Dark chocolate red velvet cake with vanilla cream cheese filling

Steps:

• Mix sugar, eggs and red food color with a whisk until combined.
• Add melted butter on a stream and mix until combined.
• Sift all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder.
• Mix buttermilk and water together.
• Add dry mixture and buttermilk mixture to egg mixture, starting with dry and alternating between dry and liquid.
• Mix just to combine.
• Portion into 10" molds lined with parchment and sprayed with PAM.
• Bake at 350°F (177°C) for approx 8 min until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out dry.
• Freeze chocolate cake layers as they need to be assembled while frozen.

Chef’s tip: Bake a 1/2 sheet pan of cake for crumbs. Bake fully, pass through robot coupe to crumb and then toast in oven until crispy. Save for decorating. 

Steps:

• With paddle, beat cream cheese until smooth.
• Switch to whisk, add remaining ingredients at once and whisk until hard peaks.
• Refrigerate for a few hours. Do not make longer than a day in advance as the cream will soften after sitting in the refrigerator for a couple of days. 

Steps:

• Even out cake layers with a serrated knife if needed but keep them frozen. 

• Place 1 cup of mascarpone cream on each cake layer and spread evenly. Work quickly so the cream keeps cold. 

• Keep layering until you have 10 layers of cake and 9 of filling. 

• Refrigerate the cake for a few hours or overnight so it sets. 

• Crumb sides of the cake. 

• Score into 8. 

• Pipe a cream cheese filling rosette. 

• Make a heart stencil and sprinkle strawberry or raspberry powder to form a heart. 

• Place cake on a plate.