Red Velvet Strawberry Cake

Submitted by Heather

Last week it was my husband's birthday.  I will never live down the time that, instead of making him a lovely, homemade cake/pie/dessert, I bought him an apple pie at Costco for his birthday celebration.  Never mind that we were moving the next day.  Or that apple pie is actually his favorite dessert.  It didn't live up to expectations.  So, here and there the "Costco pie" is mentioned and I've known better than to ever think of making that grave mistake again.  What looked to be a big, beautiful, lattice-topped pie didn't deliver in the flaky-crust,-tasty-apple-filling department.  Actually, I think I'd be better off just making him a cake mix or giving him a bowl of ice cream, than buying a pie or cake for his big day.  

He often tells me not to stress myself out making him a cake.  He doesn't realize, though, that I don't get stressed out.  I look forward to finally making something fun and different and special.  It's an excuse to try making something delicious and beautiful. And I think this cake did both!

I got the idea from iambaker.com, where she shows off a beautiful cake she made...the week after having a baby, while her house was full of guests!  Wow.  Since my youngest is just over one year old and I wasn't recovering from childbirth, I felt like I'd try to take it up a notch.  So, instead of using cake mixes, I made the cakes from scratch.  Yes, it took more time than cake mixes would take, but if you have the time it's probably worth it. The whole cake was really tasty and was gone in a matter of hours.  The kids inhaled it and the birthday boy seemed very satisfied.

This would also be a great cake to make for the Fourth of July.  Instead of strawberries on top or in the layers, you could use blueberries and have a very impressive and patriotic cake.

Note#1: If you want the layers to look prettier when you cut the cake, I would suggest leaving the berries out of the layers of the cake and serving them on the side.  You could even make a strawberry sauce to drizzle on the cake or to fill the layers.

Note #2: I must warn you that the red velvet cake flavor gets kind of lost in this dessert.  I really love red velvet, so I was looking forward to eating it, but with all the other flavors going on, it didn't really stand out.  In fact, I had to eat a layer by itself in order to actually taste it.  So, while it did make a very impressive looking layer, and was a moist and delicious addition to the cake, don't expect to taste its unique flavor in this dessert.  Just trying to be honest so you're not disappointed!

For the Red Velvet Cake layer:

Use the recipe on our blog, found here: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Divide the batter into two 9" greased cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

For the white cake layer:

I used a recipe I hadn't tried before, but that was very good.  It was called Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes and I found it on melskitchencafe.com.  Instead of cupcakes, I put the batter into cake pans.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 for light, aluminum or silicone pans or 325 for dark, nonstick pans. Grease 9" round cake pans and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in eggs and egg yolk one at a time and then mix in the vanilla. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine. Add 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix. Add the final 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix and then add the final 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix until combined and the batter is smooth. Divide the batter between two 9" cake pans.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes (depending on the heat of your oven), until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with moist crumbs. Don’t overbake!

To Assemble:

Once your cakes are baked and cooled, which you may want to do the day before, it's time to chop the strawberries and whip the cream!  I used about 2 pounds of strawberries.  I chopped the ones for in between the layers, and sliced the ones for on top, just to make it a bit prettier.

You can use just plain whipped cream for filling the cake or, as I did, get a little bit crazy and make a cream cheese frosting and lighten it up with whipped cream.  I made the frosting that goes with the red velvet cupcakes:


8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Beat cream cheese and butter well, add vanilla and then add confectioner's sugar and beat well.  Fold in 2 C. of whipped cream (that's whipping cream that has been whipped, just to be clear) with 2/3 C. of cream cheese frosting.  Fill the cake layers, adding as many chopped strawberries as you'd like.

Cover the outside of the cake with sweetened whipped cream and garnish the top with strawberries.  YUM!

Happy Fourth of July!

Sources: White cake layer adapted from Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes from melskitchencafe.com, idea for cake from iambaker.com

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Submitted by Heather

Have you ever had Red Velvet Cupcakes? You should try this recipe, whether you have or have not.  They're hard to describe, except to say that they're delicious. They have a tiny bit of cocoa, but they're not supposed to taste like chocolate, so don't expect it. They're a little tangy, though that doesn't sound quite right either. They're just good, so try them.

As crazy as it may sound, I never had a red velvet cake until about 2 years ago. I'd never heard of it before and wasn't really sold once I tasted it.  Maybe that was because it was store bought.  Since then, I've had a few more chances to taste red velvet cake and have definitely become a fan. Just a bit of advice -  stay away from the red velvet cake mix.  It's no where near as good as homemade and actually tastes kind of strange.

So, on to the recipe. I got this from a great food blog called annies-eats.com. She has lots of great recipes, but I particularly liked that this recipe had been tested against at least 4 other red velvet cupcake recipes to see which was the best (this one).  I also posted this recipe on my friend Lara's blog, Recipe Shoebox, after she very kindly asked me to do a guest post around Christmastime.  Check out her blog - she's got some wonderful recipes.  After you make these cupcakes, give most of them away so you don't eat them all. They have a lovely, unique flavor that's hard to resist!

**Before we had this little blog, I guest posted this recipe on my friend Lara's blog - Recipe Shoebox.  I put a lot more pictures of the steps on that post, so go check it out if you'd like to see more process steps. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2½ cups cake flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring*

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting (you may want to double this):

8 oz. cream cheese

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.  It's important to sift, since I've found that cocoa sometimes doesn't break up with a whisk and you're left with little brown chunks in your batter.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. My favorite way is to put the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large star or circle tip.  It gives it a fancy look.

*If you're using gel food coloring, you're going to just have to eyeball the quantity.  I would suggest, though, that you mix the gel coloring in a small bowl with some of the batter, so that you don't get any gel chunks in your batter.  Not that that happened to me or anything.

Recipe Source:  Annie’s Eats