Red Velvet Cake

My dear old friend and quite new neighbour Sue and her husband Kevin popped by yesterday on their way to the supermarket. They caught me in my most unforgivably ugly pyjamas, with uncombed hair and mascara stains and... even better, they caught my husband in his "renovatin' outfit", which consists of a pair of shorts with one leg actually RIPPED off, his red crocs and a vintage blue and white striped rugby shirt with no cuffs - that is not allowed outside the house. I love Sue, so I let her in...but I swear if it was anyone else standing on my porch I wouldn't have answered the door.

Sue has seen me in pretty much every state, but Kevin has been spared the "Sunday-not-quite-my-best" presentation. Until yesterday, that is. He is practiced in masking his emotions (they are both actors) but I know I caught a slight widening of his eyes before he carefully schooled his expression to friendly indifference. (There is a reason that guy is happily married.)

In any event, thankfully, they were more interested in the renovation than in the state of us, and so Keith gave them the tour and Sue eventually wandered into the kitchen where I was busy kneading bread.

I told her about the recipe box and my ambitious plan to bake and cook and blog my way through my most apprized recipes and to share my failures and successes in (and out) of the kitchen.

Sue is great at honesty. She can get a couple of revelations and a confession out there in the time it takes to walk from one end of the block to the next. I know this, because we've done a lot of walking together.

Yesterday, she got two confessions in before they left (about 10 minutes). Her first confession was that she did not know HOW to knead bread before last week...and she explained to me that Kevin patiently showed her the technique for the very first time on Saturday. Her second confession was that she had no idea what red velvet cake was.

I promised that the next recipe I would pull from the box would be red velvet cake. Now it's time for my confession. I KNOW what a red velvet cake is...I have seen pictures of red velvet cake in cook books and magazines..and I have seen that recipe probably a hundred times in my recipe box...but not only have I never made a red velvet cake, I do not recall ever tasting a red velvet cake.

I also have no idea who contributed this recipe to my collection. The recipe card is yellowed and the handwriting faded blue ink...there is a notation in red in my mother's hand on the back where the frosting recipe is listed. I guess it's okay to use plain white sugar for the frosting. Thanks, Mom. There is a name on the bottom of the card...at least I think it's a name..."Pulliam"

Red Velvet Cake

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 heaping tbsps cocoa
2 oz red food colouring
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp soda

Cream shortening, sugar and eggs. Make a paste of cocoa and food colour and add to the cream mixture.
Mix salt and vanilla with buttermilk and add alternately with flour.
Mix the soda and the vinegar and fold in to mixture (Basic chemistry: This is going to cause a fun little chemical reaction, best to do it over the bowl.)

Pour into two 8 inch cake pans (greased and floured) I would add some parchment paper on the bottom of this...see below.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350.

The batter looked pretty cool going into the heart-shaped pans...

also darkened up nicely in the baking process but...when I tried to actually get the cake out of the pan, it stuck. I mean...stuck and came out in bits and crumbled pieces. No photo here...I couldn't bring myself.

Not that I got to this point, but here is the frosting recipe...looks yummy.

Whipped White Frosting

5 tbsps flour
1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white sugar

Cook the flour and milk until thick and then cool until cold. Cream sugar and butter and add to milk mixture. Beat until it resembles whipped cream and frost cake.

Oh well...better luck next time? It's the thought that counts...right, Sue?