easter and a birthday = family.

My parents were coming in to visit for Easter. My mom doesn't like the snow (though they lived in Chicago for almost 40 years), so instead of visiting for Christmas, she thought it'd be safe to come in April. It snowed days before they arrived. To my mom's delight, it all melted before they came. But much to her chagrin, it just rained and rained and rained on and off the whole time they were here.

So since my parents were coming, I volunteered to host Easter in my little townhouse. 18 people seemed to fit okay. Luckily the children were able to run outside and play at the park for a bit.

It was also my oldest sister's birthday on Easter. And so she didn't feel overshadowed, I knew I was going to make her dessert to celebrate. Except apparently, I had promised to make her my champagne & strawberries cupcakes...yet I had the brilliant idea to make her a red velvet cheesecake cake (which I knew she would love). Oops. Oh well. At least she liked it? :)

I've made red velvet cheesecake cupcakes, and those were a cinch, though tedious (no fancy mini-cheesecake pan for me...at least not yet!). So I'm thinking, a layered cake shouldn't be so hard. I have my handy cake layer cutter. No problem! Or so I thought.

No recipes here. Just tips. Use your favorite red velvet recipe or box mix, and make a crust-less cheesecake.

How to Assemble Your

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

Tip #1: Triple check where you cut your layers. When using your cake layer cutter, even your lowest setting may be too high to make your layers even.  Hopefully you all aren't as inattentive as I am, and you look to see where your first cut is, even if it's on the opposite side of your cake. I ended up with three relatively even red velvet layers, but I was going for four. It worked out in the end, cuz if I did more, the cheesecake would've been far more disastrous than it already was. :)

Tip #2: Place pieces of parchment paper on your cake board before placing your first layer of cake. I used four pieces of parchment (one for each 'side' of the circular board). When you frost the sides of your cake, no matter how careful you are, you will get extra frosting on the board. Having the parchment paper ensures that your cake board will be clean when you put a border at the bottom of your cake. Then, after layering and frosting, when you're ready to put on a border at the bottom, gently pull out the parchment and finish decorating your cake. [Note: In the photo above, you can see the square edges on the cake board that were created by the parchment]

Tip #3: Lightly frost each top or bottom of the cake (any side that will be touching the cheesecake) before layering on your cheesecake. These were part of the directions when I made the cupcake version, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. I feel like if the cheesecake was more solid (frozen), then it would have more of a problem adhering to the cake layers. Since mine was a creamy cheesecakey mess, adhering was not an issue, frosting or not. But I wasn't thinking about this issue. I was thinking about my next one.


Tip #4: Slightly freeze your cheesecake before layering and moving it. 30 minutes to an hour should probably do -- just check on it, because you don't want it fully frozen.  

Your cutter or knife will cut through your chilled cheesecake easily. However, when you try to move it onto a layer of cake, it will be a D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. I'm talking about cheesecake all over your workspace, on your floor, on your apron (or shirt when you forget to put your apron on) and in your hair (even if it's pulled back). No worries, none of that cheesecake was part of the actual cake...but I won't say that none of it made way to my mouth. 

I used a frosting spatula and pancake spatula to move the cheesecake onto the red velvet, and that was still pretty awful. Luckily, even if it cracks, no one will see it as it's buried beneath the red velvet. Just push it together a bit so you don't have gaping holes. :D

Unfortunately, I did not think to freeze my cheesecake. I was more concerned about slicing it in half. Forty minutes later, I had lopsided layers of red velvet and cheesecake. I would have taken pictures, but the hubs would not have been happy if I decorated the camera with cheesecake. Just take my word that it was a hot mess.

Luckily, the cheesecake layers were soft enough that I was able to kind of push down on the cake to even it out. Then I took my angled spatula to clean up whatever came out on the sides. Eventually, I got it leveled out...and somehow, it turned out pretty well!


Tip #5: Freeze your layered cheesecake before frosting it. I mainly did this because I didn't want the entire thing to fall apart after I finally got it all together. So I figured that if I froze it, the cheesecake wouldn't be moving or shifting as I was spreading the frosting around.


Because of my schedule, I froze the cake for about 6 hours, and that was good. An hour or two would probably be long enough. Then the cake is solid and cold enough to keep the frosting from 'melting'. I have this issue with my cream cheese frosting, and I can't get it as stiff as I'd prefer (I've tried a couple things, but nothing that I've been really happy with). 

After the Easter craziness died down, my sister was able to take home more than a fourth of her cake (a little more was taken off of this) and she told me that she happily ate the remainder of it over the following week. 


