Who doesn't love red velvet cake? Who doesn't love cheesecake? What happens when you put them together? You get something that looks like this (insert applause here):
YAY!
This, my friends, is a red velvet cheesecake. I understand that it's not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, but that's part of why I'm showing this. I'm not a pastry chef, and I'm willing to bet that probably 90% of the people reading this aren't pastry chefs either. However, I DO know what tastes good. I am a simple girl. That's why I'm going to be nice and tell you that this recipe is time consuming, so give yourself a couple of days to make it. I promise that it's not hard, though. Really, the hardest part is waiting for it to be done, so that you can eat it all--I mean share it with everyone that you know, BUT if you happen to eat it because you don't, um want it to uh, go bad or something like that...its completely understandable. And yes, I am eating a piece as I type this. SO WHAT!
There are a few steps. You make the red velvet cake, then you make the cheesecake, and then you make the icing, which is optional. I don't recommend that you skip that part though, because it really is the...icing.....on the.....cake. Get it? That was my sad attempt at a joke (insert sad "awww" here). Anyway, I have the ingredients and directions in three different parts, so make sure that if you're writing a grocery list that you read all the way through. Let's get started!
RED VELVET CAKE INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 1/2 C. Self-Rising Flour
2 sticks of butter, softened
2 C. sugar
4 eggs
1 C. sour cream
3/4 C. whole milk
1 ounce red food coloring
2 tsp. vanilla
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch, round cake pan, and set to the side. Combine all of the dry ingredients together, so that they look almost like a chocolate boxed cake mix, like this:
Next, add in all of the wet ingredients, and mix well. You want most of the lumps out of it, but if there are a few left, it's fine. Overmixing a cake batter will make it dry and tough. Add the red food coloring. I used one ounce, but you can add more if you want. It just depends on how red you want your cake to be.
This mix makes two layers. I only used one, but I'm giving you the recipe for the frosting, so if you want to make extra and put it on the other layer, I don't think anyone will complain. You get two desserts...you didn't think that was going to happen, did you? I have all kinds of little tricks up my sleeve ;)
Bake the cake for 25-45 minutes. I know this is a large window, but my oven gets really hot. Some ovens don't. When the cake is ready, put it on a cooling rack, face down and let it cool completely:
While that's cooling, cut the oven down to 325 or 300. Again, I turned mine down to 300, because it gets hot very quickly.
CHEESECAKE INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 C. sugar
4 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
4 eggs
1/4 C. flour
1 C. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
For the cheesecake, you will need a spring form pan:
It comes apart when you pull the lever, and it looks like this:
On the part that looks like a round disc, put a piece of aluminum, foil on top of it. Make sure that there is extra , so that when you snap the pan back together that you can wrap the foil up the sides:
Grease the pan...I use Baker's Joy. You can find it in the grocery store with all of the other cooking sprays...best three dollars I ever spent. You can use the Baker's Joy on the red velvet cake pan too.
Its time to start mixing the cheesecake. Cream the cream cheese, sugar, and flour together. Add the sour cream. Mix well :
Add the eggs:
Continue mixing:
It will be rather thin. Pour it into the pan. Fill the cake pan that you used for your red velvet cake a little over half full with water. Place it under the rack that you put your cheesecake on. Bake the cheesecake for and hour. Keep an eye on it. The water is supposed to help keep the top of the cheesecake from cracking, but sometimes you can't really help it. When the cheesecake is done, it will have risen substantially, and will be SLIGHTLY liquidy in the very center. Here is where the time consuming part comes in. Cut the oven off, and let the cheesecake cool for 4-5 hours IN the oven.
Now that you have some extra time on your hands, you can make the frosting. You'll have to forgive me, as I have no pictures for this part, because my battery died, but it's easy enough. I will tell you that this frosting is also good on chocolate cake:
FROSTING INGREDIENTS:
8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick of butter
2T sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
1 box, 16 oz. of confectioner's sugar
Mix the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla together. Add the confectioner's sugar in a little at the time until fully incorporated. As I said earlier, you can double the recipe, and use half of it on the extra layer of red velvet cake if you want.
After the cheesecake is cool, and is still in the spring form pan, put a dollop of frosting in the center. Place the red velvet cake on top of the cheesecake. This means the red velvet cake and the cheese cake will both be in the spring form pan. Take a plate, and put it face down on the red velvet cake. Grab the bottom of the spring form pan, and flip it over, and set the plate down. Open the spring form pan, and slowly pull the disc away from the cheesecake. you will have a red velvet "crust" on the bottom. The red velvet cake will be slightly smaller in circumference, but you can just fill that in with the frosting. Then you're done! Store it in the refridgerator, if it ever makes it there.
I hope you like this recipe...just a friendly reminder that you can put your email address at the very top of the page, and you'll get all of my recipes as I post them. Have a red-velvety smooth day!
Creamcheesy cakeyness,
-Becca :)
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