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Makes
1 triple layered cake
Author Notes
We all know and love the classic red velvet cake. It's everywhere you look around Valentine's Day, beckoning with bold scarlet offset by demure cream. I took off with the romantic theme and decided to give this gorgeous cake aphrodisiac properties through the power of spices. (You've been forewarned-- proceed with caution.)
Both the cake and frosting recipes are adapted from those published in The New York Times in 2007. I spiced up the cake recipe, from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss (Little, Brown, 2007), with a bit with cayenne, chipotle, and cinnamon. I've reduced the amount of cream in the cream cheese frosting recipe from “The Waldorf-Astoria Cookbook,” by John Doherty with John Harrisson (Bulfinch, 2006) to give it a bit more body. And for a dramatic finishing touch, I sprinkled the top with cinnamon Red Hots candies. —Beautiful, Memorable Food
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Ingredients
- The cake
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1 tablespoon
unsalted butter
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3 1/2 cups
cake flour
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1/2 cup
unsweetened cocoa
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1 1/2 teaspoons
salt
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1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
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1 1/4 teaspoons
ground chipotle powder
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1/2 teaspoon
cayenne
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2 cups
canola oil
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2 1/4 cups
granulated sugar
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3
large eggs
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3 ounces
red food coloring
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1 1/2 teaspoons
vanilla extract
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1 1/4 cups
buttermilk
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2 teaspoons
baking soda
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2 1/2 teaspoons
white vinegar
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cream cheese-mascarpone frosting (recipe follows)
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1/2 cup
Red Hots candies (garnish)
- Cream cheese-Mascarpone Frosting
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1 1/2 cups
heavy cream, cold
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12 ounces
cream cheese, at room temperature
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12 ounces
mascarpone, at room temperature
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1/2 teaspoon
vanilla extract
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1 1/2 cups
sifted confectioners sugar
Directions
- The cake
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
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Whisk cake flour, cocoa, salt and spices in a bowl.
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Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
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Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
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Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.
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Frost cake layers generously, then top with Red Hots for your Valentine.
- Cream cheese-Mascarpone Frosting
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Softly whip cream. Cover in bowl and refrigerate.
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Blend cream cheese and mascarpone in food processor or electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla, pulse briefly, and add confectioners’ sugar. Blend well.
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Transfer cream cheese mixture to bowl; fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate until needed.
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