Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes

Twas the night before Thanksgiving,

And all through the house

A flock of turkey cupcakes were forming

To the delight of my spouse. (ok, I’m not married, but it rhymed.)

Step 1: Frost your cupcake with chocolate frosting

Step 2: Add candy corns to the cupcake in a fan-like shape

Step 3: Pipe an additional circle of chocolate frosting

Step 4: Add candy can for nose & break off white candy corn tips and insert for eyes

Repeat until...

...you have a flock of turkeys

Box them up for friends. They are sure to be Thankful.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

 

 

Cake Decorating with Marina Sousa

This weekend I was lucky enough to be able to take a class with the incredible Marina Sousa. Marina is from California and is the owner of Just Cake in Capitola. She has been on tons of Food Network challenges, (winning many) and was a finalist on Last Cake Standing. (Personally, I thought she SHOULD HAVE WON! …and I thought that even BEFORE I met her.) James Roselle (also of Food Network fame) was there as well and he was teaching a different class on flower making (which I was not able to take). Wow, are his flowers gorgeous!

To be honest, my hands were so messy for most of the weekend, I didn’t bother taking pictures. But hopefully I will be able to replicate some of the techniques in the future… and WITH a camera. First, James and Marina gave a demonstration with Isomalt. Isomalt is a low calorie sugar-like substance that is used to make beautiful jewel-like crystals for cake decorating. To use it you heat the isomalt with some water over high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden or silicone spoon. As it heats up, you can continue to add more isomalt until you have the amount you will need. Continue heating and it will start to turn clear and bubble. Continue to heat it until it reaches temperature of 340F. (Use Caution- it is very HOT and you don’t want to burn yourself.)  You can then pour it into a pyrex measuring cup so you can work with it. Let the bubbles settle for a second and then you can pour it into molds. (Be sure to use molds that are suitable for isomalt) Should you wish to color the isomalt, you should do so after it comes to temperate, but before you pour it into the molds. Additionally, you should use a water-based color. When you pour it into a silicone bead string mold, if done correctly, the isomalt will drop down into the the mold. That is how you know you did it right- when it drops down. After it cools, you can cover it with disco dust for a Blinged-out effect.

After the isomalt demo, we made petals from a mixture of fondant and gum paste. We used a veiner from James Roselles’s line that he produces with NY Cake. I have to be honest, the Parrot Tulip Veiner was amazing! It wasn’t the list of supplies we needed, but I wish it was, because it was great and now I want one! All you needed to do was cut out a circle with a basic cookie cutter, put it in the veiner, sandwich it together, peel it out and leave it to dry (James gave us plastic egg carton-type things… they looked like something you would use for deviled eggs). We used a large flower cutter, to cut out the basic shape of a larger flower, and then veined the petals. Then I left it overnight to dry in a bowl, so it would have a curved shaped. When it was dry I then interspersed different color petals, to form a larger fuller flower. To finish the flower, I took a cooled isomalt jewel, dunked it in disco dust and stuck it in the center, affixing it with royal icing to act as edible glue.

Flower close-up

For the bottom layer I incorporated an embossed pattern. I covered the cake in fondant. Then, while it was still fresh, I took a textured rolling pin (rolling pin with a pattern on it) and rolled it around the side of the cake. I had to be sure to match up the seams on the pattern when rolling. To offset the pattern, I dry dusted pearl dust on the cake using an old unused blush brush.  (Thanks James for showing me how to do this and making it look good.)

For the middle layer, instead of covering the section with fondant, I cut a large ribbon or rectangle and wrapped the fondant around. I then used a ruler to imprint lines and painted the sections, alternating colors, using pink and grey (moondust) color. I then wrapped darker pink petals (again, from the fabulous veiner) around the base of the layer.

For the top layer, I needed a design that would allow me to carry the top cake separately. I just wanted to include something that carried the pinks and silver-grey colors throughout. I just rolled out some more pink fondant and cut large and small circles out of the fondant. In the small circles, I imprinted the centers with dragees (edible silver balls) and then affixed them to the centers with royal icing. I then took the larger circles and made a boarder around the base of the top layer with them. Inside, I affixed the smaller pink circles with large dragees in them. Then I took additional pink circles, with smaller dragees, and affixed them above the larger circles, in an alternating pattern.

