Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Valentines Red Velvet Cake


This was kind of a slacker dessert. I had a box of Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake mix, some Betty Crocker Whipped Cream frosting and little heart candies. I baked the cakes in two 9" heart shaped pans. I took a couple tablespoons of the frosting into a small bowl and added two drops red food coloring to make pink. I frosted the cakes with the rest of the frosting. Using my flavor injector syringe I piped on the pink lines. I then placed the candies wherever the lines intersected. This was to take in to work but my husband and daughter were drooling so decided to keep it home and share it here. I do have a great recipe for Red Velvet Cake made from scratch and will try to post that at a later date.

Update: Here's the recipe for the cake.

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp cocoa
2 oz red food coloring
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Place racks in oven on the second and fourth levels. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 (9inch) cake pans. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs in a heavy duty mixer. Combine cocoa and food coloring, and add to the creamed mixture. Mix the salt and vanilla with the buttermilk in a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, and add to the batter alternating with the flour. Mix the vinegar and baking soda in a small bowl (it will fizz). Carefully and gently fold this into the batter--DO NOT BEAT! Divide the batter between the cake pans, and bake for 30 minutes or until the cakes spring back when lightly touched. Remove from the oven and cool on racks for 15 minutes. Invert onto rackes and cool to room temp. Frost with frosting---I like the one I used above and also Duncan Hines whipped vanilla frosting.