The red velvet cake is the hot item of the gastro world right now. Its colour destines it to be a part of a romantic menu.

How to achieve the red colour base? The colour was allegedly originally achieved solely by the reaction of the natural cocoa, soda, vinegar and butter milk. We tested this multiple times when preparing the cake, and the result was always reddish at best. Present day cocoas are usually alkalised, which is why we selected 100% natural cocoa. The result was similar. Then a multiple test were carried out using beetroot purée either in its raw or cooked form. The beetroot colouring cannot withstand the baking process. The dough was perfectly red before baking, yet the baked products were completely brown. We thus feel qualified to say that if you wish for your Red Velvet cake to be truly red, food colouring will be necessary.

Our cake is of course prepared using the wholegrain spelt flour with added beetroot underlining its suppleness.   

How to prepare

Cook the beetroot until soft, peel it and blend into smooth purée. You can add butter milk to the beetroot for easier blending.

Beat the whole eggs with oil and sugar until a smooth, foamy substance is achieved. In the meantime, mix the flours with the baking powder, soda, a pinch of salt and cocoa (and possibly with powdered colouring).

Add the mixture of flours alternating with the beetroot purée and a tablespoon of vinegar into the beaten substance. Grate in the lemon peel with no prior chemical treatment. When using an extract instead of the vanilla sugar, add it into the substance at this point. If choosing the colouring alternative, add it depending on the consistency. Powdered goes into the flour, liquid into the dough. 

Preheat the oven at 150 °C. Grease and dust the baking form well. Pour the dough into the form and bake for about 25 minutes at 150 °C. Then increase the temperature to 170 °C and finish baking. The cake is large and moist. Bake for about 50 minutes in total, but you will have to test it using a wooden skewer to see if it is properly baked through. Let the base cool off when finished baking.

Use room temperature butter to prepare the cream making it easy to mix with the Gervais cream. When buying the Gervais, be careful about those resembling salty butter spreads. You can use them to prepare the cream as well, but it will be a little different (more savoury). Then gradually add the sugar (vanilla sugar or vanilla extract), curd cheese, yogurt and grated lemon peel. Mix in the whipped cream last. Let the cream stand in cold before decorating the cake.

Slice the cake base into three parts lengthwise and finish to your liking using the prepared cream and fresh raspberries. 

Let the cake (and all the variations bellow) mature in cold ideally until the next day.

Our tip: You can use the same dough and cream to prepare other variations.

Use a third of the dough to prepare about 8 cupcakes. Adjust the amount of cream correspondingly.

If you have smaller round forms, you can even prepare mini cakes (8-10 diameter).

You can quite elegantly bake the dough in small sponge cake forms. In this case, you will only need a small amount of the cream (depending on the number of sponge cakes). Prepare a thick, but still liquid, cream (icing) to pour on top of the sponge cakes. Use the Gervais, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and adjust the consistency with the butter cream.

One of the serving options is a crumble “Red Velvet” dessert. 

Bake the dough in any form adjusting the amount of the dough and cream according to the portions to be served. Gradually layer the crumbled cake base and the cream into nice glasses.