Red Velvet Deliciousness

I wanted to make something special for Mike for his birthday this year. This gave me a good excuse to make something new and different. I had seen some recipes online for red velvet cakes, not to mention the absolutely incredible one we had made for the grooms cake for our rehearsal dinner, and it is Mike's favorite cake. When I mentioned the idea to him, he seemed excited about having a red velvet cake. So tonight I attempted to conquer this new baking feat.

Three trips to the supermarket later I was well on my way (two of which were mid-cake-baking, Mike graciously went for me the 3rd time I needed something, talk about being ill-prepared). The batter was very easy to assemble. The first thing that threw me that I didn't read carefully when I was preparing was that I had assumed the red food coloring I had in the house would be enough, the recipe calls for a hefty amount of food coloring (not that it comes as a surprise). I carefully greased my pans and rotated them while they were in the oven to ensure an even baking experience.

Meanwhile I whipped together my icing, this I can say was delicious since I liked the spoon and bowl when I was done. However you probably don't want to know how much, butter, cream cheese and sugar goes into the icing. The most difficult and challenging part of the recipe was icing the cake, good thing I purchased an icing knife today. By the time I added the third layer on top the cake was stacked pretty high, the layers below also started sliding around as I iced the top and it was even harder to ice the sides. Unfortunately the biggest disappointment was that the top layer cracked!!!! So my cake has a 'hole' in the top of top of, with the icing it's a little harder to see it, but it is def caving in and the appearance isn't great. I do think that it is going to taste really good. I can't wait to try it when we celebrate Mike's birthday tomorrow night. Here is the recipe I used

Red Velvet Cake 
Source & Photo: Saveur 
(adapted from Raven Dennis of Cake Man Raven Confectionary

For the Cake: 
1 tbsp. butter:
2 1/2 cups plus 12 tbsp. cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. white distilled vinegar

For the Frosting: 
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
12 oz. butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (I omitted these)

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350°. Grease three 8" round cake pans with butter. Dust with 2 tbsp. of the flour and set aside. Sift remaining flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa, and salt into a bowl. Beat eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar in a bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 25–30 minutes. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes, then invert each onto a plate, then invert again onto a rack. Let cakes cool.

For the frosting: Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add sugar and beat until frosting is light and fluffy, 5–7 minutes.

Put 1 cake layer on a cake plate; spread one-quarter of the frosting on top. Set another layer on top and repeat frosting. Set remaining layer on top and frost top and sides with the remaining frosting. Press pecans into the sides of the cake.