Red Velvet Layer Cake topped with Cream Cheese Frosting and Fresh Berries is fit for a right royal celebration! Get patriotic with the recipe below.
A recipe fit for a queen
It seems as though a summer doesn’t go by without some need to bring out the bunting, host a BBQ and get waving those flags. In recent years we’ve had the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics, and of course each year we have Eurovision!
This year is the Queen’s 90th birthday and yet again British people are expected to host street parties, BBQs and garden parties up and down the country. There will be jugs of Pimms, burnt sausages and more Union Jack themed food then you could possibly imagine.
Not one to miss out on all the fun, I wanted to share a simple red velvet layer cake recipe that could easily be decorated to form the centre piece of your Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebrations.
Spot the (un)intentional mistake…
Before we get down to the detail, let’s see which of you knows your Union Jack really well. Can you spot the mistake? I may have accidentally left the raspberries off of the top of the cake meaning the red X that represents Ireland is missing. OOPS! It was an accident I promise!!!
To be fair, I had a very good excuse to for forgetting. I actually baked this cake on the day of Eurovision. We had friends coming over for a party and Jon was setting up in the lounge. He’s lit some candles and had started getting out the bunting, flags and my Union Jack jester’s hat (don’t ask…) Unfortunately, Jon had placed these a little too close to some of the candles and we nearly had a house fire on our hands! The hat went up in flames scarily quickly and we burnt the table cloth and our dining room table. (Oops!) Luckily we put the fire out quite quickly but after all of the panic I snapped a handful of photos of the cake and got to disposing of the burnt tablecloth remains. The raspberries stayed on the side until that night when I realised my mistake.
Full instructions below will remind you to include Ireland on your cake and hopefully you won’t have any fires to distract you.
A Royal Red Velvet Cake – The Recipe
Now you may be wondering why I’ve chosen to make such a Great British cake with an American cake recipe – well, I’ve adapted the original American red velvet cake recipe which usually uses buttermilk and is measured out in cups to have UK measurements and uses yogurt instead. Not all supermarkets sell buttermilk which can be a bit of a nuisance! Hopefully this Red Velvet Recipe is UK friendly!
Ingredients
- 175g butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp red food gel
- 200g self raising flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- Pinch of salt
- 150g pot low-fat natural yogurt
- Cream cheese frosting from Kerry Cooks
- 100g blueberries
- 4 large strawberries
- 100g raspberries
Instructions
- Begin by pre-heating your oven to 180C or gas mark 4.
- Get organised and line two 20cm cake tins with grease proof paper and place to one side.
- In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugar and seeds from the vanilla pod until light and creamy.
- Add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each egg.
- You will know it is ready when the mixture is pale and fluffy.
- Add in the food colouring and stir well to make sure its evenly distributed.
- Next fold in the flour, cocoa powder and pinch of salt into the red mix.
- Finally fold in the yogurt.
- Spoon the mixture into the two cake tins and place in the centre of the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until they are bouncy to the touch.
- Leave them to cool slightly before turning out on to a wire wrack.
- Allow to cook completely before decorating.
- Once the cakes a completely cool, sandwich together with half of the cream cheese frosting.
- Top the cake with the remaining cream cheese frosting before adding the fruit.
- To make the union jack, begin by taking the green tops off of the strawberries and thinly slicing. Lay these out, slightly overlapping each other to create the + in the centre of the cake.
- Next use the raspberries to create the X leaving a slight gap between the raspberries and strawberries so the cream cheese frosting shows through.
- Finally, use the blueberries to fill in the remaining space, again leaving a gap between the blueberries and other fruit so some of the cream cheese frosting shows through.
You’ll notice in the ingredients list that I’ve said to use Kerry Cook’s cream cheese frosting. Kerry is the QUEEN of cream cheese frosting. She’s come up with an amazing recipe and method for making the best cream cheese frosting and it wouldn’t have been fair for me to recreate it here.Visit her blog for the recipe. I guarantee you’ll love it!
More Great British Inspiration
If you’re thinking of hosting a Great British Garden Party for the Queen’s birthday why not try some of these recipes from my blogging pals:
- Pimms Summer Tarts from Munchies and Munchkins
- Union Jack Pavlova from Fab Food For All
- Crown shaped shortbread from Foodie Quine
- Great British Sponge Cake from Planet Veggie
Like this recipe? Why not pin it for later!
Aww how annoying for you, shame you couldn’t photoshop the raspberries on LOL! Despite that you cake looks utterly fabulous even if you have reinvented the Union Jack:-) I’l have a big slice please! Thanks for including my Pavlova:-)
Hahaha Camilla it did cross my mind lol :-p unfortunately my photoshop skills are not that good! Glad you like it 🙂
Oh who cares if you missed a bit – this looks awesome. I want a big old slice please and a jug of pimms on the side. xx
Thanks Rebecca 🙂 one big slice coming your way!
A very patriotic cake indeed! I love the contrasting colours from the fruit here, it looks gorgeous!
This looks gorgeous! Who wants raspberries anyway?!
We had a similar incident involving candles and a fancy paper napkin last year. I think in future I’ll stick to those battery powered tea lights!
Very wise Helen! We do actually have some of then. This was a huge scented candle, multiple wicks, just asking for trouble :-p the raspberries made a nice addition on the side of the plate 😉
I love flag cakes, this looks lovely!
Thanks Stuart! Do you have any? Maybe I should get creative for the Euros and do lots!
What a beautiful cake! Perfect for the Queen’s Jubilee or our 4th of July!
Thanks Julie!
What a fun and festive cake to make.
What a fun and tasty recipe! I a m pinning it for later!
Thanks Tania. I’m glad you like it!
Don’t you hate it when you leave something off during the photoshoot??? GAH! Anyways… this cake still looks absolutely beautiful. I love red velvet cake!
Thanks Trish! Glad I’m not the only one who does it! It still tasted delicious that’s for sure 🙂
I hate when i forget a detail ater the fact! I bet you were kicking yourself when editing huh? Looks delicious nonetheless!
I so was Derek! Took me a while to work out why there were so many raspberries left but when I did I was gutted!!! Ah well. We can’t be perfect all of the time can we 😉 glad you like it!
This is so pretty. Hey it could be worse. Glad you were able to act quickly and everyone got to enjoy this cake
Thanks Renz! 🙂
This is absolutely beautiful Emma! Thank you so much for recommending my cream cheese frosting!
My pleasure Kerry your cream cheese frosting is THE BEST! Won’t make it any other way now 🙂
funnily enough we were talking about red velvet cake at lunchtime today when we spotted some in the canteen. A friend of mine says she uses beetroot to get the red colouring
Perfect timing for you to stumble across this recipe then Elaine! Beetroot is a fantastic natural food colouring, great suggestion.
This looks amazing!! Even if I made this I don’t think it would look half as good! x
Thanks Hannah 🙂 give it a go! I’d love to see a picture x
Looks yummy! I spent a summer in the UK and loved watching Eurovision. I wish I could have been there for the Queen’s birthday as I love a good garden party.
Maybe next time Lauren 😉 I don’t doubt she’ll get to 100!!! Glad you like the recipe 🙂