Yah, we're definitely related. ;) 

i buy cupcakes.

It's not very often that I'm in the city these days. So within the past couple of months, when I've been in the city, I've wanted to go to nearby cupcakeries. [That's cupcake bakeries to you people who are living under a rock.]

Since cupcakeries are few and far between in the 'burbs, I was excited to hear about a new one opening up near my school. I got a notification from 'Free Things to Do in Chicago', and they said the shop, Cup of Cake, was offering free cupcakes. Free cupcakes?! Be still my taste buds! I was so excited, I was looking forward to it all week.

So March 4th rolled around, with pouring rain and blustering winds, and I made my way to The Glen after work. I didn't know exactly where the shop was located, so I ended up walking in said rain and wind. When I finally found it, much to my dismay, there was a sign in the window: 'More cupcakes at 5:00 p.m.' It was 4. Since I was soaked, I was in no mood to poke around and shop. I couldn't believe they were out of cupcakes! So to get out of the rain, I ran back to my car. I made a couple calls and polled: 'Do I leave, cupcake-less? Or do I wait it out?' 

The verdict: I'm already there, so I might as well wait. So I sat in my car for a while, and then made my way into the shop. The decor is cute: turquoise paint with black accents and paintings of cupcakes, etc decorated the walls. Although I was well before the 5 o'clock mark, I was surprised (and disappointed) that the cases were empty when their menu offered whoopie pies and cake pops. I was going for the free cupcakes, but figured I could pick up other goodies while I was there. I assumed that for a "grand opening" they would have a big ta-da, in spite of the terrible weather. Then I overheard one of the workers tell another customer to come in the next day for their "grand opening."

Blurry shot of one of their menus...I felt weird taking pictures since there was only one other person there. Oh well.

Hm. I get a grand opening spanning a whole weekend, but I don't get a partial grand opening. Why wouldn't they have offered their menu when they already had traffic coming into their store? I don't know why, but I was really turned off by this. And apparently I still am. ?? I just think it was weird.

I ended up getting two cupcakes for free: both Oreo. Again, I was a little disappointed because the free cupcakes were supposed to be vanilla, Oreo, or red velvet. And I wanted the red velvet. Oh well. I still ate both of them. You can't waste cupcakes. That's like a deadly sin.

My review of the actual Oreo cupcake? I would give it a 'B'. The size of the cupcake was a little bigger than standard, so that was nice. The cake was really moist, not too crumbly. But the frosting was just okay. I go back and forth with my Oreo frosting. Personally, I make mine with finely crushed Oreos -- that's cuz I prefer to pipe it. I honestly enjoy bits of Oreo in my frosting. However, when the frosting has pieces of Oreo in it, the pieces should be in a proper proportion to the cupcake. I don't need to eat half of an Oreo in one bite of my cupcake and frosting. That's a bit much. But maybe they were rushing to make the frosting because of the growing crowd waiting for the free cupcakes [wouldn't they have anticipated the rush hour?].

So I was underwhelmed by the 'grand opening' of Cup of Cake. And I felt bad about it. I so wanted to be excited about this place. Perhaps this is why the hubs insists: "If you make cupcakes, why do you buy cupcakes? Just make your own."

Naturally, I went back. I believe in second chances.

So on a random day after work, I headed back to The Glen. Although I still wanted to try their cake pops, I decided to stick with cupcakes this time around -- I should have some kind of limit, shouldn't I? I was looking forward to finally trying their red velvet cupcake, and after a quick glance at their display case, immediately decided on their 'krispy kreme' cupcake.

My second review?

 Red velvet cupcake: Overall, a B+ It's definitely not my favorite red velvet. The cake was okay, but not as moist as their chocolate cake was with the Oreo. The frosting was good though, a nice balance of sweetness and cream cheese. I didn't care for the red sugar sprinkles -- I just didn't think they were necessary.

Krispy Kreme cupcake: Overall, an A-. Again, the cake was okay. I don't know if they just used a vanilla cake, but either way it was okay. The frosting was sweet and creamy. It's been a while since I've had an actual Krispy Kreme (all the ones I know of have closed down), but the frosting and cake together was pretty tasty. And topped with (what I'm assuming to be) crumbled pieces of a Krispy Kreme. Not bad.

Note: These cupcakes were a little smaller than the Oreo ones, which I thought was strange.

One day, I'm sure I'll go back and check out their cake pops and whoopie pies. But I'm not dying to have their cupcakes again. Now Molly's or Sprinkles, that's a different story for another post. :)