Layer cakes

Method

Red Velvet Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 175C/350F Non-Fan Assisted. Lightly grease 4×7” tins with soft butter, and place a circle of parchment in the bottom. Tip in a tablespoon of flour and shake this around to coat the tin and then tip out any excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients and leave to one side.

3. In a saucepan over a medium heat, mix together the butter and red colouring until melted. Leave to one side.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar (250g), whole eggs and egg yolks and whisk on a medium speed for 6-7 minutes until the mixture holds a slight ribbon.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites and whisk on a medium speed until they’re frothy with small bubbles (about 2-3 minutes), then increase the speed to medium-high and slowly add the sugar (140g) one tablespoon at a time, leaving 10-15 seconds between each addition. Once you’ve added all the sugar, keep whisking until you have a stiff meringue (2-3 more minutes).

6. Next, add the meringue to the egg mixture in three parts and whisk each part by hand until you have a smooth batter.

7. In a separate bowl, stir the vinegar, yoghurt and vanilla paste together. Then whisk this mixture into the cake batter.

8. Next, sift your dry ingredients into the cake batter and gently whisk them through by hand until combined.

9. Finally, add your melted butter to the batter and gently whisk it through until combined.

10. Weigh 380g of batter into each tin. 

11. Bake the cakes for 28 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

12. While still warm, gently loosen the edges of the cake from the cake tin with a palette knife, and then flip them out onto a wire rack. Let them cool for a few minutes before wrapping them tightly in clingfilm and refrigerating. Ideally you would chill them overnight but 4 hours is enough time too.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1. In a stand mixer bowl over a pan of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, caster sugar and sea salt until the mixture reaches 65C on a digital thermometer.

2. Once the mixture comes to temperature, immediately add the bowl to your stand mixer and mix on a medium speed for 10-15 minutes, until the bottom of the bowl is tepid to touch.

3. Next, with your stand mixer on a medium speed, add the butter a little at a time, leaving 5-10 seconds between each addition. Once it’s all been added, continue mixing for another 5 minutes. 

4. Finally add the vanilla and, using the paddle attachment, mix on a low speed for 5 more minutes.

Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Note – After finishing the filming I decided to adjust the recipe slightly as I wanted to improve the texture of the buttercream for the final coat. So I have adjusted the recipe here, where the cream cheese swiss meringue buttercream is just used as the filling, and then the swiss meringue buttercream is used for the final coat. This will give the cake a better finish.

1. Take the cream cheese, and beat it in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 5 minutes on a medium speed.

2. Next, weigh 400g of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream and add this in thirds to the cream cheese, while beating with the paddle attachment.

3. This buttercream can be slightly unstable so if you find it has split slightly, switch to the whisk attachment and whisk on a medium high speed for 5-10 minutes, until it begins to smooth. It can take some time so be patient. It should be much smoother but slightly more aerated in texture, with a few more streaks of air bubbles compared to the regular swiss meringue buttercream. That’s ok as we are only going to use it for the filling. 

Crumb Coat

1. Using a serrated knife, evenly cut the top off your cake layers to make them level. 

2. Put a cake disc on top of a rotating cake stand (this is not necessary but makes cake decorating so much easier!). Secure the cake disc down with some wet kitchen paper.

3. Add a dollop of cream cheese buttercream to your cake board and place your first layer on top, cut side up.

4. Next, add a dollop of cream cheese buttercream in the centre of the cake layer. Use a palette knife to spread the buttercream out until you have an even layer.

5. Repeat this with the second and third cake layers, so you have three layers of cream cheese buttercream in total. Place your final layer on top, making sure the cut side is facing down, and cover this in buttercream too.

6. Next it’s time to crumb coat the cake. Add your vanilla buttercream to the outside of the cake, and use a palette knife to spread the buttercream out over the entire outside of the cake, making sure all the gaps between the layers are filled.

7. Next, hold a flat edge scraper against the outside of the cake at about a 30 degree angle. In one swift motion, spin the cake whilst keeping a straight hold of the scraper. Repeat this a few times, filling in any gaps with extra buttercream. You should be left with an even crumb coat around the cake. Then, take your palette knife and smooth the top of the cake.

