Red Velvet Daisy Cake

My sister was supposed to visit this Saturday, and this was to be a reconciliation cake. However, she couldn't make it, so I gave it to my cousin instead.



This is the first cake I have made with fondant, and I am so thrilled with how it turned out. There will be three recipes here. The Red Velvet cake, found here on The Nest, the cream cheese filling, chocolate buttercream frosting, and the chocolate fondant, which were all found here at A Year in the Kitchen. The daisies on the cake were made from white modeling chocolate, which I blogged about originally here. I planned on doing them in white chocolate fondant, but I ran out of powdered sugar.

Red Velvet Cake

This cake is moist and fluffy, and the color is fantastic. Once again, I found this here.

Ingredients
-3/4 cup butter, softened
-2 1/4 cups sugar
-3 eggs
-6 Tablespoons red food coloring
-3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
-1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-1 1/2 teaspoons salt
-1 1/2 cups buttermilk
-3 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
-1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease three 9 inch round cake pans and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. In a small bowl, whisk food coloring, cocoa and vanilla. Add to batter and beat well.
5. Stir salt into buttermilk. Add to batter in three parts, alternating with flour.
6. In a small bowl, stir together cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to batter and mix well.
7. Divide batter among 3 pans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Let cool for 1 hour. Remove from pans and frost.


Cream Cheese Filling

This is a fantastic filling for this cake. I love cream cheese and nearly ate this filling alone (if only I weren't lactose intolerant). Again, I found this and the following recipes here.

Ingredients
-1 8-ounce brick of cream cheese
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/4 cup milk

Directions
1. Cream together all ingredients, beat until smooth.
2. Use a serrated knife to level the top of each cake layer. Spread filling between layers.

Chocolate buttercream frosting

This is another thing I just wanted to eat straight. It was so smooth and creamy.

Ingredients
-1 cup butter
-3/4 cup cocoa powder
-6 cups powdered sugar
-1/4 cup milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 teaspoon salt

Direction
1. Cream butter. add in cocoa powder and mix together on low. Add vanilla.
2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
3. Keep refrigerated until use.

Chocolate Fondant

The reason I never used fondant before was I had never had fondant that tasted good. I had also never made my own. But when I found this recipe, I was overjoyed. This tastes fantastic! The original recipe called for a stand mixer, but I did it all by hand because my stand mixer does not have a dough hook attachment.

Ingredients
-1 pound dark chocolate candy coating (I used semi-sweet chocolate)
-3/4 cup corn syrup
-1 cup Cocoa Powder
-3.5 pounds powdered sugar
-8 Tablespoons hot water
-1 cup glucose (this is a liquid measurement)
-2 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-4 Tablespoon shortening

1. Melt the chocoalte chips in the microwave or over a double boiler, stir in the corn syrup, set aside until cool.
2. Put 3/4 of powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
3. Mix water, glucose, vanilla, salt, and shortening together in a saucepan. Heat until shortening is almost melted.
4. Pour into the well of powdered sugar and mix with a flat spatula until incorporated. Add chocolate mixture and mix well.
5. When mixture is too hard to mix with the spatula, take it out and turn on a powder sugar dusted surface. Knead in the remaining powdered sugar.
6. Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a ziplock bag. It will get somewhat hard, but kneading it will loosen it up. Use within a month. (Do not refrigerate)