Mini Red Velvet Cakes: Super-Moist and Topped with a Cake Truffle
Amycakes Bakes | amycakesbakes.com
These delicious mini red velvet cakes are soft, moist, and tender. They have a lovely light chocolate flavor and are perfectly paired with fluffy vanilla cream cheese buttercream. Using this recipe you can make six mini cakes out of one quarter-sheet pan of cake.These cute little cakes are each topped with a mini red velvet cake truffle, making the perfect homemade gift for someone you love--or serve them as individual desserts or party favors!
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 177 grams (1 ¼ cups + 1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour I use Gold Medal
- 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 16 grams (2 Tablespoons) Instant Clearjel a food starch used in commercial baking that you can use at home, see Note #1
- 19 grams (3 Tablespoons) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder I use Hershey's
- 238 grams (1 cup + 3 Tablespoons) Sugar
Wet Ingredients
- 2 large Eggs
- ¾ cup Buttermilk
- ¼ cup Water
- ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Other Cake Ingredients
- ¾ stick(s) (3 ounces) Salted Butter
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Liquid Red Food Coloring
- 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream
- 455 grams (3 ½ cups) Powdered Sugar
- 8 grams (1 Tablespoon(s)) Instant Clearjel a food starch used in commercial baking that you can use at home, see Note #1
- 4 ounces Cream Cheese
- 1 ½ sticks (6 ounces) Salted Butter at room temperature
- 48 grams (¼ cup) Shortening
- 1 Tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Make The Red Velvet Cake
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 1" tall ¼ sheet pan with parchment paper, then spray the bottom (on top of the parchment) and sides of the pan with cooking spray.
- Using a sifter or fine mesh strainer, sift the Dry Ingredients into a large bowl, then whisk until well blended.
- Combine Wet Ingredients in a separate large bowl and whisk until smooth and well-blended.
- Melt salted butter in the microwave (or over the stove) until just melted. Avoid overcooking.
- Pour Wet Ingredients over the Dry Ingredients, then immediately before stirring add in the apple cider vinegar. Whisk everything together--the apple cider vinegar will bubble slightly as it reacts with the wet and dry ingredients.
- Pour the melted Butter and the red food color into the batter and whisk until smooth, uniform and lump-free.
- Pour the red velvet cake batter into the prepared ¼ sheet pan and smooth out the batter until even (an offset icing spatula works well for this). The batter will be about ¼ inch from the top of a 1" tall sheet pan.
- Bake in the middle or top rack (avoid bottom rack) of a preheated 325-degree oven for 16 minutes. Without opening the oven, turn the temperature down to 300 degrees and bake for another 6-8 minutes. Check the cake at this point. See if it is done by lightly touching the top of the cake--try to avoid moving the cake pan or baking rack, which could cause an underdone cake to sink. If jiggly at all to your touch, bake for another 1-5 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick or small paring knife comes out clean when quickly stuck in the cake. A few moist crumbs on your knife are fine, but they shouldn't look wet.
- Allow cake to cool completely, then wrap thoroughly in plastic wrap and freeze the cake in the pan until it is cold or frozen. (You can bake and freeze the cake a couple of weeks ahead if desired. I pull the plastic wrap out and place the pan on top of it. Then I wrap 2-3 ways horizontally and one way vertically so that there are two layers of wrap on all sides of the pan including the bottom).
Make House Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream
- Whisk the powdered sugar and Instant Clearjel together until well-blended. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer (preferred) or handheld mixer and a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until broken up and softened. Add the room temperature salted butter and continue to beat, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the shortening and beat and scrape the sides until there are no lumps.
- While the mixer is on low, slowly add the powdered sugar mixture. Add the pure vanilla, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then beat the buttercream on high for 2-3 minutes. This will add air into the buttercream and make it light and fluffy. The Instant Clearjel will cause the buttercream to thicken slightly during the next 10 minutes as it sits.
Cut out the Mini Cakes and Make Red Velvet Cake Toppings
- The mini cakes are easiest to assemble from cold or frozen. Cut out 12 mini cake circles with a 2.6" cookie cutter. Reserve ½ cup of cake scraps for red velvet cake dust, and the rest for cake truffles, if desired. It is my preference to remove the cake scraps, then rewrap and freeze the cake circles, so that I can divide up my time between 2+ days.
- To make red velvet dust, crumble ½ cup of red velvet cake scraps onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, and bake at 250 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake feels crisp to the touch. Once the cake is cool, pulse the dried cake in a food processor until it turns into crumbly dust. Keep dust at room temperature or freeze until using.
- To make mini red velvet cake truffles, smash the remaining cake into a soft dough and follow the instructions in my step-by-step Cake Truffle recipe, using a 4-tsp Cookie Scoop. Sprinke the dipped truffles with red velvet dust right after dipping.
Layer, Decorate, and Serve
- Since the red velvet cake is very moist and delicate, the easiest way to layer and decorate these mini cakes is from cold or frozen. Place 6 cake circles on 6 mini cake boards. Pipe a swirl of buttercream on top, then top each cake with a 2nd cake circle and a second swirl of buttercream.
- Top the mini cakes with a sprinkle of red velvet dust and a red velvet cake truffle. Let them set up in the fridge, but remove from the fridge 2-3 hours before serving so they can come back to room temperature. These cakes have the best texture at room temperature. These mini cake red velvet cakes will stay very moist if kept in an airtight container. Eat within 2 days or freeze. Enjoy!
Notes
Read my article Instant Clearjel: a Magical Little-Known Bakery Ingredient to see why I think this ingredient is worth having in your pantry. Instant Clearjel must always be whisked thoroughly with other dry ingredients before being added to wet ingredients to avoid clumping. (Make sure what you use is labeled as “Instant.” Cooktype Clearjel is a different product that does not work the same in cakes). If you need a substitute, in the cake batter you may substitute 3 tablespoon Jello Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix in place of the 2 tablespoon Instant Clearjel in a 1x batch, but just leave the Instant Clearjel out of the frosting, adding a little more powdered sugar if you need a thicker frosting.