Killer Queen Cake
Red velvet cake! Some people describe red velvet cake as the ‘Queen of Cakes’! And rightly so. It’s a perfect flavour combination of moist cake with a hint of cocoa, which when paired with my tangy and perfectly pipeable cream cheese frosting is a match made in heaven!
So around the time Anthony and I started dating, he introduced me to Kacey Musgraves, or as we call her: Kaycay. We love Kaycay. Her music is amazing. Well, we were listening to one of her songs named Velvet Elvis. So that’s what inspired me to make this red velvet-covered Kween cake. But then at the last minute, because one of you guys suggested it, I decided to call it ‘Killer Kween’ cake. But just so you all know, Kaycay inspired the original cake. I just think the dangerous spikes at the top are what made me want to make this gorgeous super red (velvet) cake!
Nick’s favorite thing…
Duh? The crown! It takes a bit of time to make it, and lots of patience, but it’s so freaking cool! And I love that it’s covered in velvet spray. On that, make sure you either spray this stuff outside or spray it in an enclosed area because this stuff floats in the air, and trust me when I say this, it will stick to anything it lands on and stain it.
What does Red velvet cake taste like?
This cake is made up of my red velvet cake recipe. Check the recipe out here! It’s delicious. Has a slight hint of cocoa and is perfectly moist. It’s also really well complimented by my cream cheese frosting!
What are the ingredients I need for Red velvet cake?
All-purpose flour – also known as plain flour.
Caster sugar – also known as suoperfine sugar.
Cocoa powder – I used unsweetened cocoa powder.
Baking powder – this helps the cake rise.
Bicarb soda – this reacts with the cocoa powder and is also known as baking soda.
Salt – I used fine salt.
Eggs – I used large eggs.
Vegetable oil – You can use sunflower oil instead.
Buttermilk – buttermilk is an acidic milk that makes cakes and desserts moist. You can make your own by adding 1 tsp of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Mix and let it sit for 5 minutes before using.
Vanilla Extract – Always use good quality vanilla extract when baking, it makes a huge difference. I have a great recipe here for it if you’d like to try your own!
Red food dye – I used Queen brand liquid food dye.
Cream Cheese Frosting – so light, creamy, tangy and perfectly pipeable! grab the recipe here!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting – Super smooth and totally delicious. Perfect for shiny, sharp cake edges! Grab the recipe here!
Dark chocolate – I used Nestle chocolate buttons.
Red food gel – I used chefmaster food gel.
Red velvet spray – It’s expensive. The can I bought cost me $50, but one can will cover two of these cakes. If you google: ‘Cake Craft spray butter velvet red chocolate’ you’ll be able to find the one I used. There are other brands out there so do a search and find which places will ship to you. Alternatively, if you can’t find the spray or it’s just too expensive for you, you can leave the cake without the velvet spray. It will still look red because of that red frosting and red chocolate crown and it will taste just as great, but the velvet spray just adds a whole other dimension to the cake.
Red candy melts – I used the Wilton red candy melts.
My Top Tips!
- Take your time with the crown. It needs time to set. I’d make it on a separate day to when you make the cake. You could make it up to a week before and store it in an airtight container. Spray it on the day you’re going to put it on the cake.
- If you’re taking this somewhere, add the crown on top once you arrive, not in the car.
Other Recipes You Might Like!
- Red Velvet Cake – a gorgeous and elegant red vekvet cake
- Red Velvet Cupcakes – like the cake, but in a cupcake!
- Sign From Above Cake – a gorgeous and spooky Halloween cake.
- Cream Cheese Frosting – my favorite frosting recipe!
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Instagram @thescranline, Facebook and watch and subscribe to my videos on YouTube!
I hope you guys enjoyed this simple but delicious Red velvet cake recipe with me. Please comment in the comments section below, or feel free to share with your family and friends on social media.
I’ll see you all on the following recipe. Happy baking!
