Red Velvet Cake

I'm trying out cake recipes for this year's Volunteer Appreciation Tea at the Library. I love Cakewalk by Robbin Gourley, especially her personal stories about each cake, so I've picked three cakes to try before making the final version for April 28th: Hummingbird Cake, Walnut Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting, and Red Velvet (or Hand-Me-Down Cake).

The Red Velvet cake was good but not a winner. It seemed too dry for me; perhaps I overbaked it. In any event, the kitchen was a mess with all that red food coloring and red batter but I had fun making it and brought it to the neighbor's for an Easter dessert. The frosting recipe was questionable but it turned out delicious. Robbin Gourley's family have handed the recipe down for years.

Red Velvet Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and flour two or three eight inch cake pans. (I used three).

Sift together 2-1/2 c. flour, 2 T unsweetened cocoa powder; 1 t baking soda and 1-2 t salt. Set aside.

Combine 1 cup buttermilk and 1 T (yep, that's tablespoon) red food coloring and set aside.

Cream together 1 cup butter and sugar, adding eggs, one at a time, and beat until thoroughly combined. Alternate the flour and buttermilk until it is all incorporated, adding the vanilla and the vinegar.

Spread the batter evenly into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool and in the pan ten minutes and then turn them out onto racks and cool completely.


For the frosting, place 3 T flour in a saucepan and slowly add 1 cup of milk, whisking in gently and cook the mixture until it is creamy. Cool surrounded by a pan of ice water or in the freezer. Cream 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 tsp. of vanilla extract and 1 cup of very soft butter.  Add the cooled thickened milk and beat until the consistency of whipped cream.

Cream together 1 cup butter and sugar, adding eggs, one at a time, and beat until thoroughly combined. Alternate the flour and buttermilk until it is all incorporated, adding the vanilla and the vinegar.

I must say we added vanilla yogurt and chocolate sauce when serving.

Carrot-Pineapple-Apple-Coconut-Walnut Cake

I decided to try a new carrot cake recipe a few weekends ago. We loved it! I had the ingredients in my pantry and frig and wanted a use for some of the Bob's Red Mill coconut.

I found this recipe online and yes, it is a great carrot cake. It might be a Mott's recipe to begin with. Perhaps not to "die for" but let's just take that figuratively and not literally.

The first time I made a three-layer cake and it was beautiful. I upped my favorite frosting recipe (see carrot cake on this blog) by 50%. This means, of course, that you will have a half package of cream cheese frosting to use the next week! Yum. My tips for the three-layer is to use 8" shallow cake pans and alternate them when you frost (one up, one down, one up). They bake very quickly. I always line my cake pans with parchment rounds.

The second time I made one small 4" cake (cut in half horizontally to make a two-layer cake) and Gerry I shared this one. For the rest of the batter, I filled a bundt pan, well-greased, about 2/3 or 3/4 full and ended up with a nice, compact, fruity cake. I just tested it every five minutes and perhaps baked it for 25-35 minutes.

So here's the recipe. I followed it but used more coconut and nuts than called for. I also used Bob's Red Mill Unsweetened Flaked Coconut (available at all Ocean State Job Lots) instead of shredded, sweetened coconut and chopped it with the whole or halved walnuts in my Cuisinart. I probably used 1 cup of coconut and 1 cup of walnuts. Next time, I will garnish the cake with coconut and nuts.


One -  Beat until nice and fluffy and yellow:
1-1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups sugar
3 eggs

Two - Mix together 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon.

3 - Beat those wet and dry ingredients together until mixed.

Add in 2 cups of grated carrots, 1 cup of crushed pineapple in juice (not drained, so use the juice), 1 tsp. vanilla and the coconut/nuts.

Pour this into your pans, cook for about 25 minutes (test, test, test with a bamboo skewer or cake tester) at 350 degrees if using three layers. For other pans, just test until the skewer comes out clean.

Cool for ten minutes and then pop out of the pans. Continue to cool before frosting.