Red Velvet Cake

By mitzzy

The third version is found only in black communities'cookbooks. This one, by far the fattiest but certainly the only one with a texture that you could call "velvet," is made with a considerable amount of vegetable oil. This, along with the soft, fine cake flour and the tenderizing buttermilk-soda leavening, produces a cake that nearly melts in your mouth. This recipe is from "Celebrating Our Mother's Kitchens," a fund-raising cookbook published by the National Council of Negro Women.

As for the amount of red food coloring, some recipes call for as much as two 1-ounce bottles. Some recipes ask for only one teaspoon, which merely tints the faintly chocolate-brown cake. I suggest using no more than two teaspoons. Of course, you can add more or none at all.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons to 1 bottle red food coloring (1 ounce)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• cream-cheese frosting or boiled frosting (optional)

Details

Servings 1

Preparation

Step 1

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour two 9-inch pans or grease pans and then line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper. (No need to grease paper.) In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Set aside.

In another mixing bowl, with a hand-held mixer on low speed, or with a wooden spoon, beat sugar and oil together until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, blending well between additions. Blend in food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Scrape bowl down with a rubber spatula. Alternately blend in flour and buttermilk, using about a third of each at a time and scraping sides of bowl a couple of times. Make sure not to overbeat or use the electric mixer on high this will toughen the cake. Immediately pour into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

On a wire rack, cool cakes in pans for 5 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool completely on rack. Fill and frost as desired. For presentation, you may want to sprinkle unfrosted cakes with confectioners' sugar.


Cream-Cheese Frosting


The black communities' version of this cake is always frosted with cream cheese. Other versions always have white frosting as well, but the older recipes specify a boiled frosting milk and flour are cooked together to make a thick sauce, then confectioners' sugar and butter are beaten in to make it rich and fluffy.


1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese


1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter


1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar


1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Milk, as needed


In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until softened and smooth. Add butter and continue to beat until softened, smooth and well incorporated with cream cheese. Beat in sugar a little at a time, then vanilla.

If frosting is too thick to spread easily, beat in cold milk, a tablespoon or so at a time, until of spreading consistency.