8. Chill the cake until the buttercream feels firm to touch. About 20 minutes in the freezer or 30-40 minutes in the fridge.

9. Whilst the buttercream is chilling, grease one side of a cake disc with butter and add a circle of parchment paper, the same size as the cake disc. Use a palette knife to smooth the parchment paper – almost like you are ‘squeegeeing’ out any excess buttercream. Place this disc in the freezer.

10. Once chilled, add a thick layer of the vanilla swiss meringue buttercream onto the top of the cake. Use a palette knife to spread the buttercream to the edge of the cake. Place your second cake disc on top of the buttercream, with the parchment paper facing down. Press down firmly, and use your cake scraper to line up the top cake disc with the bottom cake disc.

11. Add more vanilla swiss meringue buttercream to the outside of the cake using a palette knife, and, following the same technique as the crumb coating, use the cake scraper to evenly spread the buttercream over the whole cake. Repeat the process 4-5 times, filling in any gaps with buttercream after each spin, until you have a nice smooth layer of buttercream. Make sure you clean and heat your scraper in between each spn, and start scraping from the same place each time.

12. Once happy with the cake, chill once more until the buttercream feels firm to touch. About 20 minutes in the freezer or 30-40 minutes in the fridge.

13. Once chilled, carefully run a knife in between the parchment paper and the cake disc to gently dislodge it. You should be able to lift the disc off, then peel the parchment paper off. 

14. Use a palette knife and a little more buttercream to the top and gently smooth the top of the cake as best as possible. Don’t worry too much, as we are going to spray it so it doesn’t need to be perfect. 

White Chocolate Decoration

For this decoration we need to use tempered White Chocolate. There is a thorough guide and video to this here. I recommended splitting this into two batches, as it is a quick process so 800g is too much chocolate to work with at once.

I use a raplette to level my chocolate and create a more professional finish. You can do this using a palette knife but it will be uneven. These instructions assume you are using a raplette.

1. Once you have tempered your first batch of chocolate, take an A3 sheet of acetate and press it down onto a very lightly oiled work surface (to ensure it sticks). Alongside this, lay down a few sheets of clingfilm, longer than the length of the acetate, also on an oiled surface.

2. Set the raplette to a height of 2-3mm and a width of roughly 25cm/10 inches. Pour the tempered chocolate into the well of the raplette and, working quickly, drag this along your acetate to create an even rectangle of chocolate.

3. Let the chocolate set until it is just touch dry (you don’t want it to solidify too much). This should only take 2-3 minutes.

4. Using a sharp knife and a metal ruler, cut even, diagonal lines across the chocolate, roughly 3cm/1.25” wide. Repeat this in the other direction to create squares.

5. Place another sheet of acetate on top and lift the chocolate onto the clingfilm. Place a large rolling pin at one end and wrap the clingfilm and chocolate around the rolling pin. You need to ensure you’re working quickly here to ensure the chocolate doesn’t snap as you’re rolling it. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. 

6. Once set, carefully remove the rolling pin and clingfilm to release the squares of chocolate. Put them to one side and repeat the process with the second batch of tempered chocolate.

Assembly

1. There are no real rules here! Just start to add your chocolate squares onto your cake, layer by layer. I like to overlap mine to create a bit more texture. If your cake is too cold, the chocolate won’t stick, so it can be helpful to heat it up a little with a heat gun/hair dryer before you palace on each square. You want your top layer of chocolate to end slightly above the top of the cake. Once you’ve added all the chocolate, place the cake in the fridge or freezer so it is cold before we spray. It only needs around 15m in the freezer or 30m in the fridge. 

2. Next move on to your velvet spray. You can buy a premade spray in a can, or you can make your own velvet spray and use a fence spray gun (!) to spray your cake. To do this, add your ingredients to a bowl and stir over a pan of gently simmering water until melted. Then remove from the heat and cool until it reaches 45C.

3. Add the mixture to the spray gun and spray evenly over your cake. This is really messy so make sure anything behind your cake is well protected!

4. Ensure the cake comes to room temperature before serving.