It always feels nice to be back to baker’s block and post something or other on baking. Off late, what attracted my attention is the spongy cake covered with white cream and red dust on the top sporting a damn tempting look, people are going gaga over. A bit of research revealed that the red dust is not coming from bit root, as I thought, but from simple red food colour which made life easy. The USP for this cake is cream cheese frosting which is a break from usual butter cream or whipped cream used for cake icing and which also brings in an interesting flavour. It can lighten up any occasion many folds which was also a motivation for me to bake it for my marriage anniversary.

Ingredients to serve 8 :

1. Plain flour (sifted) – 125 gm.
2. Cocoa powder – 1 tbspoon
3. Butter (unsalted) – 55 gm. + extra for greasing
4. Milk – 120 ml.
5. Large egg – 1
6. Granulated white sugar – 150 gm.
7. Salt – ¼ teaspoon
8. Baking powder – ¾ teaspoon
9. Baking soda – ½ teaspoon
10. Liquid red food colour – 1 tbspoon
11. Distilled vinegar – ½ teaspoon

For Cream Cheese Frosting :

1. Cream cheese – 150 gm.
2. Mascarpone cheese – 150 gm.
3. Double cream (cold) – 100 ml.
4. Powdered Sugar – 60 gm.
5. Vanilla extract – ½ teaspoon

Procedure :

Pre heat your oven at 180ºC or 350ºF

Grease two 18 cm. cake tin with butter and line with parchment paper.

Mix flour, cacao powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Add red food colour to the milk and mix well. Keep the coloured mixture aside.

Now in a separate bowl beat the butter until fluffy. Add sugar to the butter and beat for another 2-3 minutes until airy. Beat in the egg.

Now add the flour mixture and red coloured milk alternately to the wet mixture (butter mixture) in 2 portions. Mix all the ingredients very well keeping the speed of the hand mixture on medium.

In a small bowl put together the baking soda and vinegar. As the foam starts forming add the mixture to the cake batter and mix it with light hand. Add this mixture just before baking

Divide the batter evenly into the two cake tins and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until springy to touch. Let stand in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Cut a small portion from the top of the cakes and crumble that porting. This crumbled cake will be used later for decorating the cake.

Now wrap 2 cakes with a cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Cream Cheese Frosting :

Beat in two types of cheese in a bowl.

Add vanilla extract and sugar to the cheese mixture and beat for 2-3 minutes.

Finally add cold double cream and beat for another couple of minutes until stiff peaks are formed.

Assembling :

Use half of the cheese frosting to sandwich 2 cakes together. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Now spread the half of the crumbled cake around top edges of the cake and press other half around the bottom edges of the cake.

Note :

1. If ‘mascarpone cheese’ is not available, you can use ‘cream cheese’ instead of it.
2. I have used ‘Amul cream’ with 25% fat as double cream. A cream with 30-35% fat content will work great for this recipe.
3. If you are using salted butter then do not add salt separately into cake batter.