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Darling friends, I have received the yummiest recipe for red velvet cake. My co-worker, who used to be a pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton, is starting her own cupcake business. I told her that I wanted to make a red velvet birthday cake for a girlfriend and she gave me her fool proof recipe. She also gave me recipes for a ton of other goodies that I'll be baking in the future. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  

I made the cake twice in one weekend: first, a test batch of delicious cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting and later, a double layer cake, frosted with vanilla buttercream. Heaven in a mouthful!

But first, the scrumptious pictures:



Red velvet, pre frosting. Soooooooooo goooood.




And with the outside frosted!




My practice batch made about 16-18 cupcakes.




Frosted with chocolate sprinkles. NOM NOM NOM.

I know my cake decorating skills aren't up to par, but I promise the reicpe was delicious. It was the perfect texture: moist, fluffy, and scrumdiddlyumptious. In fact, it was so good that I ate it three days in a row. *burp*  My friends all took home leftovers too!

Now, for the yummy recipe! You'll need a food scale for this one. It’s in grams because my co-worker is a pastry chef and she measures everything very precisely.

RED VELVET CAKE

Ingredients:
328g All Purpose Flour
288g Sugar
4g Baking Soda
6g Salt
10g Cocoa Powder
286g Veg. Oil
252g Buttermilk
2ea Eggs
2 Tbsp Red Food Coloring
6g White Vinegar
6g Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 (measure your oven with an oven thermometer to ensure accurate temp).
2. Combine all dry and sifted.
3. Combine all wet (I combined the sugar with the wet ingredients).
4. Add dry into wet and mix lightly. Pour into two cake pans. If you're making cupcakes with the recipe, fill the cupcake liners 2/3 to 3/4 full, but no more than 3/4.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Touch the top of the cake. If it springs back with slight resistance, it is done. Otherwise, bake for 5 minutes and check again. Or, insert a toothpick diagonally into the center of the cake. It should come out mostly clean with a few crumbs attached.
6. Cool the cake to room temp before decorating.
7. Slice the rounded tops off the cakes and frost with desired icing.

BUTTER CREAM ICING
(I found this recipe on Chowhound and it worked perfectly with the cake)

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Cup Whole Milk
1 Cup Butter (softened to room temp)
1 Cup Superfine Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. Mix cornstarch with milk. Cook on medium heat until thick, whisking the entire time. Set aside to cool.
2. Cream butter until fluffy.
3. Add vanilla and cooked cornstarch mixture slowly. Beat until it feels like whipped cream. The sugar should be dissolved and the frosting should not be grainy. (Touch with your fingertip to test)
4. Ice your cake!

Personally, I preferred the buttercream frosting, but if cream cheese is your liking, I used this recipe on the cupcakes:

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ingredients
2  8oz packages of cream cheese softened to room temp
1 stick of butter (unsalted) softened to room temp
2-3 cups of sifted powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you like the frosting)
1 tsp vanilla extract 

Directions

1. Cream the butter + cream cheese together with an electric mixer until fluffy.
2. Add vanilla extract.
3. Gradually whip in the sifted powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until you reach the desired sweetness.
4. Continue to whip until fluffy.
5. Scoop into a pastry bag with a decorating tip and pipe onto your cupcakes!

Happy eating, folks!

current mood: hungry

"Ruby understood that there are moments when no matter how badly you feel, it's your duty to get out of the house and help deceive a newly single person into believing that everything is going to be okay. Ruby knew, intuitively, that this was just such a night."

"In this case, the strategy was quite simple: places with tons of men. Because the one idea you don't want anywhere near your newly single friend is the one concept that is so all-pervasive, so oppressive, that it will be the first thought any sensible woman will have when she realizes she is now officially single, and that is of course, There are no good men left. And then the next thought would be I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life."