When a buddy asked for a Red Velvet Cheesecake for his birthday, I came up with this recipe. Making cakes for each of my pals on their birthdays is a ritual of mine.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 6 hrs 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 8 hrs |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 10-inch cheesecake |
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 ½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup melted unsalted butter
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Stir the milk, food coloring, vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract together in a small bowl; set aside.
- Beat the softened butter and 3/4 cup sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Beat in the egg until smooth. Pour in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Once the cake has cooled, cut half of the cake into cubes, and set aside. Cut the remaining cake into 1/2-inch strips, and place onto a baking sheet.
- Return the cake strips to the oven, and bake until they have dried out, about 15 minutes. Turn the strips over halfway through cooking so they dry evenly. Once completely dry, allow to cool to room temperature, then crush into fine crumbs.
- Combine the cake crumbs with the melted butter until evenly moistened. Press into a 10-inch springform pan, and refrigerate until the butter has hardened, about 45 minutes.
- When the crust has nearly hardened, whip the whipping cream until stiff; set aside. Beat the softened cream cheese in a bowl with 2/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream until evenly mixed. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture into hardened crumb crust. Spread the cake cubes evenly over the cream cheese mixture, then spread the remaining cream cheese over top. Refrigerate at least 4 hours until the cream cheese has set and the cheesecake is firm.
- Most of the effort required in this recipe involves baking the red velvet cake. You can save time by using a previously prepared cake.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 500 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 37 g |
| Cholesterol | 135 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 23 g |
| Sodium | 365 mg |
| Sugars | 24 g |
| Fat | 37 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My son wanted something a little different than traditional cake for his birthday, so this is what we decided on. You get the best of both worlds, cake and cheesecake!
My homeroom cooking teacher let my class make this for my birthday and it was amazing, we didn’t use the food dye for the crust though.
It sounds a lot better than it tastes. I wasn’t terribly impressed.
I used dark brown sugar instead of white and added 1/3 cup of coffee liqueur to the cake mix. I also used 10% fat plain yogurt instead of milk. I also added 1/4 cup coffee liqueur to the cream cheese mix. It turned out great–very moist. The liqueur did not overwhelm the other ingredients. Everyone at work wanted the recipe.
This is complicated, I just used the cheesecake portion of this recipe, and it’s a 5!!! Where I changed this recipe, is that I made the bottom a layer of red velvet cake, not a crust. I used this recipe – http://allrecipes.com/recipe/9295/red-velvet-cake/, made it in two layers and used the other layer cut in pieces for the filling. This cheesecake is so light and fluffy, and not really sweet. I’m not a huge fan of no bake cheesecakes, but this filling is great
i love chessecake it does not matter what kind it is i love any kind i love this kind though its tasty and very sweet its the best
This cheesecake was awesome! It is time consuming but worth it. The only think I did was add 2 tablespoons of sour cream to the cake. Great recipe!
I made this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday. We loved it! Even though I didn’t have the right amount of food coloring, I combined the red and the blue and had a purple velvet cheesecake instead. It was still amazing.
This was fun to make. I sliced the cake like a reviewer suggested so that I had 4 quarter circles and so had a nice layer look when sliced. But the taste was only average to me. I had some neighbors over to eat it and they seemed to like it. It got nice and firm in refrigerator. Thanks Debeland.
Delicious! Wife & I loved it. I didn’t have a 10″ spring form pan, so I used a 9″ & was fine. I had a little extra red velvet cake left over I could use for decoration. Plan any possible red velvet cake shapes you may want before cutting the half with the strips. Wife loved the fact this desert light tasting and not as “heavy” as most of the “death by chocolate” type cakes I tend to make. Be sure not to overcook the red velvet cake (I almost did by cooking a little longer than called for). Personally, I didn’t think of cheesecake when tasting it, but it IS very good!
I made this fun dessert for my oldest daughters birthday, what a treat! Not hard to make and delicious. I have several critics in my house and all I heard was oh my goodness can I have another piece.
This was really good! but, I think it’s a bit difficult to make for beginners. Overall, it was the best cake I’ve made by far!
Used as a birthday cake and looked exactly like the picture, tasted amazing and everyone wants the recipe!
Tasted good but the texture of the cake was weird. I would use this recipe as a filling for another cake recipe
The best Christmas desert ever, definitely worth the time put into it.
This cheesecake was a big hit. Made it for Easter dinner and it was really heavenly, everyone was asking me if they could order this from me. Had made this 4 times since and am making this again this weekend.Yummy 🙂
It didnt look so pretty when I was done, but the taste was a big hit.
Yum!! This is a fantastic cheesecake, and it’s not “too cheesy” like my brother thinks other cheesecakes are. I will definitely make this again!
This was very yummy. i used a red velvet cake mix instead of making one from scratch. The cream cheese mixture is what makes this though. I would like to try it with some other cake flavors as well.
This is my favorite recipe I’ve ever made! I cut the red velvet in half at it’s diameter, drying out the cake in the oven then blending it into fine crumbs with a food processor. I added about a tablespoon more butter to the crust and packed it into the bottom of a 9 inch pan instead of 10. I then cut the other half in half (so if I used the whole cake I would have had quarters) and then I cut those down the middle as if I was making a layer cake instead of cubing it. After I put my first layer of the cheesecake in the pan, I arranged the sliced cake so it covered the surface completely and then put the remaining cheesecake over it. The only problem I had was that it didn’t really set in the fridge, but I was using light cream cheese so that may have been the problem. I would definitely make this again, as it got eaten in two days!
For a no bake cheesecake this was awesome and very fun! I loved the crust and would never have thought to use cake for one. I am going to experiment with this recipe with other flavors. Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe!