February 3, 2011

Red Velvet Cake

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I think Red Velvet is a really weird flavor. It has a hint of chocolate but you can't consider it a chocolate cake. But it's not vanilla either. And with the buttermilk and vinegar added the batter kinda smells sour to me. Plus it's red.


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But it's really, really delicious. It's seriously one of my favorite cakes now. The cake itself is so moist and not that sweet that I feel like I can eat half the cake in one sitting. The cocoa taste is not that empowering but you can certainly tell that it's there. And the frosting is just perfect. It complements the cake beautifully and it's not very sweet too. I'm a big fan of desserts that are not very sweet, can you tell?

Aside from the taste, the other thing I love about Red Velvet is the appearance. When you look from the outside it looks blah. The white frosting just doesn't excite me as much as chocolate or even pink buttercream. Then when you cut into the cake and see the red cake, it's just striking.

I guess I shouldn't judge cakes too quickly.


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Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Have you planned anything special yet? If no, make a cake. Cake is good. Red cake is better.


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For the cake, I halved this recipe and baked it in two 6-inch pans. Same for the frosting. Just enough for you and your loved one for Valentine's. If you're shy about eating a lot of cake there's gonna be leftovers.

Red Velvet Cake
Makes a 9-inch cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa (I use two)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring (I use 1 oz.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
Then make the frosting.

That’s the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had

5 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Butter
1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

Bake your favorite chocolate cake and let it cool.
In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.
While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.
Grab a spoon and taste this wonderful goodness. If there is any left after your taste test, spread it on a cooled chocolate/red velvet cake.


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P.S. This is my first layer cake! I'm such a noob.

4 comments:

  1. Your cake turned out beautiful! I love the red color. I've still never made anything red velvet, even though it's been to-bake list for ages. I'm always afraid of how much food coloring it takes. I should probably get over that & make these for Valentines.

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  2. Yes, you should! This recipe couldn't be easier. The food coloring bothers me too so I just used half.

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  3. For a first layer cake, you did a beautiful job! Gorgeous cake!!!

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