Red Velvet Cake

Hi folks. So here's the thing. When planning to make a cake you must do these things:

Make sure you have all the ingredients needed!

Make sure you have all the tools needed!

Make sure you do it well in advance of when it is needed!

Yup!

I did none of those things.

But look at this pretty cake!

This was part of the Crazy Cooking Challenge. Once a month we all make a recipe from another blog we pick ourselves. Then on a specified date we all post those recipes. It's always fun to participate in these kinds of things. This month it was chocolate cake so I think everyone was excited to make it. Life has been a bit more hectic here at the Bee household than normal so I got to this really late. When someone is sick everything that is planned tends to go to hell in a handbasket. When it's your kid it goes to hell in a handbasket and that handbasket gets tossed over a cliff. Just the way it is.

I chose to use La Mia Vita Dolce to use as inspiration. Such a gorgeous blog and beautiful food. I knew I wanted to do red velvet cake so when I saw the Red Velvet Cake there I knew it was what I was doing. I made a couple of changes, more due to time than anything else. The cake is the same but we don't like cream cheese frosting here so I opted to use the Fluffy Vanilla Frosting instead. I did make the raspberry filling but time did not allow for me to use it. So I can just use it on something else.

Red Velvet Cake with Fluffy Vanilla Frosting:


Source: La Mia Vita Dolce: Red Velvet Cake  and Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients for Cake:

3 tablespoons cocoa
2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups caster (superfine) sugar
1 and 1/2 cups walnut oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons red food coloring (I used the gel type)
1 cup buttermilk ( I did not have any so I took 1 cup of milk and added 1 3/4 teaspoons of cream of tartar)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons white vinegar

Directions for Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter, grease or spray your pan/pans with non stick spray.

Sift flour, cocoa and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk until combined.

In a mixer whisk sugar and oil until well combined.

Add your eggs one at a time and whisk in between each addition.

Add your vanilla and food coloring and mix again.

Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the mixer alternating between them.

In a small bowl add your vinegar and baking soda together. Let it bubble and then stir it and add it to the mixer. Whisk for 10 seconds.

Pour the batter into whatever pans you want to use. I chose bundt.

Place in oven and bake for 25 to 35 minutes.

Remove and let cool.


Ingredients for Frosting:

1 cup and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups confectioners (icing/powdered) sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
(I also added about 2 tablespoons of milk to loosen it up a bit more)

Directions for Frosting:

In a mixer blend you butter till soft and smooth.

Add sugar a little at a time and keep adding and mixing till it is fluffy.

Add vanilla and mix again.

If icing is too thick add some milk to it.

Putting the Cake Together:

Place you cake on a plate.

Do a crumb coat of frosting first. This is just a light layer of icing to cover the cake to prevent crumbs. Let it stand for awhile to set. I let mine sit for about 30 minutes.

Now frost the cake entirely.

I took a fork and dragged it around the cake to make a pattern. You don't need to, I was just playing around.

Add some sprinkles. I used white sparkly ones.

Slice and serve with a smile.

Make sure you stop by all the other lovely blogs who did recipes this month. Lots of yumminess out there today.

If interested in participating in the Crazy Cooking Challenge feel free to get ahold of Tina at Mom's Crazy Cooking.

Toodles and smoochies.xx