Red Velvet Cake

I don’t like cakes made from scratch, or even cakes from a bakery. I really only like cakes made from store-bought cake mixes. There’s just something in the flavor and the texture of real cakes that I don’t enjoy. So when I decided to make a red velvet cake from scratch, it was because I hoped to find a cake made from scratch with a texture and flavor that was more agreeable to me.

And it worked. This cake was amazing, and my only issue was that it stuck to my cake pans and had to sort of reconstructed on the cake plate. But… one confession — I used store-bought cream cheese frosting to top it. When you see my posts about the rest of our dinner that night, you’ll understand why!!

I used a Pioneer Woman recipe for the cake. It called for 10-inch cake pans. I had 9-inch pans but it worked out perfectly. And besides, a 10-inch cake wouldn’t have fit in our pretty glass cake stand.

It was sooo good and made about 12 servings.

makes two 9-inch layers

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

1 ounce red food coloring

1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease your cake pans with Crisco. It might come out better if you flour them, too.

Blend together shortening and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt. Set aside.

In a third bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the shortening mixture in the mixing bowl. Mix after each addition.

In another small bowl, mix the red food coloring and cocoa powder. Pour into the mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Don’t overbeat!

Pour the batter evenly into the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pans for about 20 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Cool completely before icing.

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