This'll be a two-parter...the prep post & the shower post.
So prep post!
We made Rainbow Cheesecake and it was SO GOOD. I had a lot of fun making it and taking photos (and running them through photoshop)
I found the recipe for the cheesecake awhile ago and I will not link you to it because the recipe said to toss out half the red velvet cake, which is like a big HELL NO to me. Plus it insinuated that a white cake with red food dye added is the same thing as a red velvet cake. IT IS NOT
The base is a red velvet cake. There are two versions of Red Velvet Cake: very chocolaty and the other just a dash of cocoa. We used the latter.
You will need a 9" spring-form pan.
Red Velvet Cake Ingredients
• 1/4 c butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon (heaping!!) cocoa
• 1 1/8 c (or 1 cup, 2 tablespoons) sifted flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 oz red food coloring (usually you can buy a bottle of food dye in that size)
• 1/2 c buttermilk (note: we used powered buttermilk, following the directions on the box)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Cheesecake Ingredients
• 16 oz cream cheese (if you want to make it somewhat healthy, use Neufchatel cream cheese)
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sour cream (again, use low-fat stuff to make it less fattening)
• various bottles of food coloring
Part One: Red Velvet Cake
♥ Preheat oven to 350°F
♥ In a large mixing bowl, beat butter & sugar until smooth. Add the egg.
♥ In a small bowl, mix the cocoa and red food coloring, then add it to the mix. Beat the mixture until combined.
♥ Add the buttermilk, flour, salt, and vanilla and beat well.
♥ In another bowl, add the vinegar to the baking soda. Hold the bowl over the mixing bowl as it fizzes, then add it to the mix.
♥ Gently blend the mixture one final time.
You have to be very careful with the red food dye. It gets EVERYWHERE.
♥ Pour the batter into a springform pan. Smooth it out with a spatula.
♥ You then bake the cake for roughly 30-40 minutes. Our stove is elderly and tends to take longer to bake thoroughly. (yes, those are two different pans. We made two cakes for the shower)
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Part Two: Cheesecake
While the red velvet cake is baking, you make the cheese cake!
♥ Preheat the oven to 325°F
♥ In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond extract until smooth.
♥ Beat in eggs one at a time, then add in sour cream.
♥ Then you separate the batter into several bowls.
♥ Add food dye to the split-up batter. Mix the food dye until smooth.
♥ Pour each bowl over the now baked red velvet cake. Swirl the colors just enough so they marble, but not so much that they mix.
♥ Bake for roughly 35 minutes, until the center is just about set when you jiggle the pan and the surface is slightly cracked.
♥ Allow to cool completely and refrigerate before serving.
(photos of finished cake to come)