Red Velvet Cake

There's something about extremely cold weather that brings out the baker in me.  So, today I'm making the Red Velvet Cake you see above, starting the Browned-butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and for dinner we're having Chicken Pot Pie (recipes to follow).  It's comforting to have a day when the most complicated thing you do is figure out the timing on each project and then execute it.  Plus you get to eat the results.

This is the first layer cake I've posted, so I thought I'd start with some thoughts on cakes in general.  I started baking cakes when I was around 12, donating them to the church bake sales.  I used Betty Crocker mixes, and I have to admit, they're pretty fool-proof, especially for a 12-year old.  For many years, when I made cakes, which was infrequently, I continued to use the mixes.  Plus we had an excellent bakery when we lived in San Marino called Julie's (now sadly closed), so I was much more likely to order one of their delicious cakes.

When we moved to State College in 1986, I tried the local bakery, called "The Bakery," I kid you not.  Their cakes were dry and insipid.  The only other alternatives at the time were the supermarket bakeries, but they seemed to think that shortening was an appropriate ingredient for frosting.  Yuck.  So I went back to the mixes, and that's what my kids remember from growing up.  The few times I tried a "from scratch" cake, the results were not pretty...not to look at, and surely, not to taste.  Sometime in the mid-1990s, I got a copy of Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book, and my world changed.  The first quarter of the book was written to reassure anxious bakers and was filled with the kind of information that you've been reading in this blog, like bringing all dairy ingredients to room temperature, etc.

The first cake I successfully baked from scratch was the Sour Cream Chocolate cake from Rosie's cookbook and it's still one of my favorites, especially with whipped cream frosting.  Maybe at some later date, I'll share that one with you as well.  Back to the Red Velvet.  I got interested in trying this one when I caught an episode of Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" series and the description of it being a moist cake caught my attention.  Let me just say it very clearly:  I HATE DRY CAKE.  Unfortunately, if you want a very "pretty" cake, it has to be baked until it is completely dry (meaning a toothpick comes out clean), so that it will hold it's shape.  Similarly, if you are splitting the layers horizontally, you have to bake them until they are dry.  Now, if you're running a bakery, where people buy with their eyes, that's what you have to do.  But at home, it's all about how it tastes.

So I'm an advocate of stopping the baking process when the cake is thoroughly cooked, but not dry.  One consequence is that the cake will have a nice dome when it comes out of the oven, then sink disastrously in the middle as it cools.  Rather than see that as a problem, I want you to consider it a good thing.  That means you'll have gooey, moist cake in the middle.  It does mean that you have to ignore the directions to turn the cake out of the pan after 10 minutes, because that will lead to disaster.  Instead, you can let it cool in the pan, and because you will use parchment paper on the bottom and you can run a knife around the sides, it will come out.  The cake is fragile, so you have to handle it carefully, but you'll see in the photos below, it comes out looking fine, and more important, it tastes fantastic.

A word about equipment.  I'm using inexpensive Wilton pans here.  I like them because they have handles, and because they are light colored, which helps keep the cake from overbaking.  The dark pans tend to scorch delicate things like cakes.  And while they're inexpensive, they are solid enough that the cakes bake evenly.  Second, I have 9" parchment rounds.  You can cut circles out of a roll of parchment if you like.  I also have a glass cake stand with a lid, which is very impressive looking, but it also makes it easier to frost the cake, because you can turn the pedestal as you frost.

So here are the ingredients:

RED VELVET CAKE

3 3/4 cups AP flour

3 Tablespoons cocoa (I think Scharffenberger or King Arthur's Double Chocolate work well)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 Tablespoons (6 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cups vegetable oil

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon red food coloring

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 340 degrees F.  

Before you start, either cut 9" rounds out of parchment sheets or use 9" rounds.  For reasons that escape me, the precut ones are too big.  So I start by using my fingernail to mark where I have to trim them, like this:

Next, butter and flour two 9" cake pans

making sure not to use too much butter, and tapping out excess flour.  Line each pan with parchment.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Cream the butter, sugar and oil in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the edges of the bowl (if you don't have the scraper paddle I do) and beat until incorporated.

Beat in the vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring.

For this next step, you can keep the mixer on the lowest setting when you are adding something, then increase the speed to medium to completely blend it in before proceeding.  

Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches alternating with the buttermilk (in two batches), mixing well after each addition.  

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans

and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.  I know this is a large range, but this cake can bake very differently in different ovens.  One layer of mine was ready in 33 minutes, the other in 35 (it was more towards the front of the oven and I forgot to switch them).  This is the most important part of getting the result you want.  It needs to be fully cooked, which means that it doesn't jiggle in the middle, and it should have a nice even dome like this:

When you put a toothpick in, it should not be clean, but should look more like a brownie, with moist batter at the bottom.  If you would press the center, it would not really bounce back (I don't recommend this).

Cool completely on a baking rack, and the center will fall, like this:

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
12 Tablespoons (6 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 pounds confectioner's sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a mixer with a whisk attachment.

Start with the lowest speed to mix the ingredients or you will have a powdered sugar storm in your kitchen.  Gradually increase the speed to the highest setting, then whip for 5 minutes, at least.  You want to introduce some air into it, so that it's light and fluffy and spreads easily.

Use a thin spatula or knife to loosen the sides of one layer, then invert it (rounded side down) onto a plate or cake plate.  Put a good glob of frosting in the middle, to fill in for the above-mentioned sinking.

Spread the frosting to the edges and down the sides, then place the second layer on top of it, rounded side up, like this:

I loosened it, just like the first one, but dropped it onto my hand.  I quickly flipped it over on top of the first layer.  It sounds tricky, but it really isn't.  Now, frost the top layer and smooth it out and voila!  a beautiful Red Velvet Cake.  Serves 12-16.

We each had a piece last night, then I put it in the refrigerator in the cake dome to firm it up.  Today, I cut it into slices, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and put them in a freezer bag.  To defrost, just unwrap a slice, put it on a plate, and let it sit at room temperature for 30-45 minutes.  It'll be even more moist because of the ice that forms in the freezer.