Red velvet cake

A Red velvet cake is a type of rich and sweet choclate cake (though it is often made without chocolate flavoring) which has a distinctive dark red or red-brown color. Common ingredients include butter milk,butter,flour,cocoa powder, and often either beets, or red food coloring. It is most popular in the American South, though known in other regions. The most typical frosting for a Red velvet cake is cream cheese icing.

 

1.A red velvet cake recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup shortening

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2 tablespoons cocoa

• 1 1/2 oz red food coloring

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 1/2 cups flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1 teaspoon soda

• 1 tablespoons vinegar

PREPARATION:

Cream shortening; beat in sugar gradually. Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition. Make paste of cocoa and food coloring; add to creamed mixture. Add salt, flour and vanilla alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Sprinkle soda over vinegar; pour vinegar over batter.

2. Southern Red Velvet Cake

INGREDIENTS

Vegetable oil for the pans

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Crushed pecans, for garnish

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

Frost the cake. Place 1 layer, rounded-side down, in the middle of a rotating cake stand. Using a palette knife or offset spatula spread some of the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake. (Spread enough frosting to make a 1/4 to 1/2-inch layer.) Carefully set another layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Top with the remaining layer and cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting. Sprinkle the top with the pecans.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, softened

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Yield: enough to frost a 3 layer (9-inch) cake

3Red Velvet Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 2- cups All-purpose flour, sifted

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 2 tablespoons Cocoa

• 2 1-ounce Bottles of red food coloring (equivalent measure is cup or 4 tablespoons)

• • cup Crisco or other vegetable shortening

• 1- cups Sugar

• 2 Large Eggs

• 1 cup Buttermilk

• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon White vinegar

• 1 teaspoon Baking soda

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.

Combine the sifted flour and salt, and set aside.

Put the cocoa in a small glass bowl, and add the food coloring gradually, stirring until mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Cream together the shortening and sugar, beating for 4 or 5 minutes at medium speed in your electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for at least 30 seconds after each addition.

At low speed of your mixer, add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the cocoa/food coloring mixture, mixing until color of batter is uniform. Do not overbeat; overbeaten cake batter will result in a tough cake. Turn off your mixer.

In a small bowl, mix the vinegar with the baking soda. It will foam up. Stir it briefly to mix, and then add it to the cake batter, folding it in to incorporate well, but do not beat.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, and bake in a 350 F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow layers to cool on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out. Let cake cool completely before frosting.

Red Velvet Cake Tips

• Don't be tempted to shorten the shortening/sugar creaming time. Cake texture will be far better, and you can mix up your cocoa and food coloring while the mixer is running.

• Mixing the cocoa with the food coloring is the best way to get uniform color in the cake. On my first test cake, I sifted the cocoa together with the flour, twice, and still came up with little cocoa-colored whorls in the finished cake.

• Yes, red food coloring does stain, so use glass utensils rather than plastic. And be careful.

• The recipes I found on the Internet came up about fifty/fifty as far as the amount of red food coloring they called for -- some with one ounce, the rest with two ounces. Let me just say this: The cake with one ounce of food coloring was a very dark pink. The cake with two ounces (1/4 cup, or 4 tablespoons) was RED.

• The recipes also varied on the amount of vinegar with some calling for as much as one tablespoon. I found that one teaspoon works just fine. And white vinegar with its less pungent odor is definitely preferable to apple cider vinegar.

• Most recipes stated that this recipe was suitable for three 8-inch layers and one 9x13-inch cake, but I did not find it to be necessarily so. If you want more than two layers, better to bake two 9-inch layers and split them. A 9x13-inch cake will work, but requires careful testing by the cook after 25 minutes.

Beautifully Thick White Frosting

• 1- cup Sugar

• • teaspoon Cream of tartar

• 1/8 teaspoon Salt

• • cup Water

• 4 Egg whites (at room temperature)

Directions:

Combine sugar, cream of tartar, salt and water in heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is clear. Cook until mixture reaches 240F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage).

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Let mixer continue to run and slowly pour the sugar mixture in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl (don't let the sugar mixture come into contact with the beaters). Continue beating until stiff peaks form and frosting thickens to desired consistency.