To finish the cake, I took more pink fondant and molded them into smaller pearls. I them wrapped those around the base of the entire structure and affixed them with royal icing. After that all that was left to do was step back and take a picture… of yeah, and eat!

Thanks again to Marina and James for their knowledge and help this weekend. They really are masters of their craft and it is amazing to see their own creations.

Marina and Me

 

 

 

Fondant Cake with Cornelli Lace

Fondant cake w yellow free-form Cornelli Lace royal icing

Today was a day of extras. I had an extra cake and was looking for something easy but interesting to do with it. I also have extra royal icing lying around. (It keeps for ages, so store your extra in an airtight container) I had seen cakes decorated with this free-form pattern before. Apparently, it is called Cornelli Lace, which I didn’t realize, and it is not supposed to touch. (ops, didn’t realize that on a few strings) You may have seen it on wedding cakes, with a white-on-white pattern used to mimic the lace of the wedding gown. I just thought it would be a quick and easy way to be decorative. I simply took my already made yellow royal icing and number 3 tip (You can use a #1 tip for thinner, more delicate lines), put it into a piping bag and just made a free-form  pattern design. I debated leaving the top plain white fondant, but I was having so much fun with the free-form royal icing, I decided to pipe the top as well as the sides. Just a simple, easy way to use your extras for good decorative use!

Carrot Bread

Fresh out if the oven! Carrot Bread

I am not sure why I am on a quick bread kick… maybe because it is fall, maybe because I was looking for something interesting to do with veggies, or maybe it is because they are quick and easy to make. I love things that are not fussy. My latest creation is a carrot bread. Similar to a carrot cake, it gave me something to do with the carrots that were sitting in my fridge without much inspiration.

Again, a fairly easy recipe to pull together, minus the almost shredding of a finger in the carrot grating process. I chose a recipe that called for more rather than less carrots, just because I was trying to use up a bunch (though I probably only used three or four).

In a mixer combine:

2 eggs

1 Cups sugar

2/3 Cups oil

1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl sift together:

1 1/2 Cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg*

1/4 tsp All Spice*

pinch of ground clove*

*The original recipe called for just nutmeg, but I like the mixture of allspice as well as the flavor of clove. You can mix and match to whatever your preference is. You can also omit the vanilla if you choose.

Combine flour mixture with oil/egg mixture

Then add in to your taste:

1 1/2 Cups grated/shredded carrots

1/2 Cups- 1 Cups walnuts (optional)

1/2-1 Cups raisins (optional)

1/2-1 C chocolate chips (just because I seem to add chocolate chips to everything… I mean, do they make everything better?! But again, these are optional as well.)

Pour into a loaf pan and Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

I just learned another baking tip this week- and again, it is optional. After you remove the bread from the oven, put a plate or something over the top and leave it there as it cools. It will help it retain the steam, keeping it moist and delicious.

Alternately, you can make muffins (about a 20-25 min baking time). And remember, these are healthy! They have carrots!!!

Cake with Red & White Flowers

Cake with Red & White Flowers

This is a cake I made recently.

True red, I mean really RED red, is hard to achieve when tinting icing, so to get the color I used AmeriColor Christmas Red. It really helped obtain a RED color, rather than a variation of pink.

It was also quite warm in my kitchen when I was trying to decorate the cake. You need stiff icing to create flowers, and warm kitchens do not help; they act to melt and wilt the flowers. One thing I did was put the frosting in the fridge for about 10 min or so to chill and harden it a bit before trying to make the roses. Once I made each individual rose, I put it on a cookie sheet and popped it into the freezer until I was ready to put them onto the cake. This helped keep their shape ensuring they did not melt in my overheated kitchen. (My favorite video that teaches you how to make a buttercream rose is from The Cake Eccentric.)

Just a few tips to help with the decorating.

Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips

Zucchini bread with chocolate chips

It’s TOO HOT to bake! I found myself saying that time after time this summer. Forget the record temperatures, my apartment heats up like a sauna every time I cook. Add to that my air conditioner stopped working during the worst heat wave. All these are just excuses as to why I didn’t bake and why this blog has been blank for so long.

