Why wait for birthdays? Celebrate the cake!

I love cake.  I especially love homemade cakes.  I really, really love making homemade cakes.  And, I am particular about frosting.  I’m a buttercream girl, not a powdered sugar heavy frosting girl.  If a frosting calls for a box or more of powdered sugar, I’m going to say no way!  Now, I have a friend that LOVES that sugary sweet frosting – you know who you are – and when we had birthday celebrations at work, I would eat the cake and she would eat the frosting – teamwork!  Anyway, I decided it was time for me to make a cake.  No reason – just because.  After all, didn’t Marie Antoinette say, “Let them eat cake!”?  Certainly she was talking about us and she didn’t say anything about needing a special occasion.  It’s Saturday – that’s pretty special, right?

I decided to make a red velvet cake.  I’ve never made one before and I’m intrigued by cakes that are red.  Remember the movie Steel Magnolias when the aunt made the groom’s cake?  That armadillo cake?  Gray frosting – really, GRAY! – and blood red cake.  It looked disgusting and awesome, all at the same time.   No, I didn’t make an armadillo cake.  Sorry to disappoint.  Get over it.

Okay, I’ll be honest.  I made a red velvet cake but I didn’t, at the same time.  You see, it calls for red food coloring.  I looked in my pantry and I found food coloring except…well…you see, I bought neon colors and red was not an option.  I chose purple.  Neon purple.  So, I made a purple velvet cake.  It looked AWESOME!  Purple is my favorite color.  Purple cake batter looks really odd and very cool and when it bakes, the cake gets a really deep hue, almost red in fact.  So, maybe I DID make a “red” velvet cake! 

It's purple!

I got the recipe from a March 1998 issue of Cooking Light.  Lots of cake recipes in that issue!  Guess that’s why I saved it.  This recipe included a recipe for a butter cream frosting and well, they had me at butter so I decided it was time to go for it.  Purple velvet cake with a homemade cooked butter cream frosting.  Yes, cooked.  It’s weird and I’ve never done it before.  Honestly, not sure I’ll do it again.  Maybe it was a 90s thing.  It wasn’t too hard to make but the consistency is really strange.  And, this frosting will not win any awards for beauty (in fact, it’s downright ugly) but it does taste good.  Okay, fine, I admit it – I lick the beaters.  I have to!  I think of it as my duty to ensure that what I am about to feed my family is indeed edible and safe for their consumption.  I lick the beaters out of LOVE. (buying it?)  And besides, ALL good chefs taste their food.  Don’t you people watch Top Chef?  Seriously, if Angelo had tasted his dish a couple of weeks ago and discovered that it was already salted enough, he wouldn’t have been sent him home for over-salting the dish and rendering it inedible.  So, definitely, definitely, definitely taste your food before you serve it – especially the desserts. :D

Ugly cake

In the end, my purple velvet cake was quite tasty!  It had its issues – the cakes didn’t want to come out of the pan without breaking – and yes, I used both cooking spray AND flour as directed (maybe use butter instead? Or just put parchment circles in the pans.) – and the frosting was too liquidy and pretty ugly.  Oh, side note, when you’re cooking the flour and milk for the frosting, it really does get thick all of a sudden.  I was whisking and whisking and whisking away and all of a sudden, it went from liquid to thickness.  Just like that.  Just a thought – if you decide to make this cake, start with the flour/milk part of the frosting before you start the cake.  This way, it has plenty of time to chill – that may be why my frosting ended up a little liquidy – maybe I didn’t let that mixture chill long enough.  Who knows?  

Anyway, I would consider my first attempt at red velvet cake a success.  And, the reviews from the family were two thumbs up all the way around.  Woot!  So, here’s the recipe.  Happy cooking, eating and drinking!

Red Velvet Cake

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 2/3 cup sugar

5 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 large egg white

1 large egg

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cooked Buttercream Frosting

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Coat 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray, and dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

3.  Beat the sugar and shortening at medium speed of a mixer 5 minutes or until well-blended.  Add egg white and egg; beat well.  Combine cocoa and food coloring in a small bowl; stir well with whisk.  Add to sugar mixture; mix well.

4.  Lightly spoon 2 ¼ cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.  Combine with salt.  Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Add vanilla; mix well.  Combine vinegar and baking soda in a small bowl; add to batter, mixing well.

            *side note – did you know that when you add vinegar to baking soda it bubbles and bubbles and acts like a volcano?!  I never built one of those as a kid so this was the coolest thing for me!  A science project in my kitchen!!  Okay, back to the recipe.

5.  Pour batter into prepared pans.  Sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles.  Bake at 350 degrees for 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans.  Cool completely on wire racks.

6.  Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 1/3 cup Cooked Buttercream Frosting, and top with another cake layer.  Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.  Store loosely covered in refrigerator.  Yield: 16 servings

Cooked Buttercream Frosting

1 cup fat-free milk

7 tablespoons all-purpose flour

12 tablespoons light butter, chilled

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Cook milk and flour in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat 2 ½ minutes or until very thick, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill thoroughly.

2.  Beat butter and chilled flour mixture at medium speed of a mixer until smooth.  Gradually add sugar, and beat just until blended (do not overbeat).  Stir in vanilla; cover and chill.  Yield: 2 1/3 cups

Calories 322 (24% from fat); Fat 8.7g (sat. 3.3g, mono 1.4g, poly 0.3g); Protein 4.9g; Carbohydrates 57.9g; Fiber 0.6g; Cholesterol 30mg; Iron 1.3mg; Sodium 310mg; Calcium 44mg