As someone who thoroughly enjoys dessert, I took it upon myself to bake something sweet last week. It took me a minute to decide what I was going to make. Eventually, I landed on the general category of cake. But what kind of cake? There are so many different flavor options, but one option, in particular, was calling my name; red velvet.

I must admit, this recipe was time-consuming, but I figured since I have nothing but time these days, I might as well try it out. If you don’t bake often, you may find that you’ll have to spend a bit of cash on your basics: sugar, flour, vanilla, etc. But I assure you, the cost of ingredients is well worth the impeccable flavor of your cake. You’ll find that this cake is a lot less of a hassle to make if you use an electric beater instead of a handheld one.

Without further ado, here’s how you make red velvet layer cake with cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients:

Cake:

• Three cups of flour
• One teaspoon baking soda
• Two tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• One-half teaspoon salt
• One-half cup unsalted butter, softened
• Two cups sugar
• One cup vegetable or canola oil
• Four large eggs, separated
• One teaspoon vanilla
• One teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• Red food coloring
• One cup buttermilk

Frosting:

• 16 ounces cream cheese, softened
• One-half cup unsalted butter, softened
• Four and one-half cups confectioners’ sugar
• One tablespoon heavy cream or milk
• One and one-half teaspoons vanilla
• Pinch of salt

I will admit, when I went to the store to collect all my ingredients, I forgot to pick up buttermilk. But not to worry; I just added two tablespoons of vinegar to some milk, let it curdle for 10 minutes, then voila: I had my buttermilk.

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 F. Find two circular cake pans and line them with parchment paper, so that you’re able to get the cake out of the pan easier.
• Whisk your flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt in one bowl. Set the bowl aside.
• Add your butter and sugar to another bowl and beat them together for about a minute. After a minute, add your oil, egg yolks, vanilla and vinegar to the butter and sugar. Beat for two minutes.
• Add your dry ingredients from earlier into the wet ingredients in two to three additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Add your red food coloring.
• In a separate bowl, whisk your egg whites until they’re fluffy. Add them to your cake batter.
• Divide your cake batter between your two circular cake pans. Bake for about 35 minutes. Remove cakes from the oven and allow them to cool before applying frosting.
• Make the frosting. Beat your cream cheese and butter together for about two minutes. Next, add the confectioners’ sugar, the cream or milk, the vanilla and the salt. Beat for about 30 seconds until creamy and thick.
• Once your cake has cooled, remove it from the pan. Place one layer on your cake stand or serving plate. Coat the top in frosting, then add your second layer on top. Again, coat the top with frosting, then apply the rest of the frosting to the sides of the cake.
• Refrigerate the cake for about an hour, then enjoy it.

Although my frosting application was a bit messy, I was impressed with the flavor of the finished product. I should probably add that the cleanup time for this project will be at least 20 minutes, depending on how fast you do the dishes. It’s totally worth it.