This weekend I wanted to bake a cake for a friend’s birthday and landed on doing an Easter themed cake.  I had seen this beautiful layered cake on a recent Canadian Living magazine and just had to try baking my first layered cake!  Of course I couldn’t just do the exact recipe, so I changed up the icing so that I could make it a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing.  I made the red velvet cake the night before and just stored the pieces in the refrigerator in aluminum foil.  For the icing I put in almost 30 drops of blue food colouring and 2 drops of green, but it still didn’t show up very dark which I was OK with!  If you want it more dark robin blue I’d recommend to go out and buy that specific colour.  The cake looks super pretty with the mini eggs and chocolate shavings on top, a perfect treat for the Easter long weekend!

This pink cake stand is a new addition to my collection!  As per my last post, I found this one at a cute and stylish stationary store called Pulp & Paperie.  Definitely check it out if you are as obsessed as me with beautiful cake stands! :)

Also this ‘light and dreamy’ cake I baked got featured on the Canadian Living website!  I’m coming for you Martha Stewart! haha :D

RECIPE

Red Velvet Cake
1 cup butter, room temp
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 mL) cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups  buttermilk

Cream Cheese Icing
1 1/2 cup butter, room temp
1/2 cup cream cheese, room temp
4 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons vanilla

Toppings
2 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp cocoa powder
18 mini chocolate eggs
1 oz of semi-sweet chocolate square, shaved

PREHEAT: to 350

CREAM: butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time and then beat in vanilla.

COMBINE: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.

CREAM: together dry and wet ingredients on low by starting with the flour mixture and alternating with the buttermilk.  3 separate additions for flour and 2 for the buttermilk.  Pour into the greased cake pans and smooth out the tops.

BAKE: for 35 minutes and let the cake cool in the pans.

CREAM CHEESE ICING: beat together butter and cream cheese on high speed until very pale in colour.  Don’t forget to scrape down the bowl while beating the mixture together.  Add the icing sugar, but make sure the mixer is on low until it is well combined.  Then slowly add in milk and vanilla.  Turn the mixer on high and mix for 10 – 12 min until the icing is light and fluffy.  Lastly add in the food colouring and mix until colour is evenly combined.

ASSEMBLE CAKE: by spreading a large portion of butter cream evenly and smoothly across the cake layer.  Place the second layer of cake on top of the first and repeat the process on the top of the cake until it is frosted.  Thinly coat the sides of the cake with icing to seal the whole cake as smoothly as you can.  Refrigerate the cake for 20 minutes until the icing is firm to help set the crumb coat.  Then apply the final coat by starting with the sides and finishing with the top.

EASTER TOPPINGS: mix together vanilla and cocoa powder together then dip a brush into the mixture and tap brush handle to create speckled patterns on the cake until it is speckled all over.  Lastly arrange chocolate shavings and eggs on top of the cake for decoration.

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