Hello from America! I am writing this post in quite the jet lagged haze, so please excuse if I stop making sense.
I was excited to find out that this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop was Halloween themed! I wanted to create something gruesome but beautiful, and ofcourse delicious. I toyed with the idea of lychee eyeball cupcakes before finally settling on a bleeding cake.
This cake features 2 stories of red velvet cake, covered in cream cheese frosting and adorned with a tasty trickle of homemade raspberry syrup. The finishing touch is a knife plunged into its middle!

Ingredients
Red Velvet Cake
- 120 g butter room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 1⅓ cups caster sugar
- 4 tsp cocoa
- 4 tsp red food colouring
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 240 ml buttermilk or add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to normal milk
- 2½ cups plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tsp white wine vinegar
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4-5 cups sifted icing sugar
- 100 g butter at room temperature
- 250 g cream cheese at room temperature
Raspberry Blood
- 1 cup frozen raspberries
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp corn starch
Instructions
Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line 2 x 20cm cake tins.
- Cream the butter, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl mix the vanilla extract, cocoa powder and red food colouring into a paste. Add the paste to the creamed mixture.
- Add half the buttermilk and mix until combined, followed by half of the flour and baking powder. Mix until incorporated and then add the remainder of the buttermilk and flour and mix thoroughly.
- Add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar and continue mixing for another 5 minutes until combined.
- Pour the mixture evenly into the 2 cake tins.
- Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool slightly in their tins before turning out onto a wire rack
Cream Cheese Icing
- Cream the butter and icing sugar together until well mixed.
- Add the cream cheese in cubes slowly until incorporated. Continue mixing for 5 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.
- Using an offset spatula, spread 1/3 of the icing on top of the first cake layer.
- Place the second cake on top and gently sandwich the 2 layers together. Spread a thin layer of icing over the top and sides of the cake. This is referred to as a "crumb coat" which prevents the crumbs from messing up your final ice. Put cake in fridge to chill for around 30 minutes.
- With your remaining icing, use your offset spatula to cover the top and sides as evenly as possibly (don't worry, mine wasn't particularly neat!)
- If you feel fancy, pipe a ruffle of icing along the base of the cake.
Raspberry blood
- Puree raspberries in a blender or food processor until smooth.
- Push through a strainer to separate seeds from liquid.
- Over a medium heat, bring strained raspberry liquid to a boil, add sugar and corn starch and stir until thickened for around 2 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Pour over
This was such a rushed job and I finished the photos literally 1 minute before I left for the airport. But I am pleased to report it tasted amazing and had the intended “beautiful yet macabre” look I intended!
21 Comments
Love it, it’s macabre perfection! Were you channelling Alan Ball..?
Ohhh I LOVE Alan Ball :)
Very, very cool! This is even better than normal red velvet :-) Enjoy America!
Thanks Deepa! America was amazing :)
love the bloooooooooooooood shot dripping – so very suiting to the theme!
I love it! Especially love the photo with the little drop of blood about to drip from the plate.
It’s quite gruesome, isn’t it Claire? :)
Love love love it. Still can’t believe you did this the night before you flew out – guess it’s a perfect excuse for cake at breakfast ;D
Thanks JJ! I stuffed a huge bite in my mouth before I left for the airport ;D
I totally love this, it’s very very cool. Hope you have an amazing trip xxx
I had an amazing trip (and am belatedly catching up on comments, oops!)
Fabulous cake Swah. Have a great holiday
Thanks so much :)
I love it!! The raspberry blood is so realistic :) I must try making some to freak my kids out with. Have fun in the US!
Thanks Monica! The raspberry blood is indeed a little too realistic, but fortunately delicious ;)
Very cool
Thanks Sara!
I love it! Suitably Halloween but not too gruesome to want to eat!
Haha I initially wanted to make eyeball cupcakes but figured they might be a little *too* gross ;D
This is the perfect cake for Halloween! Love that it’s ‘bloody’ red velvet on the inside too hehe :D
It’s rather macabre isn’t it? ;D