Red Velvet Cake

Cake is useful. Any possible occasion can be celebrated no better than with a cake. People often expect cake, as they do at birthdays, so in those cases it is an easy crowd-pleaser. The problem with cake is that it is often terrible. Cakes made from box mixes are often near inedible with large amounts of (usually store-bought) overly sugary frosting masking the mess that lies beneath. However…

Cake is difficult. I made my first layer cake a few weeks, because I needed something that 30 people could each have a small piece of. Naturally, it was a red velvet cake. People go crazy about red velvet even when it is extremely mediocre. Maybe it’s the ridiculous red hue or maybe it’s the cream cheese based frosting. I too love (well-made) red velvet cake (for its frosting), so I thought I would give it a try.

Although stacking and frosting the pieces is quite a pain, it definitely turned out to be pretty damn good.

Some tips:
-I used far less sugar for the frosting than is recommended by the following recipe, as a friend requested the frosting be more cream cheesey than overly sugary, and it turned out really well. I recommend using half the sugar suggested for the frosting and then adding more from there until it is to your taste.
-Ensure beforehand that you have enough room in your oven for three cake pans on a single rack (or set aside more time to bake layers individually). If you don’t, layers on different racks will bake differently…not good.

P.S. I forgot to take the picture until the cake was almost done and had very little time to do so, sorry for the weird composition!

Red Velvet Cake
From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring or 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tablespoons of water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.

2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.

4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: Six Cups

Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With a handheld electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat, on low speed to combine. If too soft, chill until slightly stiff, about 10 minutes, before using.

-AJ Winkelman