Eggless Red Velvet Mini Cakes with Mascarpone frosting for Mom

Happy Birthday Mummy! My mother turns 60 today. Unfortunately we couldn't be together today, but these cakes are for Mom.



 

Eggless Red Velvet Mini Cakes with Mascarpone frosting

Yield  - Makes 3 mini cakes of approx 3 inch diameter
Inspiration from here.

For the red velvet cake:

1 cup or 120 gms All purpose flour

2 tbsp cornstarch or custard powder

Half cup or 100 gms powdered sugar

Half cup or 125 ml Buttermilk

1 tbsp Vegetable oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar

2 tbsp cocoa powder unsweetened

3 tbsp Red food color

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting

One and half cup or 360 gms Mascarpone cheese

6 tbsp or 60 gms icing sugar

Vanilla extract

For garnishing

2 or 3 Strawberries sliced length wise

2 tbsp Chocolate shavings

A few sugared silver beads

Method:

Prepare the Red velvet Cake:

1. Preheat oven to and grease a shallow pan with oil or butter and line with parchment paper.

2. Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and cocoa. Keep aside.

3. In a bowl whisk together buttermilk, oil, sugar, vinegar for 2 mins. Add food color and whisk again for 2 mins.

4. Add the flour mixture to the buttermilk mixture little by little until a smooth batter is formed. Due to buttermilk the batter is quite thin compared to normal cake batters.

5. Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake at 175 deg Celsius for 30 mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake on rack.

6. Once cake is completely cooled, cut out circles of 3 inch diameter.

Prepare the frosting:

1. Beat the mascarpone for about a minute until smooth and fluffy.

2. Add the icing sugar little by little whisking all along till a smooth mixture is formed. It took me around 5 mins. Be careful not to over beat it as the cheese could curdle.

3. Add the vanilla extract and stir for few seconds and use immediately.

Assembly of the cakes:

1. Fill the frosting in a piping bag with star nozzle. Place a cake circle on a large plate or board  and pipe the frosting to form a layer on top of the cake.

2. Now place another circle on top of the iced layer. Pipe another layer of frosting. So each cake would have 2 layers of cake and frosting.

3. Decorate with a slice of strawberry and chocolate shavings and sugared silver beads.

Storage:
These are best consumed immediately or within a day when refrigerated.

Notes:

1. The thickness of the Cake depends on the baking pan being used.
2. It is best to prepare the mascarpone frosting just before the assembly of the cakes so that it stays fresh.
3. The intensity of the red color may vary depending on the type or brand of the food color. You might have to increase or decrease the quantity of the food color. I used liquid so it took me quite a lot of quantity to attain  the bright red tint. If using gel or powder, the quantity might vary. I have not tried that. But you might have to compensate for the moisture by increasing the oil quantity by another tbsp if you choose to use gel or powder.