Red Velvet Cake

A strikingly looking cake with an unexpected hint of chocolate flavor. Its only caveat is that you are left with a lot of bowls to wash. It's all worth it, though :). Recipe from Joy of Baking, of course.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 1/2 cups (250 g) flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (15 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder*
1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk**
2 tablespoons liquid red food coloring
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

* As a substitute use 2 tablespoons natural cocoa and throw in a pinch of baking soda.
** Or, to make your own, stir 1 tablespoon of vinegar into 1 cup of milk, and let it sit for 10 minutes before using.

For the frosting:
1 1/2 cups (360 ml) heavy whipping cream
16 oz (450 g) cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (115 g) confectioners' (icing or powdered) sugar

Directions:

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) and place rack in center of oven.
Butter two 9 inch (23 cm) round cake pans and set them aside.
In a mixing bowl sift (this is one of those recipes where sifting *is* important!) together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In a separate bowl beat the butter until soft.
Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

In a separate cup whisk the buttermilk with the red food coloring.
With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the red buttermilk in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda.
Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter.

Working quickly, divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
Speed is of the essence here, as your only rising agent is the vinegar-soda mix, and it dissipates quickly.

Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their pans for 10 minutes, then invert them on a wire rack and cool completely. Once completely cooled, wrap cakes in plastic wrap and place them in the freezer for at least an hour. (This is done to make filling and frosting the cakes easier.)

For the frosting:
Beat the cream cheese until smooth.
Add the vanilla and confectioners' sugar and process until smooth.

In a separate bowl (I told you there are too many bowls!) whip the cream until stiff peaks form.
With a large spatula, gently but quickly fold a little of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture to lighten it.
Then fold in the remaining whipped cream, in two stages.

Recipe advises to place the frosting in the refrigerator for an hour if it is not thick enough to spread, but I've never had that problem.

To assemble:
With a serrated knife, cut each cake layer horizontally in half to get four layers.
Place one of the cake layers, top facing down, onto a plate.
Spread the cake layer with a layer of frosting.
Place another layer of cake on top of the frosting and continue to frost and stack the cake layers.
Frost the top and sides of the cake.
Garnish with coconut if desired.

Choc Berry Butter Cake

My twelve-year-old sister and I made this yesterday. It's based on a simple butter cake recipe with various innovations along the way.

Ingredients:

All tablespoons are 20mL metric tablespoons

8 ounces butter / margarine
8 ounces caster sugar (super fine sugar)
4 eggs
8 ounces self raising flour
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
1 or 2 ~400g / 1 pound tins of mixed berries in syrup (my tin had strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) - strained and the syrup reserved
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and grease and flour an approx 20cm x 20cm (8" x 8") square cake tin.

2. Cream margarine and caster sugar.

3. Add eggs one at a time and mix together thoroughly

4. Sieve (sift) in flour and cocoa and stir in until completely incorporated.

5. Add sweetened, condensed milk, 2 tablespoons of the berry syrup, and the vanilla essence one at a time and stir until completely incorporated.

6. Gently fold in the mixed berries. I used one tin of berries but the mixture could easily have taken another tin's worth so use your own judgement depending on how berry-filled you like your cakes!

7. Spoon the mixture into the greased and floured cake tin and place in pre-heated oven. bake for about 50 minutes (I cooked mine for an hour and it was just slightly burned on one corner, so check regularly!).

8. Once baked, turn onto a wire cooling rack and leave to cool.


Icing (Frosting):

I made this with the aim of trying to replicate a crystally, slightly crunchy icing I'd tasted on a cake at a school morning tea, but it didn't work very well. This is a modified recipe replacing the white sugar I originally used with more coconut.

Ingredients:

All tablespoons are 20mL metric tablespoons
All cups are 250mL metric cups

2/3 cup icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) - preferably the pure stuff not icing mixture
1/2 cup dessicated (shredded) coconut
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons of the syrup from the tinned berries
Red food colouring (can be ommitted if you don't mind the icing being a funny brownish colour)

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine sieved (sifted) icing sugar and coconut.

2. Add the melted margarine and stir thoroughly.

3. Add the sweetened condensed milk and the berry syrup and mix thoroughly until all ingredients are combined.

4. Add four drops of red food colouring to make a nice pastel pink - or more or less to your own tastes!

5. Using a flat implement, smooth onto the top and sides of the cake. You may need to refrigerate the mixture slightly to make it firm enough but don't leave it too long - this icing sets rock solid! Once the cake is iced, refrigerate overnight to set the icing.

Carrot Cake

The recipe is from here. The original recipe yields a two-layer cake, which would be too much for my two person household, one of whom is on a diet :), so my rendition is pretty much the original halved. It's still moist and flavorful and yummy!

Ingredients:

For the cake:
4 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup (150 g) white sugar
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)
1 1/2 cup (190 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

* Original recipe also uses 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, which I skipped because I didn't have the former and I dislike the latter.

