Supplies
Cake
- 70g unsalted butter, softened
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp powdered red food colouring
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150g plain flour
- 10g cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon apple cider
- 125ml buttermilk
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 250g cream cheese
- 800-900g icing sugar
- 1-2 tbs lemon juice
Steps
Cake
- Preheat oven to 180 and line a 9x9inch pan with baking parchment.
- In a bowl cream the butter and caster sugar with an electric hand mixer till fluffy.
- Add the egg and beat again till fluffy, scraping down the sides to ensure it's thoroughly mixed.
- Add the vanilla and vegetable oil and beat again.
- Add the red food colouring and beat until incorporated.
- Add the flour, cocoa and baking soda and mix till combined.
- Add the buttermilk and vinegar and mix until combined (scraping down the bowl to make sure it's all incorporated).
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake til and bake for 20 minutes.
- Once out of the oven turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream the butter and cream cheese in a bowl until fluffy.
- Add the icing sugar to the cream cheese mixture in 200g (app) increments and beat until fluffy, scraping the bowl to make sure it's all incorporated.
- Once all the icing sugar is incorporated, and a couple of splashes of lemon juice to loosen up the frosting.
- Using a spatula place the buttercream into a pastry bag and set aside.
- Using a 5inch cookie cutter. Cut 2 rounds out of the 9 inch sponge. For the middle layer you are going to use the off cuts to make a round. All the remaining offcuts will be used as crumbs for the finished cake.
- On your 6inch cake board place a dab of the frosting and place once of the rounds on it.
- Pipe some frosting on the top and place the ‘pieced together’ round on the frosting.
- Pipe more frosting on the top and place the top layer on the stack.
- Make sure the layers are centered, then Crumb coat the sides and top with a thin layer of frosting.
- Using an offset spatula, Smooth off the edges to straighten the cake up.
- Place in the fridge to firm up for about an hour.
- Pipe another coat of buttercream on top of the crumb coat and smooth out again with the onset spatula.
- Crumb the remaining off cuts to fine red crumbs. Use them to decorate the sides and top of the cake.