Splendid Design: Red Velvet Cake

My husband’s birthday party was on his mother’s birthday so I had decided to make two cakes. When I asked him what kind of cake does he want, right away he told me red velvet. Well, at that point I had never tried red velvet cake or had I made one. I was up for the challenge, my only problem I wasn’t sure what to expect.

As soon as I knew what I was making I went right to work to find the right recipe. To be quite honest while I was making the cake I got scared when I dumped all of the food coloring in the batter. It was bright red. I was worried. Once the cake was out of the oven it became more of a dark red and less scary. I didn’t get the chance to try the cake out during the party but I was told that it had flavor and was very dense.

Red Velvet Cake

recipe via Annie’s Eats

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2½ cups cake flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting:*

8 oz. cream cheese

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Beat on medium speed until well blended. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. (I used a large, unlabeled star tip to frost these cupcakes.)

*Per Annie’s suggestion I increased the quantities by 50%. I ended up with some left over which was consumed by my daughter right away!