I am always looking for opportunities to experiment with new recipes, techniques and products. As my in-laws anniversary was coming up, I decided that I would try out new things – seeing as it’s not for a paying customer, perfect time to play!
The itself: 3 layers of red velvet cake, filled and coated with Rich n Smooth Tropic vanilla icing (flavoured with Cream Cheese flavour). Topped with a white chocolate ganache, Lindt balls and gumpaste accents.
I have been on the hunt for an awesome, moist red velvet cake. I have tried a few and even though I am happy with them, they’ve never been quite the red velvet cake that I really want. I think I have found the best one. So very moist and moreish, I cannot believe it’s been this long to finally find it! The only things I have changed with it, is subbed half the oil with butter (so instead of 1 cup oil, half cup oil + 113g butter) and omitted the coffee. By subbing some of the oil with butter it adds a little bit more structure (as it’s soooo moist and soft!) and it’s not as oily to the touch. It’s still absolutely moist though, amazing! I won’t be using any other for red velvet here on out.
I also wanted to try out the Rich n Smooth Tropic vanilla icing. I have been reading that it’s a good alternative to traditional buttercream as it’s more stable in the heat. It’s also less sweet than the usual frosting. What’s my verdict: I think it is great! I even traveled with the cake in really hot conditions from Canberra to Longbeach (about 2 hours) and it arrived perfectly! Additionally, with the context of eating it with cake, it really reminded me of just having whipped cream with the cake, similar to what you would get with a Cheesecake shop Black Forrest cake, for example. Not too sweet but smooth texture and a nice filling. Would definitely recommend. The flavour on its own: just like soft serve.
However, I really wanted to trial having cream cheese flavouring to go with the red velvet cake. So I bought a cream cheese flavour product (Lorann). I opened the bottle, bleurgh. It was putrid! But, I still bit the bullet and added some in. About a teaspoon, I thought. BIG MISTAKE! Very strong and tasted very unpleasant šĀ I ended up ‘fixing’ it by adding a bunch of good quality vanilla.
I put it out to the interwebs about this product, asking whether it was truly a bad product or had i used it wrong. The results were divided. Some immediately recommended throwing it out, but others had suggested maybe I just added too much and to give it another go.Ā Which I did. I ended up making the recipe according to the recipe on the actual bottle, only adding in 3/4 tsp of flavour instead of the full teaspoon. And it turned out quite nice actually! Another tip I missed the first time was to shake the bottle well before using. Make sure you do!
The gumpaste rose I thought I’d have a go using Satin ice gumpaste. I am fairly happy with it. The only negative I would have is it take a bit longer to set than Fondtastic gumpaste, which was a bit of a nuisance if you wanted to get a whole rose done quickly. I didn’t have much time so I only did a couple of rows of petals and used a foam egg as the core lol It did save time and probably money instead of making it from gumpaste entirely, so I’ll probably continue to do that for future large roses.
Overall I was really happy with the way this cake turned out. I love drip cakes, they’re my fave kind of cakes to make š