This time of the year has come again. A time to plan out the next few months ahead, before the snow starts to melt and flowers begin to flourish. It is almost the end of winter, by months at least, and I already start thinking about where to go for summer. Some of my co-students in University and I are thinking of doing a cruise trip in Greek islands this year. It would be a perfect opportunity for them to visit Greece with a local and for me to be a tour guide. I always love showing people around my favourite places.
Before all this fun time, however, I am in the middle of writing my thesis for the Graduate program I follow at University of Luzern and I have so much work to do. Without trying to complain about it, it was a very fun experience, with lots of good friends in the way. I still can't believe almost two years have passed since I came to Switzerland. To me it still feels like yesterday I was packing my things and my two best friends surprised me with a photo-video of the three of us. Time passes by so, so quickly...
Since it's February and some of you (us) are in love, no better reason exists to enjoy a warm and creamy red velvet cake with our other half. Red Velvet is a classic for Valentine's Day and I remember last year I didn't make something relevant, instead I made a chocolate smoothie. But this year, I wanted to make something different and experiment with the sweetness of chocolate and the sour taste of cream cheese. Initial thoughts were to create a lava cake with a runny middle and a warm exterior. However, things didn't go as well as planned and I ended up with a marvellous soft cake with a soft and creamy middle. Which was perfect after all!
This recipe is quite easy and there is no need for you to master your skills in frosting and layering a cake. The recipe calls for all the ingredients you would normally find in a Red Velvet Cake in the form of a smaller cake that resembles a muffin.
Mini Red Velvet Cakes with soft middle
ingredient (for 6 cakes)
1 cup flour (shifted)
1/2 cup butter melted
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cacao (shifted)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon apple cider (optionally)
2 tablespoons food colouring (if liquid, otherwise according to instuctions)
1/2 cup cream cheese (room temperature)
1/4 heavy cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
How do I make it?
1. First step is to prepare the soft middle of the cakes. In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, heavy cream and icing sugar until smooth. If the mixture is runny, add a little more icing sugar. Cover the surface of a small pan with baking paper and with a spoon form small bites in the form of ball on the parchment paper, keeping them apart from each other. Place the pan in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. The bites need to be firm.
2. In the meanwhile, start preparing the cake batter. In a bigger bowl mix together all the dry ingredients, such as flour, sugar, cacao, baking soda and salt. Then pour inside the melted butter, the buttermilk, the egg yolk, vanilla extract, food colouring and apple cider. Start mixing really well with an electric mixer until you have a good and smooth batter.
3. When the cream cheese bites are ready, start preheating the oven at 200 C. Then, take a muffin pan. Start filling 6 muffin cases with a full tablespoon of batter. Take a cream cheese bite and put it in the middle, by pushing it a little bit so that it sinks into the batter. With the remaining batter cover the top of all the 6 cakes.
4. Bake the cakes for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool a little bit.
5. To serve, place a flat pan on top of the muffin pan, keep the sides firmly and try to reverse the muffin pan onto the flat pan to get the cakes. Place the cakes onto a plate or plates and cover with some icing sugar! Enjoy with your loved one...
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