Red velvet cake with yoghurt and cream cheese crema

The only way I get through my morning gym session is by watching cooking shows. First it was Huey’s Cooking and most recently Ben’s Kitchen. You may think that watching chefs cook indulgent, mouth-watering food is an odd choice when attempting to get healthy, however I love it.

I love learning about different flavour combinations and how to present a truly fulfilling meal for all the senses. Recently on Ben’s Kitchen, he made a vanilla cake. At the onset it sounds a bit boring – something a Balfours tea cake would trump. However he proceeded to make a beautiful crema with mascarpone and cream and finish it off with fresh berries and nuts for some freshness and texture.

The cake was ripped apart and each element was placed on the plate in a rustic manner that resulted in height and alluring colour. I wanted to do the same but needed an occasion. So when we were having family over for dinner, I took the opportunity.

This red (or in my case pink because I only had pink food colouring) velvet cake was served with unique, marvellous creation like elements (as Cadbury says…’It starts when you just add marvellous’) to make every mouthful a surprise.

To compliment the cake, I served it with a yoghurt and cream cheese crema, chocolate icing, raspberry lollies, jersey caramel and mini chocolate bowl filled with popping candy.

Ingredients:

Yoghurt and cream cheese crema:

• ½ cup icing sugar, sifted
• 50g butter, softened
• 100g cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons of yoghurt.

Cake:

• 175g butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup plain flour
• ½ cup yoghurt
• ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 20ml red food colouring.

Method:

For the cake:

• Cream the butter and sugar
• Mix in the eggs
• Sift the flour, self-raising flour and bicard soda
• Add the sifted flours and yoghurt alternately to the wet batter
• Mix in salt, vanilla essence and food colouring.

Icing:

• Mix butter and icing sugar unit smooth
• Add the cream cheese and yoghurt and mix until smooth.

I served the cake broken up into pieces with the crema and chocolate icing, lollies and popping candy.

The cake is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It is a dense cake and somewhat of a brownie and cake hybrid. If you want to experiment with dessert design and flavours, this is a great start.

Farewell fun yoghurt fact – “Regular yoghurt uses a minimum of 3.5% milk fat and 8.25% milk solids.”

Source: http://factspage.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/14-interesting-facts-about-yoghurt.html