake. It should be about 1/4-inch thick when spread over the entire surface of the top.
- Spread the icing out with a Spatula so that it is completely covers the top and is level, it should overhang the edge by about 1/4-inch. Flat, not smooth, is the goal.
- Now you want to cover the sides with icing. Again, you are just trying to get it covered, don’t worry about smoothing it out until all the cake is completely covered.
- Now you want to smooth out the sides. Hold the spatula straight up and down, but at a 20 degree angle away from the cake. If the spatula is flat against the cake you will end up scraping all of the icing off. At this point you never move the spatula, just turn the cake stand and the spatula will run over the surface of the cake. You are not applying any pressure, just hold it steady and it will gradually smooth out the surface.
- Once the sides are as smooth as you want, then you do the same thing on the top. Start on one side of the cake and gently smooth out the surface, stopping midway. rotate the cake and continue until the cake top is smooth.
- To create the basket weave you will need two pastry bags. One fitted with a Ateco round tip (#7) and the other with a basket Ateco basket weave tip (#47).
- Start with the round tip and create a straight line up and down. With the basket tip pipe 1-inch lines across the original straight line. Separate them with the width of the basket weave tip.
- Using the round tip draw another up and down line directly over the ends of the 1-inch basket weave. Using the basket weave tip, start by tucking the tip under the straight line, so that the piping looks as if it is coming out from under that line. Then pipe 1-inch basket weave in the spaces that were left open.
- Repeat this over and over until you have gone all the way around the cake.
Happy Birthday Nana (Patricia)! xo Z
Beautiful cake and great tutorial. The cake recipe is just like wacky cake, but with red food coloring added. It totally would work without the red food coloring.
Yum! It’s beautiful, but all I really want to do is eat that cake….RIGHT NOW! I’m definitely trying to make that for my son’s birthday! Thanks!!
Red velvet cakes and cupcakes are so much fun to make. Everyone is always so surprised. Very southern. Your photo is delicious!
I hope you don’t mind I say I like the basket design and decoration. Too pretty!
I never had red valvet cake (well, I’m not from the US), but it looks so good I’m planning to try it some day 🙂
That cake looks gorgeous, just the thing for a special person.
Thanks for the basket weave tutorial. Hopefully my decorating skills will improve. 🙂
I’m vegetarian, and even though we eat eggs, we don’t like the “eggy” taste that comes through sometimes. So this cake is something I’m definitely making.
Beautiful basket weave! I’ve never made red velvet with chocolate frosting before so I’m dying to try this! It sounds as great as it looks!!!
The cake looks beautiful! Reminds me of my brother’s wedding. He and his wife had a picnic basket wedding cake with fruit and flowers spilling out of it, absolutely beautiful.
So, so beautiful. And what a wonderfully generous gift of your time and talents!
I have every confidence that cake tastes as good as it looks, and that’s saying a lot. What a thoughtful birthday cake.
Gorgeous!!
I love the pansies around the base of the cake! They look so lovely with the basket weave pattern.
First, the vegan cake is wonderful. I will definitely make them this fall. And, I love reading the food science. As to the basket weave, it looks doable from your tutorial, but I just don’t know.
wow. i’m from alabama and have been looking for a great red velvet recipe for AGES. this one looks fabulous, gorgeous and delicious. i’m about to go to school to become a pastry chef so the science is awesome and … inspiring! i’ve been following you on twitter for a while now but this is my first visit to your site. i’m about to comb it now. thanks zoë
It is fascinating! I love food science! I think it’s the first time I see a red velvet cake with a chocolate icing!
Yummm & beautiful!!
Retweeted this post minutes ago:
http://twitter.com/tracitoguchi/status/2754211012
Love your food artistry 🙂
Wow. I still can’t get over how good this cake looks without eggs and fat. Also, the piping on this cake is phenomenal. I could never have the patience to do all of that. I’ll just admire your work :).
What a glorious looking cake. I really must try that basket weave some time.
Beautiful cake Zoe!
Thanks for showing the step by step on how the basket weave is done.
Hi Emilie,
No, it would make no difference at all in the baking of the cake. It won’t be a very dark cake like the Devil’s Food recipe. It will have a lighter color and may even have a natural tint of red, due to the reaction of the cocoa and all of the acid in the cake.
I only used it because it is traditional.
Enjoy! Zoë
What a beautiful cake, Zoe. Your decorating always inspires me. But in this case, I’ve got a question about the cake recipe. Probably will sound like a silly one at that, but I’ll ask anyway since you’re always so gracious in your answers. I’ve always wondered if the food coloring is necessary in red velvet recipes if in fact one doesn’t care about the color of the layers. In other words, if a red velvet cake recipe tastes just divine, but I don’t care about the color, would it make any difference just to leave the food coloring out and call it chocolate cake? Thanks!
This is absolutely beautiful! A true feast for the eyes!
Stunning. I have no patience for the basket weave, so I admire this.
THe cake itself looks so delicious. I like the Alton Brown lesson 🙂
All I can say is, Wow! I’ll have to try this. The science IS fascinating. Where there is a will there is a way… Beautiful cake!
That’s so gorgeous! Definitely perfect for a glamorous Southern lady. And the cake recipe is fascinating.
That is soooo cute! What a helpful tutorial. Love red velvet- my fave cake… but the basketweave is new for me.