Now welcome fall, with temperatures starting to fall and Halloween decorations already in the stores. My CSA has supplied zucchini (courgettes for all you Brits) all summer long and I have a feeling it will start to disappear. I have sautéed it, boiled it, baked it, tossed it into pasta, added it to tomatoes, eggplant and squash… frankly there are only so many times I can saute it with garlic and oil. Then I remembered something I love to eat but never make- ZUCCHINI BREAD! I see it at the farmers market all the time, but I have never made it for myself. What a great way to transition from summer to fall; using on of summer’s best ingredients but baking it into a warm, comforting bread (and of course with chocolate chips!)

Zucchini bread is a quick bread, meaning it doesn’t have yeast. It is similar to a banana bread but I am always amazed that you can take a savory vegetable and turn it into a sweet, almost cake-like dessert bread. I didn’t use all zucchini, I actually only had enough for 3/4 of what the recipe called for, so I substituted yellow squash for the rest and it worked out fine! It is nice to have a recipe that is not fussy and easy to just throw together quickly (even if the actual baking time takes a while). I took my recipe from Smitten Kitchen, another NYer cooking in a cramped kitchen. Her recipe calls for nutmeg. I think this was either unnecessary or it should be reduced to an even smaller amount. I found it added too much spice to the bread. Nutmeg is fine with pumpkin, or other heartier squash, but I think it is too strong for the more subtle zucchini. My only other complaint was the recipe was for 2 loaves and I only wanted to make one. I sometimes find it hard to halve recipes, esp when the original calls for three eggs (I used 2). Here is the original recipe:

Zucchini Bread
Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (I drained the zucchini a bit by squeezing out some excess water)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (I would skip this or use a scant amount)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional I didn’t use)
1 cup chocolate chips, dried cranberries, raisins or combination (optional But come on- GO FOR THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. (I used a silicon loaf pan, so I didn’t need to butter and flour it. Also, this recipe will yield 24 muffins if you don’t want to make bread loaves).

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. (Careful, the zucchini tends to get a bit stuck in the mixing beaters)

Combine the dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir this into the wet ingredients/egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

SEE HOW EASY THIS IS! All the wet ingredients in one shot, all the dry into another the bowl at the same time! And just combine… no softening butter, no multiple steps.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Less time for the muffins, about 20-25 minutes.

This is one way that makes it EASY to enjoy your vegetables!

More Cake Pops!!!

More and More Cake Pops!!!

Just sharing some assorted cake pops I made for my friend’s birthday last weekend. With just a few different types of sprinkles (sanding sugar, red nonpareils, silver sprinkles) and 2 types of chocolate (white and dark) you can make tons of different and easy designs. Stripes, dots, swirls…. just have fun.

They made a great centerpiece, conversation piece and snacking piece.

Cake Pops!

Assorted Cake Pops

Cake Pops!!!

So either you are excited by reading the title, OR you are like… what the heck are cake pops?!

Cake pops are the hottest trend in the cake world. They are what would happen if you crossed a lollipop with cake! Cake on a stick, formed into a ball and dipped in chocolate. These are not for your diabetic friends.

My foray into the world of cake pops started last week when my friends told me they wanted to have cake pops for their wedding favors… and could I make them. Well, I had never made cake pops before, I had never even eaten them, but I figured I could give it a shot. I offered to do a test run to see if I even could successful make a cake pop. Then I got busy reading blogs, posts and watching videos online to see what I needed to do.

Anyone who knows anything about cake pops has heard of Bakerella; she literally wrote the book on cake pops and she makes the most creative and innovative pops I have ever seen. She has them in every shape, size and Disney character. It is amazing to see what she has done to elevate the simple cake pop.

The basic elements you need to make a cake pop are cake, frosting, melting chocolate and lollipop sticks PLUS anything you want to use for decoration on the pops (sprinkles, chips, etc). Cake pops are a great way to use excess cake that you trimmed off another cake while leveling it, or a great use for that cake that you broke and couldn’t use for anything else. You can also use a cake mix cake. I personally used my own homemade frosting, just because I had a batch on hand, but again, you can use store bought frosting. This is a messy game and you will certainly get your hands dirty, but it is a fun project that you can try to do with kids on a rainy Saturday.

