Red Velvet and Chocolate 'Racing Cars' Chiffon Cake

This is a special cake I made for my friend for her newborn's full-month celebration. Her kids loved red cars and chocolate cake, so I decided make red velvet chiffon cars on chocolate chiffon cake which made for a rich and yummy combination.

I used beetroot to make natural red colouring for the red velvet cake which typically uses a lot of red colouring. This is actually my second attempt making the red velvet chiffon cake. In the first try, I only used beetroot for colouring and I ended up with rose pink cars LOL! So in the final version, I had to add a little red colouring to brighten up the red a little. Thankfully, not a lot was required as the beetroot already rendered the batter a dull red :).

Recipe for red velvet chiffon cake is adapted from Heart of Mary.

Red velvet chiffon cake for car (makes one square 6-inch tin or one 17 cm chiffon tin)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
39g vegetable oil
35 ml buttermilk
12 ml concentrated beetroot juice
5 ml vanilla extract
60g cake flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
red colouring (optional, to darken if you feel beetroot is insufficient)

4 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Prepare beetroot juice. Boil 2 fresh beets chopped into cubes (left pic) till soft in 50 ml water (middle pic). Puree and sieve to remove bits (right pic). *You can also use the puree directly.

2. Preheat oven to 160°C.

3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, buttermilk, beetroot juice, and vanilla extract. *If you like your red velvet bright red, you might want to add some red colouring. Beetroot juice itself will colour dull red.
4. Add in sieved flour and cocoa powder and whisk till no trace of flour/powder is found.
5. Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Gently fold in the meringue into the batter in 3 additions.
7. Bake the chiffon cake at 160°C for 15 min, then 150°C for 30-35 min or when skewer comes clean.
8. Invert when cake is removed from oven and unmould by hand and spatula when the cake is cool.
9. Keep the cake in an air-tight container until "construction" :).

Chocolate chiffon cake with road (17 cm chiffon tin)
*If you are interested in just a plain chocolate chiffon cake without road, please see here for recipe.
4 egg yolks
27g sugar
52g vegetable oil
48 ml water
7 ml vanilla extract
80g cake flour
1.5 tbsp cocoa

5 egg whites
60g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Next add in sieved flour and cocoa powder and whisk till no trace of flour/powder found. Scoop over 9 tsp batter and add 1 tsp charcoal powder for black batter.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Scoop over 18 tbsp into the black batter and fold in gently.
6. Gently scoop the black cake batter into bottom of the tin to form a thin layer, gently levelling it with a teaspoon. Leave about 1-2 tbsp of black batter for the car wheels.
7. Fold in the rest of the meringue gently into the chocolate batter 1/3 at a time. Scoop the chocolate batter over the black batter.
8. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles.
9. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30 min at 150°C or when skewer comes clean.
10. Pipe the remaining black batter onto a piece of baking paper for the car wheels and some details for the cars (I put the baking paper in a small 6-inch tray). Bake the small piece of cake at 160°C for a few min (5-8 min depending on your thickness).
11. Invert the chiffon tin immediately once out of the oven to cool.
12. Unmould with hand and spatula after the cake is cool.

Here's my freshly unmoulded chocolate chiffon cake with road! :)

I painted on some white stripes using a mixture of royal icing and snow powder. The cars are ready to zoom! :)

Now, time for some art and craft for the cars! Briefly, I cut up the red velvet chiffon cake into small blocks for the cars and strips for the spoiler. I only used half the cake as I didn't have a smaller tin. Then I slightly carved the front a little to make it sloping. Finally, I added the black wheels and strips and chocolate for the driver's helmet, using some melted chocolate. Here are my red cars ready to zoom down the race track! :)

The cars are ready! Who will win the race? :)

And here's another view of the final cake :)

Hope the kids will like it! Happy full month to baby Evan! :)

I'm linking this post to Bake Along for this week's theme of Chiffon Cakes jointly hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Lena of Frozen Wings.

With lots of love,

Susanne