Wine and cooking: Red Velvet Naked Cake
Red Velvet Naked Cake is a pleasure for both eyes and palate.
Regarding its origins, there is no reliable information, in fact several stories circulate, full of myth and urban legends: according to some of these, the recipe spread to the United States in the roaring twenties; others claim that it was made for the first time in the fifties as a birthday cake for an American soldier. However, what is certain, is that the famous and velvety Red Velvet Naked Cake is the dessert that, this Christmas, will captivate your guests!
We add just a couple of tips to the tasty recipe of Chef Eleonora Corvasce of Il Cantuccio di Romeo:
1. Unleash your creativity and have fun with the decorations, which will make your dessert truly unique!
2. To enhance it, pair the right wine!
Our sommelier Mario Sinisi recommends to accompany the Red Velvet Naked Cake with Cryfus Sixty Edition Moscato Puglia IGP VSQA Sweet Sparkling wine with Charmat method.
It’s time to get to the stove!
INGREDIENTS FOR 3 MINI RED VELVET CAKES
Three-tier 20 cm diameter naked cakes
Base
300 g 00 weak flour (180 W)
110 g of cooled melted butter
160 g of sunflower oil
400 g of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
240 ml buttermilk (120 ml of skimmed milk, 120 ml of whole milk Greek yogurt and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or seeds of 1 vanilla berry
16 g of bitter cocoa
2 teaspoons of red gel dye (about 10 g)
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Cream cheese frosting
230 g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
230 g of mascarpone cheese
Grated peel of 1 lemon
115 g of icing sugar
360 g of whipped cream
Vanilla and cardamom syrup
300 g of water
150 g of granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 vanilla berries without pulp
5 pods of cardamom
Garnish
Raspberries
Edible flowers
Tools for the naked red velvet
3 20 cm diameter moulds
Pastry bag
10 mm diameter smooth round spout
Tools for mini red velvet
1 24 cm diameter mould
4 cm diameter ring
5 mm diameter smooth round spout
PROCEDURE
Prepare the buttermilk: add 120 ml of milk and 120 ml of whole milk Greek yogurt in a bowl, with a teaspoon of lemon, and wait about 30 minutes.
BASE
Melt the butter in a saucepan and let it cool.
Put the butter, oil, sugar and vanilla bean seeds in the food processor and whisk for a few minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, continuing to whip. Combine the dye to the buttermilk, and mix. Sift flour and cocoa together. Add buttermilk to the mixture of butter and eggs, alternating with flour and cocoa and whipped, at low speed, to obtain a homogeneous compound.
Mix baking soda and vinegar quickly in a small bowl: they will form a foam and react with each other. Add them immediately to the dough and knead for another 1 minute, the time needed to mix everything.
Enter about 300 g of dough in each 20 cm diameter cake tin, buttered and with the bottom lined with baking paper. The rest of the dough will go in the 24 cm diameter mold. Bake at 170 º C in a static oven for about 22-23 minutes.
Once cooked, take out the cakes and let them cool completely.
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
In the mixer, whisk the cold cheese, whipped cream and mascarpone cheese, straight from the refrigerator, together with icing sugar and grated lemon peel. Keep stirring until you have a smooth and perfectly whipped mixture. Refrigerate the cream for at least a couple of hours.
VANILLA AND CARDAMOM SYRUP
Bring to a boil water, granulated sugar, vanilla berries deprived of pulp, seeds of cardamom pods and lemon peels deprived of albedo (the white part). When the liquid begins to boil, continue to cook for 1 minute. Then, set aside and let cool.
CAKE ASSEMBLE
Naked cake: Lightly moisturize the bases with the syrup. Alternate a layer of cheese frosting to each sponge cake, by dosing it with a pastry bag, equipped with a round and smooth 10 mm diameter spout, creating small spikes.
Add some raspberries on the cream, overlap another base and continue as before. On the surface of the last disk of sponge cake spread with a spatula a light layer of cream in the center, then with the pastry bag create spikes on the perimeter of the sponge cake and finally distribute all the raspberries in the center, garnishing with leaves and edible flowers.
Keep the cake in the refrigerator for about two hours before serving.
Mini red velvet: with the ring cut a 24 cm diameter base, until you obtain some disks. Proceed to assemble the mini red velvet as for the naked cake.
Keep the cakes in the refrigerator for about two hours before serving.
Happy Holidays!
Crifo and Il Cantuccio di Romeo