Red Velvet Cake

This spooky cake is ideal for Halloween.... It has a luscious red interior, with white ghostly icing, and decorated with cobwebs.   The first time I tried it, I used liquid colouring, which wasn't a success, so I tried again using Dr Oetker red gel/paste, which gave the desired spooky effect!   I made this for a lovely friend, Lucie, and we had to try it early, just to see how red it was!

Update:  The Dr Oetker paste gel now doesn't work, so you need to find a proper paste - Squire's Kitchen, or one on-line.  See my brown velvet muffins post!

Red Velvet Halloween Cake

Red velvet cake

21oz/600g caster sugar

8oz/250g softened butter

6 eggs

2 tbsp red food colouring (or 2 small tubes of paste)

1tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp cocoa powder

13oz/375g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

8floz/250ml buttermilk

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tbsp vinegar

Icing

2x 7oz/200g packs cream cheese

12oz/350g white chocolate, melted

8oz/250g softened butter

Preheat the oven to 170 deg C and spray 3 8"loose based sandwich tins with release agent, or grease and line them with parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar, adding the eggs one by one, beating well.  Add a small quantity of flour to prevent the eggs from curdling.   Add the colouring and vanilla.

Sieve the flour, salt and cocoa together and add to the mixture, alternating with the buttermilk.    Mix the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar together, stirring the fizzy mixture into the cake.  Don't over-beat at this stage.

Tip the mixture into the three tins and bake for approx 25 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate and allow to cool.  Beat the cream cheese until fluffy, then add the chocolate and butter gradually, beating all the time.  Spread over the cake and decorate.