Again, you will need:

Cake, Frosting, Melting Chocolate, Lollipop Sticks, Decorating items (ie assorted sprinkles) Plus a willingness to get your hands messy! (Optional, but highly suggested would be an small ice cream scoop, a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or tin foil, and a Styrofoam block.)

Take your cake and crumble it into a bowl. Just totally wreck it! (This is the therapeutic step) Crumble it up until all you have a cake crumbs. Once you have a nice bowl of crumbs, add in your frosting. If you have a store-bought frosting, use about 3/4 of the container. Now mush it all around until it is evenly distributed. (Some recommend a mixer with a paddle attachment for both these steps, but I was perfectly fine hand mixing the mush) The mixture will look gross, really. But don’t worry, it gets better!

Now that you have your mixture you need to form it into the cake balls. Take your ice cream scoop and scoop out balls, finishing the forming in your hands. If you don’t have an ice cream scoop, just form the balls with your hands. Put the formed cake balls on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or tin foil. Once you have filled the sheet with balls, put it into the freezer for 15 minutes. (If they will be there for longer, take them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge after 15 minutes, to avoid freezing them)

While the balls are chilling, prepare your chocolate. Put the chocolate in a deep microwavable dish and microwave it in about 20 second increments until it is melted. Stir after each increment to help the melting process. You want nice, smooth chocolate.  Additionally, get out your lollipop sticks and your Styrofoam block.

Now there are two ways you can proceed. I have tried both and I preferred Bakerella’s one step method, rather than the popular two-step process.

My preferred method- Take your pops out of the freezer and put them next to the chocolate. Take a lollipop stick and dip it into the melted chocolate about 1/4 inch to-1/2 inch. Then immediately put the stick into one of the balls until it is about half way into the ball. (Do not pre-drill and do not push the stick all the way through). Then immediately after this, take the stick with  the cake ball on it and dip it straight down into the chocolate. Do not swirl it around to coat, instead tilt the ball to each side so it is fully immersed and covered in chocolate. Then pull straight out in an upward motion. Once the ball is out of the chocolate, you can tilt it and let the excess run off. You can also tap you arm as you are holding the ball, to help the excess chocolate drain off.  Put the cake pop in the styrofoam block by piercing the block with the stick. Let the pop dry. (If you want to decorate the pop with sprinkles, you should hold the still wet pop over another bowl and sprinkle the sprinkles on the chocolate before it melts, rotating the pop to ensure maximum coverage.)

Alternately, if you don’t have a styrofoam block, put them stick-side up on a cookie sheet and let dry. They won’t be perfectly round on the top, but it is still a nice way to present them.

Option 2: The other chocolate finishing method- Instead of making this a one step process, the other method turns it into a two-step process. In the method, you melt a small amount of chocolate first, dip the stick into the chocolate and then put the stick into the pop. You then let that dry fully before dripping the entire ball into the melted chocolate. The issue I had with this method was that in some cases the chocolate wasn’t melted enough or warmed up and the ball fell off the stick into the chocolate. I then had to rescue the ruined ball and make sure no stray cake bits ended up floating in the chocolate) Whatever method works for you- Use It!

Last, once the chocolate is dry if you haven’t already decorated it with sprinkles, you can do it in this step. Take the melted chocolate with a spoon (or whatever works) and drizzle it on the cake pop. You can make different lines, or straight, thin lines across the pop, then take your glitter sprinkles and sprinkle them on the new chocolate, creating glittery lines on the pop. Use different patterns and sprinkles for different, unique looks.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG – Ok this all sounds simple enough, but let me just point out some things that can go wrong, so you can try to avoid them.

1. If you don’t use enough frosting in your mix, the cake balls will be too dry and will fall apart.
2. You really must chill the balls after you form them, otherwise will be too soft and will fall off the lollipop stick.
3. Don’t leave them in the freezer for too long either as you don’t want them frozen. (They may also crack when you try to put the lollipop stick in them.) 15 minutes is a good amount.
4. If you try the second method where you put the chocolate candy coated stick in and then let set, prior to dipping, you must be sure that the chocolate is set prior to fully dipping them! Chill them, if not, the ball will fall off the stick and into your melted chocolate mix. (not good)
5. Also, if you have an entire tray to dip, you need to be careful that they don’t get too warm waiting for their turn. You may want to just take a few out of the fridge at a time as you go through the process. (otherwise see problem # 2 above)
6. When you are dipping the pop in for it’s final (main) coating, Do Not swirl it around the chocolate mixture as it will loosen or fall off (also NG). Just dip straight down and tilt to cover the top.
7. When you pull the pop out of the chocolate, let the excess run off. You can also tap your arm lightly to get the drip to fall off. Be careful with the tapping, if you do it too hard, the ball will fall off the stick.