For the cream cheese frosting (icing):
8 oz (220 g) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (55 g) butter, softened
1 cup (130 g) confectioners' (powdered) sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine grated carrots and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Set aside for 60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350º F/175º C.
Grease and flour a 9-inch (23 cm) cake pan.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, and stir into the wet mixture until absorbed.
Lastly, stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts.
Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.
When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.

For the frosting:
Cream together the cream cheese and butter.
Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar.
Frost cooled cake.

* I only had 4 oz of cream cheese, so, as you can see, I was a little short on frosting:

Self-Layering Light Fruit Cake

I call this invented cake recipe ‘self layering’ because the gentle cooking temperature means that the fruit is able to settle a little. When the cake is cooked and turned out you end up with a bottom layer of soft, moist butter cake with almost no fruit, and an upper layer full of juicy fruit embedded in a little cake. Sounds like an accident (well, it was an accident), but it’s very tasty that way!

This is a two-day process as the fruit has to soak overnight.

Ingredients:

Approx 1.5 metric (250mL) cups mixed dried fruit (mine included sultanas, mixed peel, currants, raisins and glacé cherries).
Enough sherry to cover the fruit

4 oz (110g) plus two tablespoons white sugar
4 oz (110g) margarine plus extra for greasing
2 large eggs, or 3 small eggs
4 oz (110g) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Place the dried fruit in a small bowl and cover with sherry, then sprinkle over two tablespoons of white sugar. Leave to soak overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 160 C / 320 F. Prepare a cake tin (cake pan) – I used a round tin with a 20cm / 8inch diameter and a capacity of about 1 litre / 16 oz – by greasing the tin with margarine then covering the base and sides with greaseproof paper (baking paper) and coating the joins with more margarine.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs to mixing bowl and mix until fully combined.

4. Using a slotted spoon of some sort, lift the fruit out of the sherry mixture and add it to the butter mixture along with the vanilla essence. Reserve sherry mixture as it is used in the icing. Mix fruit in until fully coated in butter mixture.

5. Add sieved (sifted) flour to fruit mixture and stir until it forms a smooth batter around the fruit.

6. Spoon mixture into cake tin and smooth top. Place in oven and bake for about 40 minutes, or until top is golden. The top may still be a little moist and should appear bubbly when the cake is cooked.

7. Allow cake to cool completely in the tin (pan) before turning out. Ensure cake is completely cold before icing.

 

The Icing:

I expected this icing to harden when the cake was refrigerated, but it didn’t, so apparently I’ve invented an icing that stays very soft! It’s hard enough to stay where it’s put but still very sticky when touched, and it tastes delicious if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:

1 cup sieved (sifted) icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons Philadelphia cream cheese
1 tablespoon milk
1 dessertspoon sherry mixture from fruit
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mash margarine and cream cheese into the icing sugar, then beat all ingredients until they form a smooth mixture.

2. Smooth onto cake using a flat utensil. The cake should be fruit-side-up when iced.

3. Keep cake refrigerated until serving so that icing doesn’t run.

4. Enjoy!


The last piece, right before I ate it!

Melting Moments

These are light, crumby, buttery, sweet biscuits (cookies) that I’ve been baking for years. The plain version is the original but I’ve developed my own chocolate version, which is also included here.

Ingredients:

120g / 4oz butter or margarine (recipe says butter but I’ve always used marg) OR
140g / 5oz butter or margarine if you’re making the choc version
60g / 2oz icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
30g / 1oz cornflour (cornstarch)
1 cup Self Raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa for the chocolate version
About 2 tablespoons white sugar for choc version

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 C / 300 F

1. Melt butter/margarine and sieve (sift) in icing sugar. Mix well.

2. Add sieved (sifted) flour and cornflour to butter mixture (and cocoa for choc version). Mix thoroughly until it forms a dough.

3. Roll into balls – this quantity should make 20 balls. Place the balls on a greased / oiled baking tray (cookie sheet) and squash down with a fork. I generally push the fork down twice, the second time at right angles to the first time, to form a cross-hatch on top.

 

4. Choc version only: using a sieve, sprinkle white sugar over the biscuits.

5. Bake at 150 C / 300 F for 15 minutes.

6. Allow to cool on the tray. Once cooled they can be kept in a sealed container or on a cling-wrapped plate in the fridge.



Icing (Frosting)

There are a variety of ways to ice (frost) these. Traditionally they’re sandwiched together with vanilla icing, but there’s many variations and you can simply pipe squiggles of icing on top of the biscuit if you don’t want to make sandwiches.

Ingredients:

4 metric (20mL) tablespoons icing (confectioners’) sugar
2 metric (10mL) teaspoons butter / margarine, melted
1 metric tablespoon milk
1 metric teaspoon vanilla essence (can be substituted for any other flavour of essence, such as lemon, orange, raspberry or peppermint)
Food colouring if desired.

Method:

Mix all ingredients together to make a creamy mixture. Spoon or pipe onto the biscuits as desired, and chill before serving.