Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake
A Great Dessert
Inspired By A Recipe Failure

Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake....You heard that a lot of great inventions of the world were created by mistakes.  Funny that this cake was created by mistake.

Prep Time: 20 Minutes   Cook Time: 25 Minutes   Serving: 8-12

Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake - You can make this cake with your little one. Have him or her to help you every step on the way.

One day, my son and I were busy at preparing food to bring to church for coffee time.  One of the dishes was the red velvet bundt cake.  Everything went well as planned until when I tried every effort to get the cake out of the mold.  It didn't come out.  When it finally did, the whole cake was crumbled. I was raised not to throw the food in the garbage in vain.  And I really wanted to teach this lesson to my 6-year-old son.  All of a sudden, I thought of using the instant pudding mix in my pantry.  Tada....there we had it, the "cool red cake", as my son calls it. The next day, we brought this cake to church.  Everybody loved it.  Little did they knew that it was created due to my failure, (except my little one couldn't hold any secret that he needed to tell everybody how we did it). Since its popularity, I decided to try making a regular red velvet cake on a baking dish and poured the chocolate pudding on top.  It took me several trials to replicate the same cake and taste as we did it the first time even it was out of failure then. Here I am going to show you 2 ways to make this deconstructed red velvet cake.  The first method is less labor and dishes to do. The second method is the way how I did it the very first time after that failure.  In my opinion, the flavors blend better than method 1.  Yes, you are going to crumble the cake like I did.  No, when you cut it up, it won't fall apart.  The pudding mix binded the cake together. First, let's get the ingredients together before we dive into the instructions.

Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 pack Red Velvet Cake Mix (baked per package directions and cool in room temperature)
1 box (12oz / 340g) Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix (prepare pudding as package direction; add an extra 1/3-1/2 cup (2-4oz / 67-101g) milk to make the pudding's thickness a little bit thicker than Alfredo sauce.  Otherwise, it will be too thick to move around the bottom of the pan or on top of the cake)
1 tub Whipped Topping (thawed in fridge overnight)

Method No. 1

Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake - best to cut the top off to make the entire cake level. Poke holes aggressively (even more than what it shows on this pic)

Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake - make the cake level to allow every bite have the same amount of chocolate pudding and whipped topping.

1. You are going to need a 13" x 9" (33 x 23cm) baking dish and bake per package directions
2. When the cake is baked in a baking dish, it is obvious that the middle of it is higher like a little dome.
3. Once the cake is completely cool  in room temperature, use a knife to cut off the top to make the entire cake flat on the same level; save and put aside that cut-out piece for garnish use later
4. Use 2 skewers or chopsticks to poke holes aggressively on the cake
5. These holes allow the pudding to sip into the cake
6. Mix the instant chocolate pudding mix as package instructions and add another 1/3-1/2 cup (2-4oz / 67-101g) more milk than required by the package instructions
7. Pour the pudding mix on top of the cake immediately and make sure it covers every corner of the cake
8. Wait for 5 minutes to let the pudding set on the cake and top it with whipped topping and crumbled the cut-out piece of cake you saved earlier on top to garnish
9. Chill cake for at least 4 hours before serving

Method No. 2

1. You need a bundt cake mold and 13 x 9" (33 x 23cm) baking dish to assemble the cake later
2. Follow the package instructions to make a bundt cake
3. Once it cools to room temperature, take out the cake from the mold.  (Since you are going to crumble the cake, don't worry about to take the cake out as a whole.)
4. Mix instant pudding mix as package directions and add another 1/3-1/2 cup (2-4oz / 67-101g) of milk more than package instruction required
5. Put about 1/3 pudding at the bottom of 13" x 9" (33 x 23cm) baking dish, lightly coat the bottom (You may need to move the baking dish around to make the pudding mix to cover every corner)
6. Crumble the cake and spread evenly on top of the bottom layer of chocolate pudding (if possible, save about 1/3 cup (2oz / 67g) of crumbled cake for garnish later)
7. Pour the remaining chocolate pudding on top to coat cake evenly; use a knife to help you to spread out the pudding, if needed)
8. Chill in the fridge at least 4 hours or overnight
9. Top the cake with whipped topping evenly and crumble the rest of the cake on top to garnish and serve immediately

Now you learned these 2 methods to make this deconstructed red velvet cake.  Share with me which method do you prefer?  Or do you have a better way to assemble this cake together?  Please comment.

You May Also Be Interested In:

Return from Deconstructed Red Velvet Cake Recipe page to Dessert Recipes page

Return to Easy Dinner Ideas Homepage