So now you know how to make sweet, fun cake pops. I hope you have fun unleashing your creativity! Enjoy!!!

Retirement Cake

Retirement Cake: Life's A Beach When You're Retired

This year, after over 30 years of teaching, my mom decided to retire.

And I decided to surprise her with a Retirement Cake! (My Most Ambitious Cake to Date!)

Now, when I was younger I used to think of retirees as old people with gray hair who lived in Florida and played golf. My mom is none of those things.  She doesn’t play golf, cards or tennis, and she doesn’t particularly like Florida. She likes to travel, drink wine, cook dinner parties, make jewelry, not the typical “old people” things.

So I wanted to make a cake that would suit her personality and incorporate things she likes to do. Because what is the point of making a specialty cake if you can’t make it special for the person you are giving it to?!

My mom likes swimming and is a former lifeguard and swim instructor. So I thought I could do a beach or pool themed cake. Since she enjoys reading, traveling and drinking wine, I wanted to incorporate those elements as well. The concept would be a person lying in the sun, near a beach or pool, with a bottle of wine and surrounded by books. To incorporate the travel concept I would include  travel books.

I started out with just the idea of a red and white striped towel, a classic beach pattern. Since the last time I tried to dye fondant red I looked like I had committed murder, I decided to BUY red fondant. I had also never tried to make a person or figure out of fondant, so to save some additional exasperation, I bought the “Wilton: Rolled Fondant Natural Colors Multi-pack.”  This helpful package comes with pre-colored pink flesh colored fondant as well as light and dark of brown and black. (and I knew it would save time and aggravation).

The first thing I did was create a base for the towel out of white fondant. Just a white rectangle. Then I rolled out the red and white fondant and, using my ribbon cutter, cut strips of each color. You could also use a pizza cutter or any cutting tool, but since I had the ribbon cutter and it makes keeps the lines consistent, I just used it. I then adhered the strips to the towel base, alternating the colors. And cut off the ends with a pizza cutter. Now, I am making this sound easier then it was. The red fondant bled color if I used too much liquid adherent. And then it cracked- for no reason. So I found myself pulling up some strips and using new ones, just to make it look decent.

For the wine bottle, I dyed a small amount of fondant green. Then I rolled it and shaped it into the form of a wine bottle. I left it to dry before adding other details. Later, after it was dry, I took a combination of white fondant and gum paste and rolled that out. I then cut it into a small rectangle that fit onto the wine bottle and adhered it with edible glue (combination water and gum arabic). Then, after THAT dried, I took edible markers and drew on the bottle’s label- featuring scribbles for writing and the faint image of hills.

The books were really easy, and the most fun. I just took white fondant, gum paste- whatever I had around- and shaped it into a rectangle. I then rolled out colored fondant to at least twice the width of the square and put the white square on top of it. I trimmed it to size and wrapped the color fondant around the white square, leaving the top, bottom and one side of the white fondant exposed. I took a toothpick and pressed lightly on one side to create the look of a book spine. I then used the toothpick to create lines on the white part to look like pages. Later when the books had dried, I used edible markers to write down book titles on the tops and spines. (I put titles like “Travel in France”, “Beaches of the World”, and “Just for Fun”.)

For the figure, I started by making a sunhat, just by shaping light brown fondant. I then took light blue fondant and shaped a top, and brown fondant to shape the pants. I added the appendages using the pre-colored flesh colored fondant and gum paste. (50/50 mix) The gum paste made it more pliable and let it set-up quicker. I made simple shoes using the black fondant and put them directly on the legs. For the head, I decided I would rather use an illusion then create an actual person’s head. So I shaped the outline of a head and used a round cutter jut to press in a semicircle for the mouth. For the hair I took some brown fondant and some yellow and mixed them together briefly, just so it would retain both colors, to look like highlights, rather than have just one color. I then used a toothpick to create some texture in the hair, by roughing in lines. Last I put the hat on top of the person’s head, as if they were blocking the sun.

