Red Velvet Cake

Red velvet cake complements the wispy January sky, filling us with joy and cream cheese. It’s a dessert that everyone loves, am I right? Pristine on the outside, with a harlot-y interior, its taste total comfort and indulgence. In learning to cook, reading recipes and discovering baking isn’t so daunting, I am becoming someone who can make as well as someone who appreciates. Most of my life I have been an observer and reporter, a fairly reliable one, I think. Now I am teaching myself how to create – sometimes out of thin air – that which is meaningful and good. And so, without further ado, as Marie Antionette most likely did not say, let them eat cake!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 oz red food coloring
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 (room temperature) eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (room temperature) buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar

For the frosting:

• 16 oz softened cream cheese
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar

Method

For the cake:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cake pans with butter and flour.

Step 2: Sift flour, then measure, sift together with baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Step 3: In a small bowl make a paste of the cocoa powder and food coloring.

Step 4: In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla, cocoa paste, some of the buttermilk, half the dry ingredients, the rest of the buttermilk and the remainder of the dry ingredients.

Step 5: Finally, and quickly, combine baking soda and vinegar and mix into batter. Pour batter into pans and bake immediately, 25-30 minutes.

For the frosting:

In the mixer combine cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla, salt and sugar. Keep chilled until ready to use.

Notes: Two things: Red food coloring stains your fingers. Substitute for buttermilk is 1 tablespoon white vinegar into one cup of milk.

Happy One Week Birthday, Violet Maeve.

Tagged as: cake, cream cheese, dessert, frosting, red velvet

About the Author: Jillian Bedell

Jillian grew up in Connecticut, went to university in Boston, college in New Haven, did some post-grad soul searching in New York, exiled herself to Mexico, married her longtime sweetheart, and lived in a house on the ocean. She suspected Maine might be the perfect place to raise a family, so she came back home to New England two years ago. Now a mom to Violet Maeve and living in Rockland, where she hopes to settle for a good, long while, Jillian reads, writes, walks, and practices Nia, when not watching Malcolm photograph sandwiches.