You may have heard of a trend in cakes (specifically wedding cakes) lately. This trend is "naked cakes," which involves putting minimal amounts of frosting on a cake and making up for the lost frosting by embellishing the cake with colorful and often stunning flowers and fruits. After seeing how cool these cakes looked, I wanted to try my hand at making (and eating) one. However, I consider myself to have a basic set of cooking skills, so I stuck with a basic naked cake recipe that pretty much anyone could make.
Naked Blue Velvet Cake
- Prep Time:30 mins
- Cook Time:25 mins
- Total Time:55 mins
- Servings:12
- Easy
- 1/2 cup Crisco
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ounce blue food coloring
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tub icing
- Fruit or flowers for garnish if you're feeling daring
Ingredients
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Step 1
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour 2 cake pans (8 or 9 inch).
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Step 2
Mix Crisco, sugar, and eggs (using a wooden spoon helps).
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Step 3
Mix food coloring and cocoa together, then add to the previously made mixture.
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Step 4
Add salt, flour, buttermilk, and vanilla.
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Step 5
Gently mix in vinegar and baking soda.
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Step 6
Bake for 25 minutes.
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Step 7
Decorate!
#SpoonTip: Make sure both cake and frosting are cooled, this will make things easier.
My naked cake was definitely far from perfect, but it turned out much better than I had initially hoped, because baking has always been something that is especially difficult for me. I can follow recipes exactly and the end result will be under-cooked, the wrong color, and taste weird. However, this cake turned out great—it was moist, spongy, and sweet enough to stand partially naked. This was definitely a fun and messy recipe!