Red Velour Cake

Last updated on June 29th, 2018 at 10:40 am

This Red Velour Cake takes your classic popular Red Velvet Cake and brings it to the next level of elegance and deliciousness. Still moist, still has the soft velvet texture we’re all familiar with and love, but has a velour exterior that’s beautiful and sophisticated.

I have been waiting with bated breath to share this fabulous cake recipe with you. This happens only a few times that I make something and cannot wait to share it on the blog, but sometimes I cook or bake something that gets me really excited. It usually happens with recipes I’ve grown up with or when I come across something new that just blows my mind.

And that’s just what happened when I made this gorgeous and elegant red velvet cake. I came across it in the holiday edition of the Ricardo magazine and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it. As much as I love to bake, I’m not really a cake baker, I prefer to bake bread, croissants, bagels, you name it. But every once in a while when the mood strikes I do love to bake a cake. I have a few favorites of which I shared all with you, but this red velour cake is my new favorite.

I could have used my recipe for red velvet cake but I know that my batter makes a really moist cake and I would have had trouble to make the crumbs as fine as needed for this cake, which is why I decided to use Ricardo’s recipe. I’m glad I did because while this cake is still moist, the cake texture is ideal for making these fine crumbs that give the cake its velour exterior texture.

While this is a labor of love, the end result is very satisfying and will impress everyone and anyone.

But how do you get that velour exterior on this cake? It’s a piece of cake, literally. We usually cut the dome of each cake so that we get even tops, but while most of the time we just end up eating that extra piece of cake, this time we actually get to use it. After you cut the dome off each cake, we crumble it up on a baking sheet then we bake it for another 15 minutes. This will dry out the cake crumbles a bit more so that when we put it in the food processor and pulse it a few times we end up with these super fine crumbs.

While Ricardo takes it even a step further by pressing these crumbs through a sieve to get even finer crumbs, I felt that the crumbs were fine enough. Totally up to you though.

This red velour cake also has an interesting cream cheese frosting. I have always made my cream cheese frosting with cream cheese, butter and a large amount of icing sugar. However, in this recipe the frosting starts with a roux of butter, flour and milk, which we let cool completely before adding a bit more butter, cream cheese and icing sugar. The cooked roux helps stabilize and thicken the cream cheese, plus it creates a super silky texture. The other benefit here is that we use a bit less sugar. Ricardo used granulated sugar, but I felt that required too much beating, so since I always like to simply my life, I went with icing sugar instead.

I really love this frosting because it’s not super sweet, the cream cheese is the true star here, as it should be. While this frosting is a bit more work, I really think you should try it, it’s so good.

When I saw this cake, I fell in love with how strikingly beautiful and elegant it looked. I’m so glad I made it, we ate it all and loved every single bite.

If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!

5 from 3 votes

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Red Velour Cake

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 30 mins

 

This Red Velour Cake takes your classic popular Red Velvet Cake and brings it to the next level of elegance and deliciousness. Still moist, still has the soft velvet texture we're all familiar with and love, but has a velour exterior that's beautiful and sophisticated.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 10

Calories: 579 kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

For Cake

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp red gel food coloring
• 1/2 cup butter unsalted, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk

For Frosting

• 3/4 cup butter unsalted
• 2 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk I used 3%
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 oz cream cheese softened
• 1 cup icing sugar same as confectioner sugar or powdered sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Prepare 3 8 inch cake pans. Cut out 3 parchment paper circles that will fit inside each pan and spray them with some cooking spray, underneath and over the paper. Make sure to spray some cooking spray up the sides of the pans too.

2. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt to a medium sized bowl and whisk until combined.

3. In a smaller bowl add the cocoa powder, vinegar, vanilla extract and red gel food coloring and whisk until well combined. 

4. In the bowl of your mixer add the butter, sugar and the cocoa powder mixture. Beat until well incorporated. Add the eggs and continue whisking until smooth. Add about half of the flour mixture and with the mixer on low continue mixing until well incorporated, then add half the buttermilk and mix until smooth. Mix in the remaining flour mixture, then the buttermilk and mix until smooth. 

5. Divide the batter equally between the 3 prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes or until cool enough to handle, than unmould the cakes from the pans and finish cooling completely on a wire rack.

6. Cut off the dome of each cake using a serrated knife and finely crumble them onto a baking sheet. Spread the crumbs evenly and bake for 15 minutes. Let them cool completely.

7. Add the crumbs to a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds to a minute or until the crumbs are super fine. 

Frosting - can be done while cake is baking

1. Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly, to get rid of the flour taste. Add the milk, vanilla, salt and whisk constantly for another minute. The mixture should resemble a thick paste. Place it in a small bowl and cover it with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the paste. Let it cool completely. I placed mine in the fridge to speed up the process.

2. When the mixture is cool, add it to a larger bowl, add the rest of the butter, cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add the icing sugar and continue mixing until smooth and creamy. 

Assembly

1. Place 4 square pieces, about 6 inches by 6 inches of parchment paper on the bottom of a cake platter then place a cake directly in the center of the platter, over the parchment paper. This will make it a lot easier to clean the cake platter after we're done assembling it.

2. Spread about 3/4 of a cup of frosting onto the bottom cake, evenly over the surface. Add another cake and spread another 3/4 cup of the frosting. Add the last cake top side up, makes for a smoother top and easier to spread the frosting. Add the rest of the frosting and evenly spread it over the entire surface of the cake including the sides. 

3. Sprinkle about half a cup of the fine red velvet crumbs over the top of the cake and lightly press them into the frosting. Repeat with the side of the cake, using your hands to smooth out the crumbs. You may use a cake spatula to finish smoothing the crumbs into the frosting. 

4. Slowly pull out the parchment paper pieces from under the cake and clean off any leftover crumbs on the platter around the cake. Slice and serve.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

I strongly recommend using red gel food coloring because I find that you get a much more intense red color and there's no bitter taste after.

 

You can skip step 1 under assembly, if you have a large cake lifter. You can assemble the cake on a large cutting board, then use the cake lifter to transfer the cake onto a cake plate.

 

This cake can also be made in 2 cake pans and then cut the cake in half using a serrated knife. Baking time should still be around 35 minutes, but it's best to use a toothpick to check for doneness.

 

You should have more than enough crumbs for the entire surface of the cake. I only used about half of the crumbs.

 

Recipe adapted from Ricardo Magazine.

 

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

 

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