A Lovely Sunday Out & About...Without My Brain

I finished up the cake for our winner, Anna Jo, in record time. It was done around 9:30 am, and I didn't need to deliver it until 12:30pm. WIN! I must be getting faster...although ,apparently, not any smarter...my smooth day of cakery was only about to get more interesting.

I carried the cake oh-so-carefully out to my car ~ I even remembered to bring my camera! ~ and once I got there, realized my keys were not in my purse. The car happened to be unlocked, but it was lovely, sunny, 70 degree weather outside, so I could not leave the cream cheese icing out in the heat. I carried the cake all the way back to the house, only to find my stalwart husband had locked me out. I had the 5 year old with me (who desperately needed to get out of the house) so we were outside yelling "Daddy! Daddy!" and banging on the door. It took a few minutes to locate my dumb keys, which for some inexplicable reason I left on the kitchen counter. Derrr hey!

Road construction made me miss the exit to her house because I didn't see it until it was far too late to turn off, so I had to drive to the next exit and figure out my way down to her house through suburbia. Suburbia which was full of crazy speed bumps (!!!) and a very scary/intriguing dog fight. Did I also mention that once I got to her street I totally missed her house and had to turn around? Yeah...

The good news is, the cake survived! I apologize for my crappy photography skills...I'm not great with a camera and the pictures came out all shadowy. It was so darn sunny, I couldn't really see my screen. *sigh* Oh well!



Lovely Anna Jo
with her cake

Anna Jo and her adorable husband were thrilled. Especially her husband who is a big fan of the red velvet cake she picked out. He was even sneaking the extra "in case of damage" chocolate robin eggs I brought along while we were taking these pictures. Next time I will bring more chocolate eggs. :)

Anna's Red Velvet Easter Cake
complete with tiny robin's nest for spring!

Stay tuned...there may be more contests in the future!

Red Velvet

I was up late the other night watching Food Network, which is bad for several reasons. The first being that I should have been asleep because it was midnight. The second being that I knew I'd want to make everything I saw from the dinosaur cake on Ace of Cakes (not happening anytime soon!) and the gingerbread cupcakes with carmelized mango buttercream, which sounded ridiculously hard to make once I tracked down the recipe.

However, I saw a lovely girl making red velvet cupcakes, covered with a literal mountain of cream cheese icing and topped with cute little sprinkles in a rainbow of colors. It was 1 am and I was thinking "oooh...red velvet..."

It's funny how often we forget about the classic recipes. How long has it been since I've even thought about red velvet cake? I can't remember the last time. In fact, I couldn't even remember what red velvet tasted like. So guess what I was making in my kitchen the very next day?

Oh, and it is awesome.


Red Velvet Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 and 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider will both work)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water

For the cream cheese frosting:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar

**quick note: A one ounce bottle of red food coloring (the normal size tiny glass bottles you'd get in a grocery store) only has 2 tablespoons of dye in it, so you will need two one ounce bottles of red dye to have enough for the cupcakes. It's okay if you don't put all the dye in it, they just won't be quite as deep red.

For the cupcakes:
-Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
-Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside.
-In a large bowl mix the oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined.
-Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well.
-Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix until just combined.
-Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.
-Line cupcake pans with 24 paper liners, scoop the batter into the liners 3/4 full. (Or two 9-inch cake pans for layer cake. Grease the pans, line the bottom with wax or parchment paper, then flour. It will need to bake a little longer, I'd say around 30-40 minutes.)
-Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. (Mine got done at about 22-25 minutes) Cool completely on racks.

For the cream cheese frosting:
-Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
-Add the vanilla.
-Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Mix until combined.
-The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
-Frost cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.