When my boss turned 60 the other day. His insurance company posted him a birthday card with a recipe for a red velvet cake attached to the card.

He was kind enough to bring it to work for me.

Ingredients:

This makes one round cake, to make a double layered cake, double the batter ingredeints.

• 125G x rama margarine.
• 250g x castor sugar.
• 2 x eggs.
• 200g x cake flour.
• 25g x cocoa powder.
• 1 x tsp baking powder.
• 125ml x buttermilk.
• 20ml x red food colouring.

Method:

• In a bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together, till fluffy.
• Add one egg at a time and whisk for a couple of seconds between each egg.
• Mix the dry ingredients in another bowl and sift the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
• In a separate bowl, mix the food colouring and the buttermilk together.
• Add this wet mixture to the egg mixture.
• Gently fold all the ingredients into each other, till everything is nicely mixed.
• Pour into a greased 20cm cake pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cook in the tin for 15 minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Ingredients for the cream cheese icing:

• 250g x room temperature cream cheese.
• 250g x room temperature rama margarine.
• 1 x tsp vanilla essence.
• 500g x icing sugar.

Method:

• Cream the margarine till light and fluffy.
• Add the cream cheese and mix well.
• Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
• Add the sifted icing sugar and mix well till everything is well combined.

*  I halved my icing and coloured one half pale pink while I left the other plain. When I iced the cake I added blobs of pink icing and then ran the icing smoother around the cake.

*  I then took a sharp pointed spatula and stuck it in the icine and turned the turn table round and round creating a funky design around the cake. I repeated the method on the top of the cake.

* When I was done, I sprinkled pink and white stars over the cake and around the cake.