For the cake, I made a basic two-layer yellow cake and filled it with chocolate butter cream frosting. Then I frosted the entire cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. (I actually ended up making four cakes, just so I could put them together to form a larger cake.)

To make a beach-themed cake you need two basic elements- Sand and Ocean.  For the sand, I took Nila wafers and put them in the food processor. Then I took the crumbs and just pressed them onto the frosted cake. (I know some people use crushed graham crackers but I think Nila wafers make lighter looking sand, plus my mom likes Nila wafers for nostalgic reasons.

closer view of the Nila wafer "sand", figure and books

For the ocean a started with the white frosting and created the line for foam. The I took some more white frosting and put some blue coloring. I didn’t mix it thoroughly so it still had some lighter and darker blue in it. Then I frosted that on the rest of the cake in wave-like patterns.

close up view of the "frosting ocean"

I added the elements on top of the cake. Then the last thing I did was create a 2 signs for the Cake out of gum paste (because it dries faster) and wrote on them with edible marker.  What could be a more appropriate saying for than, “Life’s A Beach When You’re Retired”

My mom LOVED the cake, as did everyone at the party. And what a great way to help her celebrate her long deserved retirement in a very personal way.

NYC Cake

NYC Skyline Cake

Recently a friend of mine moved to New York City from abroad. He just hosted a party at his Upper East Side apartment to launch summer and let us all enjoy his balcony. His one request for me…. Can you make a cake?

So what kind of cake do you make to celebrate this occasion? A NEW YORK CAKE- of course!!!

First I had to decide on what kind of cake. I know one of his good friends loves Red Velvet, so I decided to try another red velvet cake. Since I wasn’t sold on Martha Stewart’s recipe, I decided to call my brother for his recommendation. (He really is the best baker I know) He suggested I try the recipe from Baked, a fantastic bakeshop in Red Hook, Brooklyn (check them out: bakednyc.com) The recipe (listed below) came out thicker and more like a batter than the Martha Stewart recipe. It looked better and I figured I was on the right track. It also tasted a bit more chocolaty, always a good thing.

But frankly, even though the recipe was from a NYC bakery, red velvet is generally considered a southern cake, and I wanted to make mine ring of NYC. Plus, it needed to feel masculine since it was for a guy- no pretty flowers or pinks and purples. So I decided to go with a simple line design in a dark, gray color, reminiscent of the general color of New York. I thought of the iconic buildings in the city- The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, etc… I decided to do a simple skyline featuring a select few buildings around the edge of the cake. I could then intersperse them with generic buildings and highlight it a bit with some greenery to symbolize parks. They needed to be somewhat recognizable from a basic line drawing, so I selected The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, Citi Corp, The Flatiron, Grand Central, and The Arch at Washington Square.

I did a basic sketch to get the overall look and feeling, and then mixed some frosting a dark but muted gray color. Then, with just a basic round tip, I piped the key buildings around the cake. Then the smaller ones and last the bits of green just to have some color. As you can see from the finished product, it is simple, iconic, and masculine.

My friend loved the cake, and I was happy that it tasted even better than my last red velvet! We had great fun at the party divvying up the respective buildings and offering them to various people at the party! Anybody want to eat the Chrysler Building?

Red Velvet Cake (from Baked)
1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons red gel food coloring (see note below)
1/4 cup boiling water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

In a bowl whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and boiling water. Set aside to cool. In the bowl of an electric stand  mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir the buttermilk and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mixture. Sift the flour and salt together into another bowl. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, to the egg mixture in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until combined. In a small dish, combine the vinegar and baking soda and stir until the baking soda dissolves (I love the way it bubbles up). Add to the batter and stir until just combined.

Bake at 325 F about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely before frosting.

*This recipe yields 3 cakes in 8 inch rounds. I only used 2 cakes from smaller rounds and used the rest of the batter for cupcakes. Additionally, Baked uses a cinnamon frosting whereas I prefer a traditional cream cheese frosting.