RED VELVET CAKE

 directly from the blog paper and stitch

Yield: 4-5 (6 inch) cake layers

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups canola oil
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons red food coloring. I found this is almost two small bottles.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour each of the layer pans, set aside.

2. Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda in a medium sized bowl.

3. In an electric mixer on medium speed, add the ingredients in the following order:  oil, sugar, and then the eggs (one at a time).

4. Switch your mixer to a low speed and SLOWLY add in the food coloring (it may splash), vanilla, and vinegar.  Make sure they are fully mixed together.

5. Add in the the flour mixture (from step 2) alternately with buttermilk in a few batches. Be sure to scrape down the bowl and beat to combine all the ingredients.  Do not over mix.

6. Divide batter among pans and place them in the oven.  Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pans 15-20 minutes. Then remove from pans and flip layers. Note: If your cake layers have what resembles a muffin top, go ahead and use a knife to slowly cut off the tops to make your cake layers flat.  This will make layering and frosting much easier and you have a tasty treat to much on while frosting. Cool completely before frosting.

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 6 cups

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
• 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 2-3 Candy canes for garnish

1. Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With a handheld electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2. Add sugar and peppermint extract. Beat, on low speed to combine.

Lastly, take the candy canes and place them in a ziplock baggie.  Crush them with a kitchen utensil and then slowly sprinkle them over your frosting.

With all the Christmas shopping, holiday parties and everything else that goes into the holidays, you may not have time to bake a cake from scratch.  So, if this is the case, it’s okay to buy the box mix and frosting. I saw that they even have Peppermint flavor out for the holidays!  To make a layered cake like the one in the pics, be sure to buy two boxes of cake mix and two tubs of frosting.

Recipe and text Amanda Toman // Styling and photography Brittni Mehlhoff

gonna try this tomorrow and i will let you know

Related articles

• How to make the best red velvet cake. (lilangel88.wordpress.com)
• Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (playingwithrocksinthekitchen.wordpress.com)

VERY LATE HALLOWEEN POST

 

I’ve been wanting to try this cute monster cake…next year or maybe for whenever. cake is always good even if it looks like a monster. check out these super cute creative cakes

here are some of the decorations we tried this year for halloween. my not so little girl has been pretty sick so we were unable to completely enjoy this halloween season.

i love white pumpkins or squash not sure what these are technically categorised as. these little guys will hang around until December, hoping they are ok until then.

i really miss having little ones around that we can dress up and take trick or treating. my daughter has been all types of characters for halloween but my favorite has to be when she was a zombie school girl with a pencil through her head….  

…and the cute little wreath i made

my blogging skills are not up to par and i really want to get into this.  i know that i can contribute interesting ideas to the world but I am having a hard time bringing my ideas out of my head.  i am assuming it has something to do with my daughter about to go through her 7th surgery.  she has been so sick for the past 10 years and finally i am hoping they have found the reason why and will be taking care of it.  im hoping soon my brain will start working again and i can enjoy sharing things with the world

BAILEYS CHOCOLATE CAKE

ok so its no big mystery that I love to bake and eat cake. I saw this recipe on citrus and candy and just had to try it. it was good. however the baileys in the ganache was really strong and I got a bit drunk off it (yeah I know-light weight) so beware it’s not for the kiddies. of course there is a version where you can make your ganache virgin at the end of the recipe. I would do that next time because im not a huge fan of the taste of alcohol.

I added a bit of powdered sugar on the top, hoping to cut the taste of the baileys in the ganache. it didn’t help……

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I love using farm fresh eggs whenever I get the chance.

for some reason I could not find any dark chocolate so I had to settle for a semisweet milk chocolate.

 

melting chocolate for the ganache, can I just eat this?

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totally agree with citrus and candy…love loads of swirls.

