The Cake That Had Me Seeing Red...

Acckkkk!! Updated! Author misplaced her mind while writing this post for the second time!! Please excuse the mental vacation!! I forgot one of the Daring Bakers (I need to be shot!) ELLE!!!! The gal who I always picture smiling!! I am so sorry sweetie.. EVERYONE CLICK OVER TO ELLE'S SITE RIGHT NOW FOR YET ANOTHER FABULOUS RED VELVET CAKE POST - HURRRRRRYYYYYYYY!!! 'kay well they don't call me the Queen of Dorkdom for nothing. :P Know what time it is? Yep! Time for another baking cross-post - WOOO! hehee I love when I go all Arsenio. Anyhoo.. we've got some changes this month, some new members and a brand new challenge. The first change is we've all decided (finally!) on a name for our lil group - The Daring Bakers! Yep, that's because each month is a challenge - we are daring ourselves to get over our baking fears, whatever they may be. The second change is something that I'd like to tell you about at the end of this post.. =) Okay first off, I have to introduce you to our five SIX new members - starting with my dear friend, the beautiful Morven of Food, Art and Random Thoughts; next we have the gal who, despite a very, very busy lifestyle, formulated for me an easy recipe for a certain type of bread that I was craving.. uhh.. just because I was craving it! Bless her cotton socks! And that would be the very talented bread chick, Mary of The Sour Dough; followed by the lovely half of the duo who does their Writing at the Kitchen Table, Freya; then we've got the very talented and lovely baker from Canada, Jen; and last, but certainly not least, a gal who knows what she's doing in the kitchen and coming to us from Brazil, Valentina. In case you are new to the blog the rest of the Daring Bakers can be found to your right on my sidebar. A lovely group of women, if I do say so myself! =) This month's challenge is a traditional southern dessert, one not had by many of us.. the Red Velvet Cake. We kind of veered off the course this month and decided to use whichever recipe that we preferred, simply because so many recipes were suggested. So for all of you Red Velvet Cake lovers, who don't have a go-to recipe yet, you'll find many to choose from by clicking on each Daring Baker's blog. Myself, well I had picked the recipe I was going to use back at the beginning of the month. It came from a trusted friend who has never steered me wrong in way of her recipes yet. There was only one small problem with the recipe and it was the frosting - I just wasn't sure about how it was made. And so, I went in search of a different frosting recipe. One of the first places I thought to check out was the Food Network's website to see if the light of my life, the apple of my eye, the future mother of my children, Paula Deen, had a recipe posted. I figured I couldn't get more southern than Paula, eh? Not only did she have a recipe posted for Red Velvet Cake and it's version of frosting, but it was her Grandmother Paul's recipe to boot. And so.. at approximately 5 minutes before gathering my ingredients to bake this cake yesterday afternoon, I upped and changed my mind. I decided to go with Grandmother Paul's recipe for the frosting AND the cake. Maybe it was a show of faith in my true love of all that is Paula. Maybe it was because the frosting had marshmallow in it. It could have been the 1/2 pound of butter in the cake.. or maybe it was because her grandmother had the same name as my favorite Secret Square on Hollywood Squares (he occupied the center square if anyone knows what I'm referring to). Who knows? But at the very last moment, fate took a different path... Grandmother Paul knows her stuff! This cake was very good. It was moist and I could taste the small amount of chocolate in it. It was a heavy, dense cake though.. not sure if they are all like this, but it made me think that's why they call it Velvet - because it was very velvety on my tongue. But let's talk about that frosting. Holy hell.. I've never had a cream cheese frosting that was sooooo good. So good, in fact, that I might or might not have had to make another 1/2 batch of it due to eating spoonfuls of the first batch, possibly... nevermind, it was really, really good!! I had no idea the addition of marshmallow would make such a difference, but it did. Would I make this cake again? Probably not - unless I was asked to bake something for a red themed party or invited to Shelby's wedding. It was a very good cake, but just not the type of cake I'd crave when I'm craving cake. Cuz we all know, when I crave cake - I crave The Ultimate Chocolate Cake, to which I haven't exactly found yet. But I'm happy with the experience, I've brought 1/2 of it into work and the guys are loving it, my mom is waiting for the other half and as always I had fun reading about the other DB gal's reviews of it. I'm looking forward to next month's challenge already. =) Grandmother Paul's Red Velvet Cake Courtesy of Paula Deen, Grandmother Paul and the Food Network website Cake: 2 cups sugar 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature 2 eggs 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 2 ounces red food coloring 2 1/2 cups cake flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon vinegar Icing: 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese 1 stick butter, softened 1 cup melted marshmallows 1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar 1 cup shredded coconut (omitted) 1 cup chopped pecans (omitted) Look Helen! I did the crumb coat! hehee Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into 3 (8-inch) round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting. Icing: Blend cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add marshmallows and sugar and blend. Fold in coconut and nuts. Spread between layers and on top and sides of cooled cake. And lastly, behold our new logo! Is that not gorgeous? Are you not jealous? You are.. admit it. =) The Daring Bakers are an extremely lucky group of gals as the uber talented Ximena of Lobstersquad agreed to create a one of a kind logo for us. She also created a small button that's adorable as well - well here, look! I, personally, can't say THANK YOU!!! loudly enough to Ximena. Your artwork has always amazed me and I still can't get over how you do this on a computer, when I can barely draw a stick figure on paper! heee! You listened to what we wanted and you exceeded our expectations in the final product. And a small word(s) of advice kids.. if you want your blog to look hella cool, I can assure you, you will not be displeased by hiring Ximena and allowing her to work her magic! She truly is one talented hot mama! =) No no.. I'm not done yet.. sit back down. God. I also want to thank my interweb Sis, the gal I share a brain with, Veronica - for commissioning Ximena to do this for us. We all owe you a great big loud THANK YOU!!!!! as well!! Okay.. the moosh is over.. go start clickin on my side bar to see all the other gal's versions of the Red Velvet Cake, ya'll. =)