Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake has been one I've read loads about on various blogs and have been meaning to try making for the longest time, so when Sio at Cake Creations and I decided to meet up to bake some stuff together we ended up making the Daring Baker's flourless chocolate cake and this red velvet cake using a recipe on Equal Opportunity Kitchen. Thank you Sio for coming and making this with me. (You can read Sio's write up on the cake here and see some of the step by step pictures too)

This was fun to make but awkward for trying to keep the red food dye off everything - I unfortunately have a red stain on my nice wood chopping board now. We ended up making 3 layers from the huge amount of batter which worked out ok cos there's a huge amount of cream cheese frosting in this one too, however there was a little problem with the frosting in that we added almost triple the icing sugar to thicken it up (probably because the butter was too soft at the start) and it was still rather runny, which ended up making this a self icing cake:



Red Velvet Cake
Source: Equal Opportunity Dinner who sourced it from More From Magnolia by Allysa Torey

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp white vinegar
3 large eggs
1 (1-ounce) bottle liquid red food colouring (tasteless variety)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk

Recipe
1. Beat butter at medium speed with stand mixer (paddle attachment) or electric mixer until fluffy.
2. Gradually add sugar, vanilla and vinegar, beating well.
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time beating until blended after each addition.
4. Add food colouring, beating until combined.
5. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition.
6. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 inch round cakepans.
7. Bake at 350F for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove from pans and cool on wire racks.



Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (16 oz) package powdered sugar (2 cups) but we used almost 6 cups
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (if you want your icing to stay pure white use clear vanilla extract)
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Recipe
Beat cream cheese and butter until creamy; gradually add sugar and vanilla, beating well.



Layer the cakes and frosting then cover the tops and sides with frosting and decorate.

This is my entry to Bookmarked Recipes for next Monday's round up. Check out this week's round up now!