Red Velvet Cake with Old Fashioned Milk Buttercream

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I hope your week is going well, mine is good so far. I having been working a lot lately but that is a good thing. I need the money, but who doesn't need money? I have not been getting much kitchen time lately but I have been putting my crock pot to good use. I love the idea of being able to put some ingredients in it and coming home to a ready meal. How easy is that? I would love to meet the person who invented it and give them a hug. Thanks for not only making my life easier but many other people lives easier as well! I would however like another cookbook with recipes for it so I can expand my repertoire of go to recipes. I will keep my eyes open for one. I did just order Emeril's new cookbook and it had some recipes for the slow cooker. I can't wait to give them a try.

I did however get to spend some time in the kitchen today. I was in the mood for some cake. Red Velvet to be exact. After eating that disappointing cupcake from the festival this past weekend I decided to make one for myself without the gummy texture of course. Many, many moons ago I said I was going to bake my way through the cookbook, United Cakes of America, but I have only made two cakes to date. I plan to complete this book this year hopefully. I still need to get a scale and a couple of pans but other than that I should have the equipment to do them all. I have previously made a Lane Cake from Alabama and it was terrible. I also made the Honey Raspberry Cheesecake from Wyoming which was delicious. So two out of fifty....I have long way to go. The recipe for the Red Velvet Cake I baked today was from this book and it covers the state of New York. I know what you are thinking. What? No cheesecake? Well there is a recipe for cheesecake but I wanted to do the Red Velvet Cake. If I have time I will go bake and make the cheesecake. Who knows? Maybe it will become my go to recipe.

The author paired the cake with an Old Fashioned Milk Buttercream instead of a Cream Cheese Frosting. At first I was not going to take his suggestion and make it but I decided since I was baking my way through this book I should give it a chance. If I did not like it I could always make the familiar frosting. Overall, I liked the cake. It was not hard to make but the frosting I was not so sure about. Fortunately it ended up tasting very good. I just now need to learn how to make a cake look prettier. My skills for frosting or decorating need help. I should take a class but until I can I will just keep practicing. My hubby enjoyed the cake so much in fact he told me I had better have snapped my pictures because he was about to tear it up. Lol:) I love him. He loves cake, especially if it has some sort of chocolate in it. I definitely will make it again.
Unfortunately when I was taking pictures of the early steps my SD card was not engaged so I do not a pictures of the steps , only of the final product. Boo:(

Red Velvet Cake
Warren Brown

Ingredients
2 1/4 c cake flour
2 T cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 c superfine sugar (if you can't find it just put granulated sugar in a food processor and give it a quick whirl)
2 eggs
1 oz red food dye

Old Fashioned Buttercream Milk Frosting
1 c milk
1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 c sugarfine sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat the oven 335F and place the rack in the middle position. Line the bottoms of 2 9-by-2 inch round pan with parchment. Measure dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Whisk each bowl separately to combine. Measure the butter and sugar and put in bowl of standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream for about 5 minutes on low speed. Add the eggs one at a time to butter-sugar combo and then beat in the dye. Alternately add the dry and wet ingredients about a quarter at a time. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake approx 30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Mine took 28 minutes. Cool the cakes for about 5 minutes and then invert on flat surface and cool to room temp before frosting.

For Frosting
Quickly whisk 4 T of milk with the flour. The slurry will be somewhat thick but get out lumps. Whisk the rest of the milk in and transfer to a heavy bottom sauce pan. Bring to a simmer for 30 seconds over medium heat whisking the whole time. Place plastic wrap over the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Cool to room temperature. Combine butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla together beat with paddle attachment for 5 minutes. Pour cooled milk and flour mixture into butter mixture and beat for another 5 minutes or longer as needed to achieve spreadable consistently.

I thought the milk flour mixture was a little thick when it cooled. I didn't know if it was supposed to be like a paste or liquidy. Mine was thick like a paste. I added it to the butter mixture with trepidation then tried it. I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted a looked good. Yay for me!

Overall I was pleased with my effort. I just hope my decorating skills improve in the future. I hope you have a great rest of the week!