Enormously Red :: Red Velvet Cake

This summer, one of our visitors had a birthday while in China. Through her classmates, we learned that her favorite cake was Red Velvet Cake. I’ve never eaten any red velvet cake – much less made one from scratch, but thanks to the wonder that is the internet I found a recipe that I could bake.

Before the day of the party, I skimmed the ingredients and made sure I had everything I needed.

Alas, come the day of baking, I noticed that we were woefully low on food coloring. I briefly considered making a green velvet cake, but Hubs offered to go to our local bakery and borrow some red food coloring.

After agreeing to teach the bakers some American recipes, he came home with a half-cup of red food coloring.

I added what seemed like 2 ounces until the batter reached the consistency of red that I thought represented velvet. It turned out quite red. Nearly raspberry red. So red that our mouths were dyed after eating.

Hubs isn’t a big fan of cake to begin with, but he loved the cream cheese frosting.

In case you want to make some red-colored chocolate cake…

INGREDIENTS

* 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2 ounces red food coloring
* 1 cup buttermilk (yogurt)
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon white vinegar

DIRECTIONS

1. Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring. Set aside.
2. Combine the buttermilk, salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the cocoa mixture. Beat in the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, mixing just until incorporated. Stir together baking soda and vinegar, then gently fold into the cake batter.
3. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened (we used 16oz)
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar (IMHO, 1 cup is enough for 16oz of cream cheese)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

Note: we used only 1 cup of sugar because we like to taste the cream cheese in our cream cheese frosting.

For this party, we also created my very first “balloon chandelier”.

before

after

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