N x
Killer Queen Cake
Serves 45
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 1/2 cups / 400 g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups / 320 g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicabonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup / 190 ml vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups / 300 ml buttermilk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp liquid red food dye
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3 batches cream cheese frosting
Red Frosting
- 3 batches Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
- 1 1/2 cups / 300 ml dark chocolate, melted
- 15 drops red food gel
Decorations
- 1 can Red Velvet Spray (see notes)
Chocolate Crown
- 3 cups / 600 g Wilton red candy melts
Instructions
Chocolate Crown
- Add the red chocolate to a large microwave safe bowl and microwave for 20 seconds at a time, mixing each time until melted and smooth. Spread the chocolate evenly amongst three baking trays lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. Use a large offset spatula to spread the chocolate evenly. Allow to set at room temperature.
- Take the baking paper or silicone mat away from the chocolate and place on a chopping board.
- Use a large sharp knife to cut out diamonds of chocolate by placing the cut out diamond shapes from the template over the chocolate. Carefully run the tip of your sharp knife over the diamond cut out which will act as a guide. Take the diamond template away and continue gently running the tip of your knife over the edges of your diamond shape until you’ve cut all the way to the bottom of the chocolate. For each 3D diamond on the crown, you’ll need three flat diamond shapes. Simply add some small dabs of melted red chocolate along one long edge of one of the flat diamond shapes and stick the long edge of another flat diamond shape to it. Let it set for a couple minutes before adding some more melted red chocolate along the bottom short bits of the diamond to add another diamond to the bottom. Allow it to set.
- For the crown you’ll need 3 large 3D diamond and 4 small 3D diamond shapes.
- To assemble the crown you’ll need some patience. It takes time for things to set before you can move onto adding the next diamond.I found the easiest way to add assemble the crown is to tightly cover a small4” cake tin or something similar in size in some plastic wrap. Place the large middle 3D diamond against the front of the cake tin and then add a small dab of melted red chocolate on each side of the large diamond. Use that as glue to attach a small 3D diamond on either side of the large diamond. Let them set before adding more diamonds to complete the crown. Once complete add as much chocolate to the back of the crown as you can do keep everything together without it showing when you look at the front of the crown. Add it everywhere you think there’s a weakness where you think the crown might break.
- Once you’ve done that, let it set for about an hour in a cool place before transferring to a flat surface like a chopping board and chill in the fridge for at least an hour before using.
Cake
- Please note: to make this double stack red velvet cake you’ll need to triple the red velvet cake recipe only. All other recipes and measurements are enough to put the cake together and decorate it. Most mixing bowls will not be able to fit ingredients for triple this recipe. I would recommend making each batch separately. It’s going to take about an hour but it’s quite a large cake.Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140C (280F) or 160C(320F) for a conventional oven. Spray three 8” cake tins and three 6” cake tins with oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper. Set aside.
- Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt into a large mixing bowl and mix on low speed using a hand mixer to help everything combine.
- Next, add the eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla and red food dye to the dry ingredients and continue mixing on low speed until everything is well combined. Scrape down the bowl and mix for a final 20seconds on low speed.
- Once you have made all three batches of batter, fill the 8” cake tins about ¾ of the way. Be as accurate as you can be. You may want to weigh the first cake tin as you fill it using kitchen scales and then use that weight as a guide to fill the remaining 8” cake tins. Distribute the remaining batter amongst the 6” cake tins using the same method. Again, this can be a time consuming way to do it, but it will ensure everything bakes evenly and at the same time.
- Bake the 6” and 8” cakes in the oven at the same time if your oven can fit all the cakes. Bake the 6” cakes for 50-60 min and the 8”cakes for an extra 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the pick comes out with wet batter, bake for a further 10 min at a time until fully baked. Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature inside the cake tins and then chill them in the fridge overnight. Chilling your cakes overnight makes them easier to trim and decorate. So I bake my cakes the day before I decorate them.
