Red Velvet cake with Jamaican Rum buttercream icing.

This months selected cake from my online baking group, The Cake Slice Bakers, was a Red Velvet Cake with mascarporne cheese frosting. This was not the cake I originally voted for, but that's the good thing about trying something new, trying new cakes can turn out to be firm favourites.
Now, I'm not a big fan of cream cheese frostings so decided to use a rum flavoured buttercream frosting, which I have never made prior to making this cake, but I think worked out lovely. I had one of those "I should try ...." moments which paid of. In fact my family said that this was their FAVOURITE cake I have ever made, since I got into baking 2.5 years ago. That is some compliment and on that note, here is how my Red Velvet Cake with rum buttercream frosting turned out.

Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet covered

Red Velvet cake pre sprinkles

Slice of Red Velvet cake

I first started by combining all the dry ingredients together, the flour, coco, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, I creamed the butter and sugar together until combined.

Butter and sugar

Butter and sugar combined

I then added the oil, with one tablespoon of Christmas red food colouring to the butter and sugar mixture.

Oil and food colouring

I then added the the eggs, one at a time to the flour mixture and part of the butter and sugar and oil mixture.

Finally, I added the buttermilk and ensured everything was combined.

Red velvet mixture

I then placed the mixture in heart shape tins, perfect for Valentines day weekend.

Cake mixture pre baking

The cakes took around 30 minutes to bake and once baked I left to cool and got on with the icing.

Red Velvet baked

The given frosting for this cake was mascarpone cream cheese frosting but as stated earlier I'm not the biggest fan of cream cheese frosting so made a rum buttercream. I have used this basic buttercream recipe taken from The Great British Book of Baking.
I whisked the butter until light and fluffy and then added the icing sugar alongside 4 tablespoons of Jamaican rum which is 60% proof, but if you do not have this in our store cupboard, I suggest using white rum (not Malibu or any rum with coconut flavourings).

Butter whisked

Icing sugar and rum

I whisked for around 6 minutes until the buttercream was light and fluffy and left to in the fridge for 30 minutes (I also placed the cakes in the freezer for 20 minutes to prevent the crumbs falling off when the buttercream is added.

Buttercream whisked

I placed a dollop of buttercream on a layer of cake and added the other layer cake and added more buttercream. I decorated with sprinkles :-)

Red Velvet layer

Red Velvet cake

Ingredients for Red Velvet Cake
10-12 servings
Bake time 28-30 minutes
You will need Two 9 by 2 inch round cake pans, greased and bottoms lined with parchment paper circles.

2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) sifted self raising flour
1/2 cup (2 ounces) coco
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or flavouring
1 tablespoon red food colouring
3/4 (6 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

For the buttercream
4 tablespoons of strong white rum
100g butter
400g icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, coco baking powder and salt, then whisk the ingredients by hand to ensure they are all well mixed. In another small bowl, combine the oil, vanilla and food colouring. Cream the butter and sugar together medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. As you make the batter, stop the mixer frequently and scrape the paddle and the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With your mixer on low speed, drizzle the oil mixture into the batter until well combined.
Blend in the eggs one at a time, adding the next one as soon as the previous one has disappeared into the batter. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with buttermilk in two parts, beginning and ending with the flour. After each addition, mix until just barely blended and stop and scrape the bowl. Stop the mixer before the last of the flour has been incorporated and complete the blending by hand with a rubber spatula to ensure you do not over beat the batter.
Divide the batter  evenly in prepared tins and smooth the tins. Place the tins in the middle of the oven and bake until the centres of the cake spring back when lightly touched, 28-30 minutes. Cool on a rack for 30 minutes, before removing the pans.

To make the rum buttercream, whisk the butter until light and fluffy, then add the icing sugar and white rum, then place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. To assemble the cake, place one of the layers, top side up, on a serving plate. Using a metal spatula, spread half of the frosting over the top of the cake, spreading it slightly over the edge of the cake. Place the next layer cake (top side up again) on top of the frosted later. Spread the remainder of the frosting over the top of the cake.