Red Velvet Birthday

Birthday #17 was the day after Thanksgiving and a Red Velvet Cake was requested.  Since we would be spending Thanksgiving week (and thus, the birthday) in the mountains I opted for a sheet cake so it would transport easier.  That turned out to be a good idea as we found we had more food packed than clothing, toiletries and all that other stuff you have to take with you out of town.  I found this one online at Food Network and I ended up with one VERY red cake ...

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cocoa powder (next time, more cocoa)

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ounce red food coloring

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9- x 13-inch cake pan.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.  In a large mixer bowl whisk together buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients gradually to the buttermilk mixture while mixing at a low speed, just until combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Pour the batter into prepared cake pan; tap on counter to remove air bubbles.  Bake about 40-45 minutes or until center tests done.  Let cool completely.  Note:  If doing the layer cake version, this is enough batter for a 3-layer cake and layers would need to bake only about 30 minutes. 

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound cream cheese, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix cream cheese, sugar and butter on low speed until blended.  Increase to high speed and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add vanilla and continue to mix until incorporated.  Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff before frosting the cake.

This cake transports well (:-p) both to and from, but as you can see we put away almost half of this cake in one sitting so by the end of the week there wasn't much left to transport ... and we had one very happy birthday boy.