Is Red Velvet Cake Tough Enough?

by Laura
(Austin, Texas, USA)

I'm making a groom's cake for an upcoming wedding and they requested red velvet cake. The cake itself is going to be in the shape of a football helmet (upright and life sized). From what I have read, red velvet cake doesn't have the density that a pound cake does and can cause layered cakes to become rather droopy.

Can the red velvet cake recipe you have posted hold up the weight of itself if I have a one foot high cake made of red velvet? It will be several layers of rounds and a dome shape on top. How can I make it more sturdy? The last thing I want is for the cake to be a droopy helmet!

Thanks for your response and help!
Laura

Answer to Is Red Velvet Cake Tough Enough

Hi Laura, It depends on what fillings you use. Cream cheese or buttercream would be ideal because they acts as a glue. Work with very chilled cakes and as soon as the cake is filled get them really cold again.

Now go ahead a trim them to the shape that you want. Crumb coat and chill again. Tip if you do use cream cheese icing for the filling use buttercream frosting for the crumb coating as it will hold the cake together better.

I made this cake once and it seemed very firm and dense. Make a tester cake first though to be sure that you like it.

My other thought is that you use a butter cake recipe and add cocoa and red food coloring to the batter. This butter cake would produce a firmer cake then the oil based cake.

UPDATE on the Red Velvet Cake. I used the recipe for a three tier wedding cake recently and used fondant over he cake, it held up just fine. The cake was a little on the oily side though. I still much prefer the buttermilk chocolate cake recipe on this site for a wedding cake.