Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

My sons are all grown, but I still make them cakes for their birthdays.  Or, I guess I should say I started making them cakes for their birthdays.  Growing up, most of their birthday cakes were store-bought.  This year Kevin asked for a Cheesecake Factory Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake.

I searched the internet to see if I could find the recipe, or at least something similar.  I found a lot of recipes.  The Cheesecake Factory cake is two layers of red velvet cake and two layers of cheesecake.  Most of the recipes were for a cheesecake sandwiched between two red velvet layers.  When I found a recipe using alternating layers, I decided to go with it.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

Cheesecake

32 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs (room temperature)

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

 

Red Velvet Cake

2 ounces red food coloring

2 tablespoons Nestle’s Quick Chocolate Powder

1/2 cup Crisco

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon white vinegar

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup butter (room temperature)

8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)

5 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

This cake is not a cake that you can just throw together at the last minute.  It takes two days to make.  The first part of the process is to make the cheesecake.  I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  I buttered my 9-inch springform pan (a pan with sides that separate from the bottom) and then tightly, double wrapped it in heavy-duty foil.  I put a pot of water on to boil.

I put the cream cheese and sugar into the stand mixer and set it at medium speed for about three minutes until the mixture was smooth.  Next, I added the eggs one at a time.  I mixed for about a minute after adding each egg, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.  Finally, I added the cream and vanilla and mixed them until they were completely incorporated into the batter.

I poured the batter into the springform pan and then put the springform pan into a roasting pan.  I put it into the oven and poured the boiling water into the roasting pan until it was about halfway up the springform pan creating a water bath to evenly cook the cheesecake.  The foil prevents the water from getting into the cake.

After baking for 45-minutes, I thought the cake looked good.  The edges had set, but the center was still jiggly.  I turned the oven off, leaving the cheesecake in the oven with the door closed for an hour.  After I took it out of the oven I realized that it was not as done as I would have liked.  I think the next time I will leave it five or ten minutes longer before turning the oven off.  I took the springform pan out of the water and removed the foil before I put it on the cooling rack.  Once it was down to room temperature, I put the cheesecake in the refrigerator and left it overnight.

While the cheesecake was cooking, I started making the red velvet cake.  Instead of the red velvet cake in the recipe I was using, I decided to use Chris’s mom’s red velvet cake recipe.  Her grandmother passed the recipe down to her mother, who passed it down to her, and now she has passed the recipe down to me.  I started by combining the food coloring and Nestle’s Quick in a small bowl.  I put that to the side.

I beat the Crisco and sugar together until they were well blended and then added the chocolate mixture. I added the rest of the ingredients one at a time and continued to mix it until everything was well blended.

I greased and floured two 9-inch cake pans and poured half of the batter into each pan.  Wanting to make sure the layers were even, I used my kitchen scale to make sure I had exactly the same amount of batter in each pan.  Before putting the pans in the oven I dropped them on the counter several times to release any large air bubbles.

I baked the cakes at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, rotating them after 15 minutes.  I should have started checking them at 20 minutes because they were slightly overcooked when I pulled them out of the oven.

I put the cake pans on the cooling rack.   I forgot that I should take the cakes out of the pans after 10 minutes and let them cool completely in the pans.  When I removed them, the cakes stuck to the pans.  Disappointing, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t salvage.

The next day I made the frosting.  I whipped the butter and cream cheese for five minutes with the mixer on high, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.  I turned the mixer down to low and added the powdered sugar a little at a time.  Once everything was well blended, I added the vanilla and continued mixing for another minute.  I turned the mixer up to medium-high and whipped the frosting until it was light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed.

Now to assemble the cheesecake.  It seemed simple enough, just alternate the layers of the cake with frosting between the layers.  For me, it was definitely NOT that simple.  First I cut the domes off of the red velvet cake, creating level cake layers that would stack well.  Next, the recipe said to cut the cheesecake horizontally, creating two layers.  This was much easier said than done.  I thought the knife would just glide beautifully through the cheesecake and leave me with two perfect layers of cheesecake.  Instead, the knife kept getting stuck.  It was as if the cheesecake was grabbing the knife.  The worst part was that when I attempted to pull the knife out of the cake to regroup, I ended up pulling chunks out of the cheesecake.  Not willing to give up, I did eventually manage to cut the cake in half.  Chris had suggested that I freeze the cake, but since the recipe did not call for that I chose not to do it.  The next time I make this cake, I will absolutely freeze the cheesecake before I cut it.

I put the first layer of red velvet cake on the cake plate.  I spread a thin layer of the frosting on it and then had to figure out how to separate the layers of cheesecake.  In my mind, once I had them cut I would be able to pick the top layer up and move it.  In reality, the cheesecake was soft.  Picking the layer up would only result in it breaking into pieces.  I attempted several methods to separate my cakes to no avail.  Almost in tears, and growing increasingly more and more frustrated, I finally gave up and just transferred the cake in chunks, piecing it back together as best I could.  I spread a layer of frosting and then added the second layer of red velvet cake.  After another layer of frosting, I topped the cake with the second cheesecake layer.  I thought the second cheesecake would be easier to move since it was still on the bottom of the pan.  When I thought that I was not taking into account that I would have to flip the cake.  Again, I ended up piecing it together.

By the time I finished, the kitchen looked like there was a cheesecake massacre.  It was on the stove, the counter, the sink, the floor, in my hair, and on my clothes, but I managed to get the cake assembled.  I frosted the top and sides of the cake.  Frosting cakes is definitely not my forte and this cake was definitely not beautiful, but it was not horribly ugly either.  For a finishing touch, I used a vegetable peeler to shave white chocolate over the top of the cake.

The cake needs to be refrigerated.  It was a little on the dry side (I imagine from overcooking the red velvet cakes) but otherwise tasted pretty good.  The best part of this experience was the look of sheer joy on my son’s face when he got his “Cheesecake Factory cake”.

This recipe is a combination of three different recipes, one family recipe, one found on BrowneyedBaker, and one found at Food Folks and Fun.