Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks*
Time: 1 hr 10 min
Ease: 4
Taste: 9
Leftover Value: 9
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!
*The recipe at this link is the same as the one in the book, only she makes it a sheet cake instead of a two layer cake.
This is the last recipe in The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Though I love red velvet cake, this was my first time making this recipe for one reason alone: the recipe intimidated me. For some reason, red velvet cake seemed to me a fried chicken type recipe--one that isn't worth the stress of making at home. After making my very first red velvet cake, I am living proof that it isn't that bad.
Except when you're in the thick of it with measurements. Don't you love when each dry ingredient uses a different sized measuring cup?
Oh, no? You don't?
Me either.
The recipe calls for cake flour, but don't you dare go out and buy a box of that overpriced nonsense. In my Vanilla Cake Batter Pancakes recipe I tell the simple way to make your own cake flour in less than two minutes.
Alright, confession time.
This was not red velvet cake, but rather, pink velvet cake.
Since the red dye isn't an element affecting the flavor of the cake, and since I only had .25 ounces on hand I refused to go out and purchase .75 more ounces simply to affect the color of my cake.
I did battle a little with whether or not this counted as an alteration to the recipe, but since I am also the ultimate judge in the matter I ruled that it wasn't an alteration.
One problem I faced, which I'm claiming as my fault, was that the cakes ended up sticking a little to the pan. This is more than likely due to the fact that I didn't take the cakes out of the pans after the 20 minute cooling period. I was juggling a few things as I made the cakes, and the cakes ended up sitting in their prospective pans for closer to an hour.
Causing this to happen when I attempted to dump the first cake out:
Actually, it looked far worse and I may or may not have screamed my anger out to the floor of my kitchen.
Not one to be outsmarted by a silly pan, I pieced the broken parts of the cake back together and moved along as if nothing happened.
In the end, no one knew the difference.
I have to confess, I hate making cakes. I love eating them, but making them doesn't excite me. Usually around the icing part is when I remember that I hate making cakes. Perhaps because there is so much hype now for creating cakes that are pieces of artwork rather than items that are going to be demolished by chomping teeth and salivating lips.
Sorry, I calls it like it is.
However, despite the flecks of pinkish red in the icing, I received a compliment on my icing job.
Shocking, I know.
As my sister-in-law, Kristina, ate her piece of cake, she commented on how she can never proportion icing correctly for a two-layer cake and marveled at how well I did.*
Then I told her that I often feel the same way too. I'm thinking it's merely a matter of women's insecurities.
*The trick is to use a third of your icing. Short of measuring everything out, eyeballing it is the best way to go.
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I had to include this picture of how beautifully my brother cut the cake. I'd say he's got a future in cake slicing, wouldn't you?
It took a little effort to adjust to Pink Velvet Cake, but we managed. The cake was dense, making one of those slices a little difficult to finish in one sitting, but it was also moist throughout. My favorite though was the cream cheese frosting. It was, like most frosting, good enough to be eaten by the spoonful.
Cake? Who said anything about cake. I'm perfectly fine with my bowlful of cream cheese frosting.
Alright, that is a bit excessive.
Or is it?
