Is it okay to use butter-cream instead of cream cheese to make red velvet?!

Butter cream is just butter and icing (powdered/confections whatever you call it where you're from lol) sugar, sometimes with milk. That is why I personally, find it very sweet and sometimes a bit too much. Cream cheese is nicer because its not so sweet and doesn't really over power the taste of the cake, to me anyway.

I think if you aren't eating, you'd be better off asking your family their preference and go from there. I think its all just down to personal preference :)

Making butter is easy with a food processor, and it produces a light fresh taste. You will need:
1-2 cups heavy whipping cream, or double cream (1/3 liter)
(preferably without carrageenan or other stabilizers)

Fit food processor with plastic blade, whisk, or normal chopping blade. Fill food processor about 1/4 - 1/2 full. Blend. The cream will go through the following stages: Sloshy, frothy, soft whipped cream, firm whipped cream, coarse whipped cream. Then, suddenly, the cream will seize, its smooth shape will collapse, and the whirring will change to sloshing. The butter is now fine grained bits of butter in buttermilk, and a few seconds later, a glob of yellowish butter will separate from milky buttermilk. Drain the buttermilk.

You can eat the butter now -- it has a light taste -- though it will store better if you wash and work it. Add 1/2 cup (100 mL) of ice-cold water, and blend further. Discard wash water and repeat until the wash water is clear. Now, work butter to remove suspended water. Either place damp butter into a cool bowl and knead with a potato masher or two forks; or put in large covered jar, and shake or tumble. Continue working, pouring out the water occasionally, until most of the water is removed. The butter is now ready. Put butter in a butter crock, ramekins, or roll in waxy freezer paper.

Yield: About half as much butter as the amount of cream you started with.

Various options:

* Salt to taste before working, a few pinches.

* Have the cream around 60°F/15°C before churning. (55°F/13°C for goat milk)

* Obtain the freshest cream you can. So-called "vat pasteurized cream" tastes better than ultra heat treated (UHT) or HTST pasteurized. Try calling your state Department of Agriculture, and asking the Milk Control office who sells vat pasteurized cream.
# Shake in a jar instead of a food processor. Shake about once a second. Add a marble to speed things up. This is fun with kids, but expect it to take between 5-30 minutes, depending on the shaking.

# Culture the cream before churning. Add a few tablespoons (50 mL) store-bought cultured yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, clabbered cream, or creme fraiche, and let sit about 12 hours at warm room temperature (75°F/24°C is ideal) to thicken and ferment before churning. It should taste delicious, slightly sour, with no aftertaste. If it is bubbly, or smells yeasty or gassy, discard.

# Use some butter making tools, such as a churn, paddle for working, or molds for forming the finished butter.

Common in the European tradition, cultured butter uses fresh cream to which a culture has been added. These factors provide for a butter that is rich with a fuller, slightly tangy flavor. Cultured butter is less common in America. A common example is the French demi-sel (low salt) butters, which have a small amount of salt added (.33%) less than typical American salted butters which can contain almost 2%.
If ripening is desired for the production of cultured butter , mixed bacterial cultures are added. The bacteria are from the Bacilli type of Lactobacillales which includes Streptococcaceae (parent of Streptococcus and lactic Streptococcus, called Lactococcus), and Leuconostoc (at right). The culture commonly used mixture for butter is:

* Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis
* Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris
* Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis
* Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris (Leuc. citrovorum)

The cream is ripened to pH 5.5 at 21°C and then pH 4.6 at 13°C. Most flavor development occurs between pH 5.5 - 4.6. The colder the temperature during ripening the more the flavor development relative to acid production. Ripened butter is usually not washed or salted.

The cream can be either fresh or slightly soured although slightly soured cream tends to give better results. Cream is soured using a special butter starter and once introduced it is allowed to stand at 21°C for 12 hours. After ripening the cream is cooled to 4.5 to 7°C for several hours to allow the fat to harden. The cream is then allowed to warm to 10 to 18°C, 10°C in the warmer weather and 18°C in cooler weather and is poured into a butter churn.

Virtually all butter in the United States today is sweet cream butter. A notable exception is butter made from whey cream salvaged in the cheese-making process. The quality of fresh whey cream butter is indistinguishable from sweet cream butter.

Of course it's fine! I like butter-cream more than cream cheese. I mean it tastes better. But you can ask your family members what cream they prefer? Like make a survey who prefers this and who prefers that. You will feel the sweetness of appreciation when you hear them saying your red velvet is the best baked in the world. I mean, it's the thought that counts not really the taste. Feel your love to them this Valentine's Day! Good luck for the baking!

Hope this helps:
http://www.oprah.com/food/Red-Hot-Velvet…

Yes

Me