- To trim your chilled cakes, use a cake leveler or large serrated knife to carefully trim the crust off the top of each cake before you trim each 8” cake in half. You’ll end up with six 8” layers of cake.Only trim the tops off the 6” cakes so you end up with 3 layers of cake.
- To crumb coat your cake, add a dab of cream cheese frosting onto an 8” cake board or flat serving plate. Use a small offset spatula to spread the frosting around before adding the first cake layer.Gently press down the center of the cake layer to make sure it’s stuck to the frosting underneath.
- Please note, my cream cheese frosting is much stiffer than most cream cheese frosting. You can pipe my frosting compared to most cream cheese frosting that can only be spread onto cupcakes. But my frosting will still melt and soften in warm environments. To prevent your frosting from softening too much which can cause your cake to collapse, make sure you keep the frosting and cake chilled in the fridge.
- Add frosting to a piping bag and frost a ring around the top of the cake. Fill the centre with more frosting. Use your small offset spatula to smoothen out the frosting before you add the next layer of cake.Repeat with the remaining layers.
- Add more frosting around the top and sides of the cake. Use the small spatula to smoothen out the top and sides of the cake, taking care to fill in any gaps in between each layer of cake.
- Use a cake scraper (otherwise known as a bench scraper) to smoothen out the frosting on the sides and top. Get it as neat as you can. This should just be a neat, thin layer of frosting which is aimed at trapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the final layer of frosting. Once the crumb coat is complete and looking neat, add three bubble straws or cake dowels in the centre of cake. This will help keep your cake together and prevent it from collapsing under the weight of the6” cake that will sit on top.
- Fill and crumb coat the 6” cake (without the straws/dowels. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.
- Your cake is now crumb coated and ready for the layer of red frosting. To prepare the red frosting, add the melted chocolate and red food gel to the frosting and mix using an electric mixer until well combined and evenly colored. You want to scrape the bowl down using a spatula at least once to make sure everything is mixed in properly. If you find your frosting isn’t red enough, add more red food gel. Please note: this frosting is best prepare the day before. For some reason the frosting gets deeper in colour after a day of resting. If you’re preparing the cake the day before, simply freshen up by beating on low speed before frosting your cake.
- Add the red frosting the same way you did with the cream cheese frosting and use the bench scraper to smoothen out the sides and top. Repeat with the 6” cake.
- Chill both in the fridge for at least 2 hours, overnight is ideal. We want to get them as chilled as we can before adding the red velvet spray.
- Add a dab of red frosting on top of the 8” cake and carefully transfer the 6” cake on top. Carefully and firmly press the top of the 6” cake on top of the 8” cake so that it sticks. Then place the chocolate crown on top
- Now, on the red velvet spray. It’s expensive. The canI bought cost me $50, but one can will cover two of these cakes. If you google:‘Cake Craft spray butter velvet red chocolate’ you’ll be able to find the one I used. There are other brands out there so do a search and find which places will ship to you. Alternatively, if you can’t find the spray or it’s just too expensive for you, you can leave the cake without the velvet spray. It will still look red because of that red frosting and red chocolate crown and it will taste just as great, but the velvet spray just adds a whole other dimension to the cake.
- Guys, just one more note on the spray: DO NOT SPRAY THIS STUFF INSIDE!!! I cannot stress enough how important that is. Spray it outside. I sprayed it inside because I needed to film the process and the spray particles (essentially colored butter) stayed in the air for 10 minutes before landing on E V E R Y T H I N G in my house. The microwave, my plates, my mixer, the couch, the floors. I was scrubbing for 4 hours with burning hot water and soap. Spray the cake outside, away from things you don’t semi permanently stained.
- When you’re ready to spray the cake, hold the can about 40cm away from the surface you’re spraying and spray away. Don’t be tempted to use the entire can. One layer of spray will suffice. It’s ready to serve!
Notes
Nutrition
