My Christmas Cakes will be on sale at the Bertinet Kitchen on Sat 13th and Sat 20th December. I’m making two kinds…
One is my version of the classic Red Velvet which was originally created at the Waldorf Astoria in New York as a layer cake. It takes its name from the vanilla cake taking on a reddish hue from the small amount of Dutch process (alkalised) cocoa powder added, though now people often add red colour too. I prefer to keep them natural, using seedless raspberry jam (or even better, home-made bramble jelly), jammy dodger-style to enhance the red velvet effect as well as the taste. They’re finished with vanilla cream cheese frosting and hand-made sugar flowers. People who’ve come on the cupcake class will know that I like to pipe some jam in the middle of the cake too… a retro nod to doughnuts as well as jammy dodgers!
The other is a new variety I’ve developed, inspired by Hotel Chocolate’s white chocolate bar with pistachio combination. I’m calling them Lemon Taffeta! These are lemon cakes topped with whipped white chocolate ganache, decorated with toasted chopped pistachios and handmade gold-painted flowers. They’re fresh and indulgent at the same time.
Which would you choose? Or would you prefer something more obviously Christmasy… say, chocolate cake with spiced dark chocolate ganache and rum-butter filling? (I might make those too!).
Posted by: Sara
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