Free Choice: Rose Red Velvet Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, page 83: Rose Red Velvet Cake

After looking at the beautiful and gorgeous wedding cake that Rose & Woody baked for Sarah (Marie's daughter) & James' wedding, i knew i had to try Rose's red velvet cake.  I planned to bake the red velvet cake & bernachon palet d'or gateau that i've missed last week since Friday is a public holiday and i have 3 days of long weekend.  However, i woke up on Friday and couldn't move my head at all..  Quite scary not being able to move my head up/down/left/right and having upper body pain from neck downwards. No clinic available since it was public holiday, unless i check into A&E..which i didn't think it was that urgent.  My friend Angie told me to take muscle-relaxer which she said might help..i searched and found expired ones but since desperate, i took it anyway with painkillers.  :S

Thankfully i felt much better on Sunday (..at least i can move my head not at 90-degrees but at least 45-degrees..lol! ) so i decided to bake just Rose Red Velvet Cake with the Lacquer Glaze on page 109 - also as a birthday cake for my domestic helper too.  Since i don't have a heart shape pan, i baked in 2x 6"round pans.  Instructions pretty easy to follow and even mixing is rather straight forward.  Felt a bit hesitant when pouring the entire bottle of red food coloring into the egg mixture...i had to close both eyes when doing that..lol!  Baked the cake for around 25mins.  White chocolate frosting is quite straight forward too but the only thing was i had to frost my cake with the cake in the fridge cos it kept melting.  The weather has been really hot (32-35c) lately..everything just melts the moment it is out from the fridge in no less than 5-mins. So i couldn't frost very well..i think my cake leaned sidewards a bit because of how i frosted it in fridge and also the frosting was too soft...lol! And me being lazy and wanted to save energy, didn't want to turn on air-con for just 10mins.  After the frosting on the cake has hardened in the fridge, i heated up the lacquer glaze (which was prepared earlier) and poured it over the cake..however, i think i didn't heat it enough cos the consistency was still a bit too thick but i used a spatula to even it out. I tried to copy the decoration that Rose did but the heart shaped fondant kept sliding down the glaze and doesn't stay in place. I wonder why.. perhaps it is the condensation on the glaze that causes the fondant heart accents to slide downwards. *shrugs*  I got quite fed-up with the sliding hearts... so i just took them down and then placed raspberries all over instead. 

VERDICT:   I'm surprised that red velvet cake is sooo tasty and delicious! I always read bad reviews about red velvet cake being dry etc..and the last red velvet cake i made (using strawberry juice) wasn't even impressive. But this, is awesome! I forgotten about the red coloring the moment i took a bite of the cake.  It's soft, moist, crumb is dense and yet delicate.  Yummy!  The white chocolate frosting blends in very well with the cake too..except i think maybe i put in too little frosting..looks like a lot when i frosted though..like it shrank..lol!  Of course the birthday girl loves it..she said it's delicious and very happy with her cake. My daughter and my husband said it is yummy too!  Definitely a keeper and i love how pretty the cake look inside..so red and so pretty! :D  

I brought some to office today (yup, my neck is 90% well now..only cant tilt my head backwards too much..:p) - both my boss and colleagues said it's delicious! :)  I think red velvet cake is meant to be shared with lots of people cos you don't want to eat the entire cake on your own with so much red food coloring..lol! 

I just love how red the cake looks inside! It's soo beautiful, isn't it? :D