Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake

I love red velvet cake. I love cheesecake. So the two had to merge because, why not? I had so much fun preparing this cake. I also enjoyed watching my roommates gobble it up! This recipe is pretty time consuming and has a lot of steps. So in order to make it more “cooking disabledly” friendly, I skipped over making anything but the cheesecake from scratch. Scratch is great! But why go through the trouble when you there are ready-made alternatives?

When I made this recipe, I used a 12 inch spring pan and 2 boxes of cake mix (which meant doubling up on the other ingredients. That’s why it looks so big. You don’t have to do that, of course. Don’t be like me. Keep it simple.

Also, you can ignore all the crumbs. Make sure your cake is completely cooled so that you don’t have the same issue. Also, when you frost, start with either a big scoop placed right on the center of the cake and lightly spread out and down. This will also help keep the crumbs at bay because you shouldn’t need to double dip if you put enough to begin with.

Anyway, I like to make this during holidays and special occasions. After all, you want it to be a treat right? Okay, let’s get started.

What you’ll need:

• Parchment paper cut to cake pan size
• 2 8 or 9-inch cake pans
• 1 box Red Velvet cake mix (I use Betty Crocker)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• Cheese cake filling (recipe)
• Whipped Cream cheese frosting (You can also use whipped fluffly white frosting)

What you’ll do:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
2. In a cake pan lined with parchment paper, prepare your cheesecake filling per the recipe. Instead of putting it in pie crusts, you will instead leave it in the cake pan to set in the refrigerator for about 2 hours (or until set).
3. Remove the cheesecake filling from the cake pan, leaving the parchment paper on, cover, and place in the freezer until you a ready for it.
4. Prepare the red velvet cake according to the box instructions of your chosen brand. This recipe used Betty Crocker so:
   1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
   2. In a medium bowl, mix the oil, water, cake mix, and eggs together
   3. Pour into cake pans and bake for the time recommended on the box (make sure you use the same size that you used for the cheesecake filling). For 2 8in pans bake 30-35 minutes. For 2 9in pans bake 25-30 minutes.
5. Remove the cheesecake filling from the freezer. It should be very firm.
6. After you take take the cake out of the oven, set it aside to cool for a few minutes.
7. Remove the parchment paper from your cheesecake.
8. Turn the red velvet cakes out of the cake pans on to a cake circle, or whatever you serve your layered cake on.
9. Spread a VERY thin layer of frosting on the bottom layer of cake and place the cheesecake. This frosting is your glue.
10. Spread another thin layer on top of the cheesecake and place the top layer of cake.
11. Let the cake cool completely before you spread the entire cake with frosting.
12. Enjoy!

As always, if you try this recipe, let me know how it turned out for you in the comments below!