Red Velvet Naked Cake with Drunken Cherries for Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

If you’ve seen my previous post with 14 Fabulous Wedding Cakes with Modern Flair, you probably know that two weeks ago we celebrated our 5^th wedding anniversary. I was super busy that week so I decided to make a very simple, yet special, Red Velvet Naked Cake with Drunken Cherries and Cream Cheese Filling.  I spent literally 2 minutes to decorate the cake and the sides were left au naturel. These cakes that allow you to see the inside cake layers and the delicious filling are known as Naked Cakes and they are truly the biggest trend ever to hit the cake decorating community! How beautiful would a bigger version of this cake be for a wedding (maybe a 3-layer cake)?

So why are these cherries “drunken” and how can you make them? Well, remember my post on How to Make Homemade Sour Cherry Liqueur back in August? Yep, that’s it, these are the sour cherries that have been soaked in vodka for almost 3 months now. The alcohol helps preserve the cherries so you can enjoy them throughout the year in scrumptious desserts like this one… that’s if you can save some from your family and friends who will probably eat one handful too many every time they enjoy a shot of liqueur ^_^. 

If you don’t want to spend the time to make the sour cherry liqueur but you really like this cake idea you can soak your cherries overnight or for a week in vodka (place 1 cup of cherries in a jar and cover them with vodka mixed with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar). Regardless of how long you soak the cherries, remember that this cake is definitely for grown-ups only… don’t get your kids drunk please!

Oh and before I forget, if you’re looking for an easy way to pit those cherries you should really check out my post – The Easiest Way to Pit 100 Cherries in 10 Minutes Without a Pitter!

p.s. As usual, for the cake and filling I will list all the ingredients but you can find step-by-step pictures and instructions in the How To’s section or by following the links provided in the Ingredients section.

Time:  70 min, Prep: 30 min.  Cook: 40 min
Servings: ~20-24

Ingredients:

For red velvet cake (x2):

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp red food coloring

Make sure you double the ingredients listed above. Make your cake batter a divide it equally between three 8-inch (20-cm) round cake pans lined with parchment paper or greased with butter and floured.

For cream cheese filling:

• 225 g (8 oz) cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp sour cream

If you want to make this red velvet cake extra special you should really add those drunken cherries in between your cake layers. You will need about a cup of pitted drunken cherries.

For decorating the cake:

• 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• Powdered sugar duster or a tea strainer
• 2 small heart templates (I used heart-shaped sticky notes)
• Fresh flowers

Directions:

Bake your three cakes and make the cream cheese filling. You should turn the cakes upside down before assembling them since the bottom of the cake always has a nice and flat surface.

Place the first layer on your cake board or platter. Using a spatula, evenly cover the top of the first layer with half of the filling.

Add a layer of drunken cherries on top.

Place the second cake layer, press gently to secure it in place and top with the remaining filling.

Add another layer of drunken cherries.

Place the last cake layer, pressing down gently. Arrange the fresh flowers on top and the heart-shaped paper templates. Place something a bit heavy on top of the heart templates to make sure they don’t move.

Dust your cake with powdered sugar.

Carefully remove the paper templates and voilà, your beautiful and delicious cake is done !