Valentines Recipe: Red Velvet Heart Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting & Raspberry Flakes

Red velvet cake is a necessity for Valentines day, especially when it’s baked in a heart shaped cake tin and smothered in dreamy pink frosting and sprinkled with raspberry flakes. It’s also an incredibly quick and simple recipe that impresses through it’s vibrant red centre so theres no need to fuss over flamboyant decorations – it’s a beauty as it is.

The red velvet cake recipe is from Lily Vanilli’s book Sweet Tooth, my go-to baking bible.

115g unsalted butter, room temperature
280g caster sugar
2 eggs
1½ tbsp red liquid food colouring
275g plain four, sifted
30g cocoa powder, sifted
250ml buttermilk
1 tsp bcaronate of soda
1 tsp cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C fan assisted/gas mark 6 and line and grease two cake tins.
2. Mix together the butter and the sugar in a mixer on a medium speed, graduallly increasing until the mixture is light and fluffy, and has increased in volume.
3. Add the eggs and the food colouring and beat until it is just incorporated.
4. Add half the flour and cocoa powder to the mixture and mix on a medium speed until it is incorporated. Then mix in the buttermilk, and then the rest of the dry ingredients.
5. In a separate small bowl, mix together the bicarbonate of soda and the cider vinegar, and as it begins to fizz quickly fold it into the batter with a spatular.
6. Evenly divide the mixture between the two tins and tap them firmly on a surface to reduce the air bubbles. Bake them in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out dry and clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tins for ten minutes, before turning out on to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

To make the cream cheese frosting:

50g of good quality white chocolate
200g of full fat cream cheese, drained and at room temperature
100g of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
500g of icing sugar, sifted
Sugarflair colouring paste in ‘Pink’
Waitrose freeze dried raspberry flakes

1. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie and set aside to cool at room temperature.
2. Beat the butter on a high speed for several minutes, until it is notably lighter
3. Mix in the cream cheese and mix for several minutes until smooth
4. Add the vanilla extract and the white chocolate, mixing well on a medium speed until all combined
5. Sift in half of the icing sugar, mix and then sift in the remainder.
6. Add a tiny scraping of the colouring gel and mix until the desired colour is achieved. To get the light pink shade, I used a minuscule amount, so build it up gradually.
7. Spread the frosting in-between the two cake layers and on the outside until there is an even coating of frosting.
8. Finish with a scattering of raspberry flakes around the edges

Enjoy!