Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Take a look at the gorgeous color of this cake! My friend made me this Red Velvet cake for my birthday as a surprise. It was her first time making the cake, and it turned out so well.

I asked my friend to share the recipe. It comes from a man who calls himself the Cake Man Raven who owns a bakery/catering facility in Brooklyn, NY. He has a long list of celebrity clients who include Janet Jackson and Oprah. Here's his website: http://www.cakemanraven.com/index.htm

The key to this recipe could be the use of buttermilk. If you don't have any buttermilk on hand, there is an easy substitution using what you may have on hand in your refrigerator. For every cup of buttermilk you need, put 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice in a measuring cup and pour milk up to the one cup mark. Let the liquid sit for a minute before you use it.

The frosting is delicious! Butter and cream cheese - how could you go wrong? It is decadent and worth every calorie.

The fact that my friend took the time to make this cake for me means so much. But get this! She owns only ONE cake pan, and this is a three-layer cake. She put each of the three layers in the oven, one at a time. That is patience. Now that is a birthday gift. That is a friend.

Perhaps you'll be inspired to make this cake. Better yet, make it for someone you know. I don't think there is any better gift that money could buy.

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of cake flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup of buttermilk
2 eggs
1 t. white vinegar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 oz. of red food coloring
1 t. vanilla

Frosting:
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 lb. of cream cheese at room temperature
1 lb. of butter, softened
2 t. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. In a second bowl, combine liquid ingredients and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well incorporated. Slowly add dry ingredients to that. Pour into three 9-inch layer pans that have been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. For frosting, mix together the cream cheese and the butter. Gradually add powdered sugar until it reaches desired sweetness and smoothness. Add vanilla and frost the cake!

Lamb Cake for Easter

This lamb cake has many happy memories for my family and me. Each Easter, my husband's Grandma would make this cake, and predictably, each Easter the lamb's head would break off at the neck.

Nothing says Happy Easter like a decapitated lamb cake.

After receiving the honor of inheriting the lamb cake mold, I tried a few recipes with some success. This year, however, I had great success adapting one from AllRecipes.com. There were no problems with the neck, but the size of the ears did not match at all. (You can't really tell by this photo.)

The recipe is basically a butter pound cake. I used a butter cream frosting that I flavored with both vanilla and almond extracts. There was so much leftover frosting that I froze it. My research online says it is okay to do this, so we'll see.

LAMB CAKE

2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites

First, grease and flour your mold, making sure to get all the little areas. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sift the cake flour with the baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk. Stir the batter until smooth after each addition. Add the vanilla.

In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it, then quickly fold in the remaining whites.

Fill the face side of the mold with batter. Gently, move a wooden spoon through the batter to remove any air pockets, making sure not to disturb the greased and floured surface of the mold. Put the lid on the mold, making sure it locks or ties together securely so that the steam and rising batter do not force the two sections apart. (I tied them together using kitchen twine.)

Put the mold on a cookie sheet in a preheated oven for about 1 hour. Test for doneness by inserting a skewer or wooden toothpick through a steam vent. Put the cake, still in the mold, on a rack for about 15 minutes. CAREFULLY, remove the top of the mold. Before you separate the cake from the bottom let it cool for about 5 more minutes so that all the steam can escape and the cake can firm up some more. After removing the rest of the mold, let the cake cool on the rack completely. DO NOT sit the cake upright until completely cooled.

Frost and decorate to look like a lamb. I put coconut on the lamb after I frosted it. You can also dye some coconut green to look like grass. Cut jelly beans for the eyes and nose. Don't forget to give the lamb a ribbon around her neck!

BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
5 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk

In a large bowl, cream margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Add salt, vanilla, almond extract, confectioners sugar and milk. Beat well.

** 7/17/09 Update. I used the leftover frosting that I had frozen. It tasted just as good as the day I froze it, three months later. **

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I had a hankering for a childhood treat recently, Pineapple Upside Down Cake. This cake, smelling of vanilla and warm pineapple, is homey, moist and easy to make. The brown sugar gets caramelized and gooey. It is enjoyed by adults and kids alike.

Have plenty of cherries on hand, however. The kids will be fighting over them!

My trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook was the source of this recipe. You probably have all the ingredients in your cabinets now.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 can sliced pineapple, drained
7 maraschino cherries
Dinette Cake batter (see below)

Heat oven to 350. Melt butter over low heat in round layer pan. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. Place pineapple slide in center of pan. Place cherries in pineapple slices.

Prepare Dinette Cake batter:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
1 t. vanilla


Measure all ingredients into large mixer bowl. Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour evenly over fruit in pan.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Invert onto plate. Leave pan over cake a few minutes. Serve warm and , if desired, with whipped cream.

9 servings