The one thing about having a blog is that it teaches you things. Alot of things. In the past several days, I’ve been sifting through food blogs, one after the other. Yesterday, I found a blog written by a 17 year old, whose maturity speaks through her words. She has a writing style unparalleled to most food bloggers and reading her stories is like being swept away back to the days when I was 17. If I could write half as well as she does, I’d consider myself a worthy writer. From Elissa, I learned that while glossy photographs can appeal to readers, it’s the writing that captures the hearts of fans. Her blog is 17 and baking if you’re wondering.
The second thing that my blog has taught me is the art of patience; patience in writing a post, patience in waiting for people to discover your blog, but most importantly, patience in baking. I used to rush through recipes- where it called to sift twice, I’d sift once. Where it’d say to beat until smooth, I’d beat until half-smooth. In other words, my baking attempts were all half-baked.
So, I sat by my laptop and sifted all purpose flour not five, but six times to make cake flour. I took out the cream cheese at 8am, 6 hours before I started baking to make sure I’d have the cream cheese at room temperature. Last but not least, I mustered all the strength within me to mix, mix, and mix. Do you know how tiring it is to make a cake and a cheesecake by hand? I figured that if women made cakes for centuries without electric mixers, I sure as hell could too.
Thus, it was a wonderful feeling when this cake came out and didn’t collapse (okay fine, the cheesecake cracked on the side, but after you layer and frost it, no one could tell)! This was my first layered cake and while it wasn’t a 10 out of 10, I’d say it turned out pretty decent, delectable actually! The aim was to replicate Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake from the Cheesecake Factory. The red velvet could have been more moist, but since I halved the amount of sugar and oil, that might have contributed to it. But all in all, it’s still a great cake and I’d imagine a crowd pleaser (uh, what cake with a cheesecake smack in the middle layer wouldn’t be?!)
Surprisingly, no one had the Cheesecake Factory’s recipe anywhere online, but Judy merged the famous red velvet from Martha Stewart’s cupcake book and a white chocolate cheesecake from William Sonoma. Since I didn’t have any white chocolate, I used William Sonoma’s Vanilla Bean Cheesecake recipe. The cheesecake turned out beautifully and the sugar that I cut out from the red velvet cake part definitely wasn’t missed.
Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake
adapted from Martha Stewart and William Sonoma
—
Red Velvet Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour sifted
- 2 tbsp unsweetened coca powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup sugar (original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups)
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil (original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp red gel-paste food color
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
Recipe:
{ 1 comment }
