Red Velvet Cake

Cooking and experimenting with the ingredients is a favorite adventure of mine. Here's one of my recently written Helium articles on creating Red Velvet Cake...

I have to admit I'd never before heard of red velvet cake. And, until today, I'd never made it. One of my habits (or failings, you might say) is trying out new recipes when I don't have all the ingredients. I lack the patience to wait for a trip to the supermarket. Today is no exception as I embark on a journey to assemble and bake my first red velvet cake.

This recipe is from writer-extraordinaire and online book club owner Suzanne Beecher (ingredients and directions in parentheses are from Me.).

GRANDMA HALE'S RED VELVET CAKE
Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.

*1/2 cup shortening (Substituted 1/2 cup Crisco butter-flavored shortening)
*1-1/2 cup sugar
*1 teaspoon pure vanilla
CREAM shortening, sugar, and vanilla together.

*2 eggs
ADD eggs and beat.

*2 ounces (1/4-cup) red food color (Having purchased a box with four little bottles of four colors, it turned out I only had about 1/2-ounce of red. So, I pureed about half the beets and liquid in an 8.25-ounce can of sliced beets. Using a liquid measuring cup, I measured out the 1/4-cup that I needed).

*2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
*(1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder - optional)
*(1/4 teaspoon chili powder - optional)
MAKE a paste of red food coloring and unsweetened cocoa (and the optional cinnamon and chili powders if you choose to use them). Add the paste to the sugar mixture.

*2-1/2 cup cake flour (Substituted unbleached all-purpose flour which I whisked before measuring by spooning into a measuring cup and leveling with a knife)
*1 teaspoon salt (Because the label on the beets showed that the ingredients included salt, I decreased this to 1/2-teaspoon for my recipe.)
*1 cup buttermilk (Substituted 1 cup soy milk.)
SIFT or whisk cake flour and salt together. Mix the flour mixture into the sugar mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Begin and end with the flour mixture.

*1 tablespoon vinegar (I used white cider vinegar.)
*1 teaspoon baking soda
COMBINE vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter.

Bake in two 9-inch round pans, 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. (The recipe says nothing about greasing or flouring pans, so I'm using non-stick cake pans and hoping for the best.)

Split each layer when cool. Frost between layers with your favorite frosting, and frost top and outside edges of completed cake.

I tasted the uncooked batter. Yummy. Also, the correct consistency. It's in the oven, and I'm impatiently awaiting the results. I'm not going to frost it; maybe just a dusting of confectionary (powdered) sugar. Cake AND frosting would create havoc with my diet!

Twenty-five minutes into the baking, the aroma coming from the kitchen was wonderful! At a total of forty minutes, the toothpick came out clean. The cooled cake slipped easily from the pans. A dusting of sugar on top of each layer and tasting time is here!

While I have to admit that the color is closer to a light brown than to red (next time I'll try the red food coloring), the texture and the taste of this red velvet cake, even with the changes I made, is wonderful, and I invite readers to create this version of red velvet cake, with or without the changes.

More of my articles on Helium.com
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Travel Destination: NY State's Southern Tier