For the cake

1. 150g unsalted butter, chopped
2. 100g dark chocolate, chopped
3. 100g caster sugar
4. 100g brown sugar
5. 50g Dutch cocoa powder, sifted
6. 180ml Baileys Irish Cream Whiskey
7. 170g plain flour
8. 1.5 tsps baking powder
9. 1/2 tsp baking soda
10. 1/2 tsp salt
11. 3 eggs, room temperature

For the Chocolate Baileys Ganache

1. 200g good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
2. 100ml cream
3. 100ml Baileys Irish Cream
4. pinch of sea salt
5. 1 Tbl / 15g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

For the cake

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. In a pan, add the butter, chocolate, sugars, cocoa powder and Baileys. When chocolate and butter has melted, whisk together to combine making sure to get rid of any lumps of sugar or cocoa powder. Remove from heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, grease and line a 20-21cm round cake tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. Add the eggs to the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Gently fold in the sifted flour mix until free of lumps. Scrape into cake tin then bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (ideally you want to see some moist crumbs stuck to it. This is one cake you don’t want to over-bake so better to be a little under than over). The tops of the cake will be a little cracked but this is normal for a mud cake (you’ll be trimming the tops and eating them anyway!).
3. Remove from oven and cool in tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cooling it down completely. Trim the tops of the cake to level.

For the ganache

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. Bring the cream, Baileys and the salt to a simmer in a pan. Pour over the chocolate and sit for a minute. Gently stir to combine then beat in the butter.
2. Set aside at room temperature and cool until it is thick enough to spread over your cooled cake. Gently stir the ganache occasionally as it cools to keep the temperature even and the ganache smooth.

Notes

1. For the ganache: feel free to use all Baileys if you prefer it boozier. Alternatively you could just use all cream for a virgin ganache 🙂

Citrus and Candy http://www.citrusandcandy.com/

….BOO

can you guys actually believe it is almost halloween?! this year has gone by so fast. i know even talking about halloween is a bit premature but i need to start preparing. and september is that kinda blah month, where not much is going on. i love everything about this time of year. hopefully soon life will take us to a different part of the country where leaves change and the air has that crispness to it. doesn’t happen in florida. my fam and i are oh so ready for the change.

i have so many things i want to create for halloween this year that im overflowing with stuff. im trying to decide on the perfect wreath. last year i made a super cute crochet wreath for thanksgiving (which i will share when it gets closer to thanksgiving) but never got around to making a halloween one. i am also sharing some of my fav halloween décor ideas. oh yeah and lets not forget about the goodies. happy haunting.

i love baking and this cake is so cute. no tricks here all treats! check out this bloggers site for the recipe i am baker

oww ghostly strawberries. white chocolate covered strawberries. double cream single sugar

love this idea. simple and elegant design dining and diapers

how adorable is this idea? corner house

another front door sign from kiwi lane

this is one for the kiddos 36th avenue

this is simply gorgeous better homes and gardens

WHICH ONE

here are three wreaths that im trying to decide on. theres a poll at the end. help me decide which one to make and i will make it followed with a tutorial

im on the fence about this one. looks super easy and not too childish. lavenderandpumpkins on etsy

i do love this family of ghost. looks easy enough. what do you guys think  tatertots and jello

i think this might be my fav. found this idea on pinterest since i couldn’t find a tutorial i will do one if picked

FOR CAKES SAKE

chocolate guinness cake by nigella lawson

my daughter sydney and i made this cake together. it is one of the best cakes we have made. and the icing is so much better than store bought. store bought icing is just a sin.
pardon the lighting. im still learning on the best ways to use my camera with the instruction book that’s bigger than the bible. if any of you have tips on lighting feel free to share them with me.
here’s the recipe straight from nigella’s website

INGREDIENTS

for the cake
1 cup Guinness
8.83 oz unsalted butter
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
¾ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

for the topping
8 oz cream cheese
1 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
½ cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)

Method
1.Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
2.Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter – in spoons or slices – and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3.Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4.When the cake’s cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the confectioners’ sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved confectioners’ sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5.Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.