Red Velvet Cake

Nothing says Christmas like a good red velvet cake (for me anyway...). For our Christmas pack meeting last night I made a red velvet cake. It was so good. It's one of my favorites!!! It's red, yet chocolatey, and just so delish!!! I hope you make it and enjoy it!!!!

Red Velvet Cake
2 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 C veg oil
1 C buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tbsp red food coloring (1 ounce)
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil and flour 3 9in round pans.

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

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake into the 3 pans. Place in oven evenly spaced apart. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

remove cakes from pan and let cool. Then finish cooling on cooling racks. Frost and enjoy.

at this point in the frosting of the cake you can cover it with pecans. I chose to decorate the cake with buttercream frosting as I'm not a fan of cream cheese frosting.

I chose to decorate with plastic poinsettias. It is Christmas after all!

I guess it was pretty good. I love that it's almost a blood red color.

For this particular cake I doubled the recipe. I was using a 12 in round pan. It made 3 layers and was A LOT of cake.

If interested here are the frosting recipes:

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 C sifted powdered sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 Cup), softened
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a stand mixer fittedw ith paddle attatchment, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until mixed. Increase speed to high and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Occasionally scrap down sides of bowl.

Reduce the speed to low and add vanilla and mix until fluffy again. Scrap down sides of bowl. Enough to frost a 3 layer cake.

Wilton Buttercream Frosting (this is what I used-I tripled the recipe)
1C shortening
1lb powdered sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk (may need more depending on how thick or thin you want your frosting)

Mix until desired consistency is achieved. Yields 3 C of frosting.

HAPPY EATING!!!!!!!