They weren’t. I had made red velvet cake with both items before but never at the same time, with the same recipe. The beets made the chocolate more brown but it was drier. The red food dye did what it was supposed to do. For both of the recipes I adapted the Red Velvet Cake recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.  So, much as I want to say that natural is better… I can’t. If you want red velvet cake, and you want it to be red and good..you are going to need to do the old fashioned thing and go with dye.

Now, the rest of it…imagine biting into rich red velvet cupcake and finding orange cheesecake. The combination of chocolate and orange is fantastic anyway, and the tangy citrus and cream cheese cuts the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting and red velvet cake perfectly. I loved these. My family loved these. You are going to love these!

Be careful not to overbake. You want the cheesecake to remain creamy…and it will cook for a little bit as it cools.

I usually use silicone baking cups, but since I was doing a double batch I didnt have enough. I used paper ones…but I turned the water off when I brushed my teeth and  I didn’t rinse…so it evens out.

The list of directions looks long, but it is really quick and easy. These are so awesome and they take no more time than a regular cupcake. Yum!

Red Velvet & Cheesecake Marbled Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 325F and put muffin papers or silicone cups in 12 muffin cups.

Orange Cheesecake

• 1 four oz package of cream cheese (not low fat)
• 2 tablespoons of  freshly grated orange peel
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Beat together until creamy and well blended. Do not whip because you don’t want to incorporate air.

Red Velvet Cake

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
• 4 tablespoons food grade red food color
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup whole milk buttermilk (do not get skim or low fat)
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white  vinegar (it has less flavor than any other type)

1. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.
3. Use a rubber scraper to pull any remaining butter mixture off the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Mix again until well blended.
4. In a separate bowl mix the food color and the cocoa until it makes a paste.
5. Add the cocoa mixture to the butter mixture and mix until it is evenly blended. Spoon through to check for streaks.
6. Add 1/4 cup of the buttermilk and beat on low speed until blended.
7. Add half of the flour and blend.
8. Add the remaining buttermilk, blend and then add the remaining flour. Now stir in the baking soda and vinegar until blended.

Assemble

1. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 the way with the red velvet batter.
2. Add a tablespoon or so of cheesecake batter to the top.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cupcakes are firm to the touch. Don’t overbake.
4. Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/3 cup  unsalted butter
• 8 oz cream cheese
• Pinch of salt

1. Mix butter, salt, and confectioners sugar until cumbly.
2. Add the cream cheese and beat until creamy, add a little cream if you need to to get the right consistency.
3. Swirl a good layer atop the cooled cupcakes.
4. Sprinkle with cocoa, edible glitter, or orange zest.
5. Keep any remaining cupcakes (as if!) in the refrigerator.

Makes 12

images:marye audet

Post from: Baking Delights

Note Added:

Update: I have developed a recipe that I like much MUCH better. The recipe is for cupcakes but you can double it and have enough for a layer cake (2 layers). …   It can be found on this site at Red Velvet and Cheesecake Marbled Cupcakes.

__________________________-

NOTE ADDED: If you want a REDDER cake you will need to use LESS chocolate in BOTH recipes.  If you are planning on doing this for a special event where the color matters to you PLEASE bake a test cake to see how your color comes out.  With the beet colored cake especially the color will be partially determined by the color of the beets you use!  I suggest you read ALL the comments before deciding to bake this cake.  Thanks.

If you have never heard of red velvet cake you probably live on another planet, or something. At the very least you have never watched Steel Magnolias.

Red Velvet cake is a southern thing, I think, but rapidly gaining favor across the country. Apparently the red color was a natural reaction between the acid in the buttermilk, and the cocoa that was made in the early part of the 1900s. During the depression bakers also used beets to add color to the cakes that lacked color due to butter and egg rationing (never mind the scarcity of chocolate).

It happens to be my oldest son’s favorite cake, or it was when he left home to join the Air Force 4 years ago. At this point he is a health food freak so probably power bars are what he likes the best.

It always seemed a Christmas Cake to me, but lately I have seen it turn up around Valentine’s Day, and it makes sense. Most of the time the red color is created by adding a bottle of red food color. If you have issues with food dyes then consider the second recipe, a traditional one, made with beets.

The picture is from Swiss Colony . I just didn’t get time to make one. You can do it in several layers (more traditional and very impressive) or just two. The frosting is most often cream cheese, and that is what I am using because it is my favorite. This page licensed to B5 media, for exclusive use on Baking Delights, (http://bakingdelights.com), written by Marye Audet. Any other use constitutes fraud. If you are reading this on another website, the material is stolen content.

Red Velvet Cake Recipe (made with red food coloring)

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 ounces red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Grease and flour two 9 inch round pans.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees .

Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring. Set aside.
Combine the buttermilk, salt and vanilla.

In a large bowl, cream together the oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Stir in the cocoa mixture. Beat until well mixed and batter is evenly colored.

Beat in the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, mixing just until incorporated. Stir together baking soda and vinegar, then gently fold into the cake batter.
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Traditional Red Velvet Cake Recipe ( made with beets)

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 c pureed cooked beets
2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees .

Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans.

Melt chocolate in double boiler and set aside .

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In a bowl beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate. In four steps, alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk mixed with vinegar , beginning and ending with flour. Beat until incorporated. Add pureed beets and mix until well blended.
Divide the batter between the pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean and top of cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes and invert onto racks to cool completely.

To Make 4 layers:

Carefully slice each layer in half when cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz cold cream cheese
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbs vanilla
Confectioners sugar (about 6-8 cups)
Beat cream cheese with softened butter and vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar . Continue to add more powdered sugar until you reach a good consistency for spreading.

Post from: Baking Delights

I don’t do cupcakes much. I guess with 5 boys, 3 girls, and a husband that considers 6 dozen cookies an apertif I just always made things in large quantities. Large, FILLING quantities. Cupcakes seem sweet and delicate to me.

But yesterday I wanted something different. I had made chicken with apples and lavender for TRGWT. hosted by Vanielje Kitchen and I was serving brown rice and mushroom risotto with it. I had worked on another foodie challenge all day and needed something simple..we have meetings at church each evening this week, too. So….hmmm….CUPCAKES!
Cupcakes are quick, easy to do, cute, and in my house anyway, unusual enough to be considered party food. Of course, in my house, EVERYthing is considered party food. Bologna sandwich? MMMM! PARTY!
Seriously. I don ‘t know where they get it.
These are deliciously light and tender, delicately flavored with almond and lemon peel. They take less than an hour from start to finish and you know you deserve to have one with that cup of coffee this afternoon!

Almond Cupcakes
1/2 c butter, room temp
2/3 to 1 c sugar( depends on how sweet you like it)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond
zest of one small lemon
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c milk
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts and lemon peel. Mix flour, salt, and baking powder, stir in and then beat in milk.
Pour into lined muffin cups and bake 18-20 minutes at 350. cool

Cream Cheese Almond Frosting

8 oz cream cheese room temp
4 tbs butter
3 c confectioners sugar
1 tsp almond
1/2 tsp vanilla

beat butter and cream cheese together until mixed. Add rest of ingredients and beat until fluffy. Add a little cream if needed to get the right consistency. Use to frost cupcakes.

makes 12

Image: (c)MaryeAudet

Post from: Baking Delights

The original for this can be found at Epicurious. I changed it up a little bit because the first time I made it I wanted a little more intensity in the flavor. I really love this but it is a bit more dense even than a normal carrot cake..the buttercream… What can I say about that?…oh my.
I made this for my husband Marc’s birthday which we are celebrating today. He loves spice cake and I expect that this carrot cake will disappear in an enthusiastic burst of activity….similar to the termites in the old Looneytunes cartoons. The cake serves 8-10 but we are having friends over that are bringing 4 of their boys so I am cutting thinly and planning on this serving 14. Be sure and chill the frosting thoroughly, and keep cake refridgerated until one hour prior to serving time. I am making lemon ice cream to go with this..but I think that a mango ice cream would be awesome. I also have added more frosting in my adaption because the amount of frosting they called for was a bit thin for my liking.

Tropical Carrot cake
2 1/3 c all purpose flour (don’t use cake flour, I did that and it is just too light to hold the ingredients properly)
1 c sweetened flaked coconut
1 c dry roasted macadamia nuts
3/4 c chopped crystallized ginger
3 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

2 c sugar
1 vegetable oil (organic coconut oil works really well, adding a touch more coconut flavor)
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c finely grated peeled carrots
2 TBS finely grated fresh ginger
2 8 oz cans crushed pineapple VERY well drained.

Frosting

24 oz cream cheese
1 c unsalted butter
2 2/3 c powdered sugar
1 c sweetened cream of coconut like coco lopez
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tbs monin Macadamia nut syrup

Reserve some whole macadamia nuts and crystallized ginger for topping if desired.

Be sure to read recipe through before starting.

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 3 9″ round cake pans and line with parchment. Combine 1/3 c flour, and next 3 ingredients in processor.process until nuts are finely chopped. Whish remaining flour, baking soda, salt, spices, and baking powder in a bowl to blend.
In an electric mixer beat sugar and oil and add eggs, one at a time, incorporating each throroughly. Beat in vanilla. Beat in flour-spice mixture. Stir in macadamia mixture and then pineapple, carrot, grated ginger mixture.
Divide amoung pans. BAke until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool in pans for one hour. Run knife around edge to loosen cakes and turn out. Let cool completely..In fact, putting them in the freezer for a bit at this point is helpful in the frosting process.

Frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter in mixing bowl until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar, then cream of coconut and both extracts and Monin macadamia nut syrup. Chill until firm enough to spread, about half an hour.

Place one cake layer, flat side up and spread with about 3/4c frosting. Add next layer and so on, finishing the top and sides with a thin layer of frosting. Chill thoroughly. Use the rest of the frosting to put another layer of frosting over the top and sides and chill until 1 hour before serving time.

Here is a picture of it in layers, before tI frosted the sides..See? I like thick filling…

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