Red velvet Cheese Cake has gained its recent popularity because of its luscious velvety red color. Today it has become so popular that you can even find red velvet latte in stores. Red velvet cake is a delicious cake made basically from cocoa and buttermilk and tastes just like regular chocolate cake. However, when you grab a spoon of this cake you wouldn’t think so. Its flavors are actually really confusing. This is because before you take a bite, your brain signals you that this should taste different than chocolate a chocolate is of brown color and this is of red color. It’s nothing but a trick of your mind that makes it taste different. So some people say it is better to enjoy this cake with closed eyes. J So this Christmas let’s think out of the box for the desserts. Indulge in the velvety flavors of Red Velvet Cheese Cake to satisfy your winter sweet tooth. Today, I’ll share with Y'all, The Christmas special velveteen ecstasy: Red velvet cheesecake.
Red velvet cake origin: Before baking don’t you want to know how the name Red velvet came into being? I’ll tell Y'all. Red velvet cake gets its name due to the silky velvety color of the cake. It is topped with cream cheese frosting or roux icing. The red color of the cake is due to cocoa reacting with buttermilk. However, today authentic cocoa is hard to find so we generally use food coloring to bring about the red color in the cake. Original Cocoa is highly acidic in nature, but the Dutch cocoa we find in stores today have low acid content, which gives it a brownish color. Hence the use of red colors today. However, it is believed that during World War II due to the shortage of grocery and rationing of food people used boiled beetroot juice for the red color of the cake. Though beetroot and red velvet cakes are nowhere related today this was just done during wartime.
image source: food network
The story of the origin of Red Velvet Cake: The story of the origin of red velvet cake is an interesting one. In a New York-based hotel named Waldorf-Astoria, during the time of great depression in the 1920s, this was made as a mood uplifter and called as Waldorf-Astoria cake. However, other people say that a Texan company Adams extracts first introduced this cake to the Americans and hence red velvet cake is actually a southern dessert. Well, however, the case may be this isn’t a real point of interesting debate for me as much as it means to the Americans. Today I’ll share with y’all the Christmas special recipe of red velvet cheesecake. This is basically a fusion of the authentic red velvet cake with my favorite cheesecake. Let’s get started now.
The Recipe for Christmas special Red velvet cheesecake
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups of chocolate graham cracker crumbs or digestive biscuits in chocolate flavors crumbled.
- ¼ cup of melted butter
- 1 tsp of granulated sugar
- 4 packets of cream cheese.
- 1 ½ cup of granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3 tsp of unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup of sour cream
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1 tsp of white vinegar
- 2 bottles of (30 ml or 1 ounce) red color food coloring
For icing:
- 1-ounce package of cream cheese
- ¼ cup of butter
- 2 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- A spring fresh mint leaves
Method:
- Beat together graham cracker crumbs, the melted butter and 1 tsp of the granulated sugar you have and place it in a Springform pan.
- Now use an electric beater and beat together the softened cream cheese along with 1 ½ cup of granulated sugar. Gradually keep adding the beaten mixture of eggs along with cocoa, sour milk, buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla extract, white vinegar, red food color and allow it to get whisked properly in medium speed till it reaches a gooey cake-batter kind of consistency.
- Now pour this batter into the crumb mixture you had made earlier. Spread it evenly throughout the mixture so as to coat it with a lovely velvety quilt and bake it at 325 degrees F for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes reduce the temperature of your oven to 300 degrees F and allow it to sit inside for an hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off when done and give it a standing time of 30 minutes inside the oven. Now get it out and put it in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours to allow it to develop a wonderful sheen and glaze one it as it cools down for you.
- For the icing beat together the icing ingredients and use a butter knife to smoothen the icing. Remove the sides of your Springfoam pan and serve it garnished with some fresh mint leaf bits.
So this was the story and recipe of red velvet cheesecake. So try this cake this Christmas and break the monotonous traditional patterns with a modern twist. Hope you’ll bake it.
Happy Baking!! And Merry Christmas!!
image source: foodnetwork.com