Red Velvet IceCream Cake

Alhamdulillah, the blog is 5 today! I have written long posts every blog anniversary, but this time I will give it a break. 😉 I guess I am done with being emotional about the blog and look at it very practically from now on. 😀 As I go into this post, I want to share with you a little secret. I actually planned a super long post of the best recipe of each month since The BST started, yes, 60 months and 60 posts. But as I started working on the post and reached close to the end of the first year, I got so overwhelmed of selecting the posts that I decided to give it up halfway! 😀 I really couldn’t help it… So coming back to what I had originally planned for…

This year, you may have noticed that the flow is broken. I am taking it really slow. There are no valid reasons behind the exercise, but all I can say is that I was feeling really stressed about working on posts continuously and it was really not helping me. I was feeling blogging like a chore and had even thought of giving it up. Some chord was amiss. I slowly started to realize why many lose their zing. The same interest with which I started blogging was slowly waning off and I didn’t want that to happen. This blog has a lot of hours in it – whether of cooking, of clicking, of posting the recipe. This blog has a lot of my life in it. This blog has a lot of my money in it – whether it’s the props, stuff I have bought and hoarded, on maintenance of the blog and otherwise.

But somehow, when the interest dips, I always get a mail, message or a prompt making me feel that all is not lost. There is still something in it. That is what keeps me going and InShaAllah, such small gestures from all of you will keep me going. Just like I have said all the time – thank you for all the love and affection that has kept BST alive till date and will continue to keep it alive as long as possible! OK, I started the post saying I wouldn’t get emotional, and in turn I did get emotional! So much of self control… 😀

I had so many things to do in mind, alas, I am not in a position to do any of them. Somehow, time seems to be tighter now. Haha… no, I am not blaming anybody who thinks I am a very good time manager and wondering how I do it. I just give them a smile. I am not able to keep up with the pace of posting multi-times a week. It is putting a lot of pressure on me. I want blogging to be an enjoyable journey rather than a pushed up chore. So I have decided to slow down. I don’t care about my drafts anymore, they will appear on the blog as and when they are being pushed ahead. Meanwhile, I will cook new dishes at my leisure and slowly post them too, InShaAllah. I did a poll on IG recently and got voted for 4 posts on an average in a week, which I feel is a good number of posts to do with. So InShaAllah, hoping to stick to 3 and maximum 4 posts per week, not more than that. I hope to take a breather and take it easy… 🙂

It can’t be anything else to celebrate, except with a sweet dish, right? This post actually ticked off two to-do in my list – one was making a Red Velvet Cake and another was making an ice cream cake! Ever since my sister shared with me her ice cream cake that she made for her boy’s birthday a few years ago, I have been wanting to make it. But something or the other would get made, and the idea kept going into the backburner, till I saw this post. It was ultimate, I really couldn’t resist. Coupled with a few comments from people who actually tried it, I had to make it. First of all, the color of the red velvet bleeds into the plain ice cream and give it a beautiful look. I am really not a fan of red velvet… I have tried a few cakes from outside and some really tasted bad. 🙁 This recipe did change my perception a lot, though I would love to experiment with the cake a little more, InShaAllah. But for this dessert, it was just perfect!

If you are in a lazy mood, you can use a tub of vanilla ice cream and just go ahead. But I like it all from scratch, so I went ahead making it. The waiting time is a bit too much so give yourself enough time to enjoy this dessert. Another pointer is to bake the cake in the same pan as you are going to set it. I baked it in a different pan but turned out slightly smaller than the springfoam pan that I set it in, but it didn’t hamper the look of the dessert, that little spacing did make it look pretty. 🙂

The cake does use food coloring, so if you are vary of it, then don’t make it. I have tried variations of red velvet with beetroot puree, but that wouldn’t qualify to be called a “red velvet”. Of course, this is a once-in-a-while dessert so that little coloring won’t really hurt. 🙂 I have used the small bottle of Foster Clark red color that you get on the shelves of every supermarket over here. As for the buttermilk, I used our own laban. I see that buttermilk is a very essential ingredient for a red velvet and it makes it extra fluffy and moist. I have adjusted on the sugar in the cake as well as the condensed milk in the ice cream, and it was perfectly sweet for us. If you like more sweetness, then please feel free to play with the quantities. So true to the red velvet, the ice cream has cream cheese in it, so it is definitely a calorific dessert, but so apt for parties that it will disappear off the table in no time! Everybody in the house plus my cousin who comes over the weekend totally loved it, that he had two big slices of it all on his own. Hehe… By the way, I baked the cake in one tray and cut into half. If you are a stickler to neat things, then make the batter into half and bake them in two pans. 😀

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I have enjoyed doing it. InShaAllah, hoping to be able to come here to many many more years on The BST, with all your support and duas… 🙂 Off to the recipe…

5 from 5 votes

Red Velvet IceCream Cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 6 hours hours

Total Time 7 hours hours

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• FOR CAKE:
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 1/2 + 1/8 cup oil
• 1/2 + 1/8 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 oz red food coloring
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• FOR ICE CREAM:
• 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 tin condensed milk
• 1 cup cream cheese

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease an 8 inch spring-foam pan well.
• Whisk all the wet ingredients till well combined.
• In a larger bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over it and fold in till moist.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or till a skewer in the center comes out clean.
• Allow to cool in pan for five minutes, before flipping onto a cooling rack. Cool completely.
• Cut the cake into half. Level the top. Reserve all the crumbs.
• For preparing the ice cream, whisk the condensed milk and cream cheese together.
• Whip the cream till stiff. Then add in the cheese-milk mixture and fold well.
• Fold in all the reserved crumbs.
• In the same springfoam pan, put down one layer of the cake. Pour the ice cream mixture on top of it, and then top with the second layer. Cover the pan with cling film and keep in the freezer overnight.
• Before serving, keep out for five minutes. Cut into slices with a sharp knife and enjoy!

Notes

For an eggless version, add 1/8 cup each of oil and buttermilk, ie. the quantities of both used will be 3/4 cup each.
If you can't find buttermilk, you can use laban if you are in the Gulf, OR whisk yogurt and water 2:1 to make a liquid OR add 1/2 tsp vinegar in the said amount of milk and allow it to stand for 5 minutes, to make faux pas buttermilk.
Try to use the same pan for baking and assembling. I baked the cake in a different pan so it was slightly smaller than the springfoam, but nevertheless, it stayed well.