Joy of Cooking Red Velvet Cake

While living in El Paso with my boyfriend, we actually live with his brother and SIL(sister-in-law). We both really like food and to be in the kitchen. The first week of living here she told me one of her good friend’s birthday was coming up and she wanted to bake him a red velvet cake. I’ve never made a red velvet cake before but I accepted the offer. Little did I know, I was actually going to do the whole thing . I figured it be fun and something new I could learn from! In the end, it was actually pretty simple to bake and put together! You start off by using a buttermilk layer cake recipe and to make it red velvet you incorporate the food coloring and cocoa powder.

The cake was incredibly moist. Red velvet, in my opinion, is over-rated and I never really understood what the hype was about but this cake was delicious. Without trying any other recipe, I would simply just use this recipe again because I know it will be a good cake. I think red velvet is a popular cake because it is known for cream cheese frosting! I whipped up the Joy of Cooking cream cheese frosting and sprinkled coconut on top. You could also add pecans and extra cake crumbs for decoration.

Red Velvet Cake Adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients

2 1/3 cups AP flour, sifted (they used cake flour)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

1-3  tablespoons red food coloring

Shredded coconut

Direction

Preheat  the oven to 350 degrees F. Have all ingredients at room temperature, about 70 degree F. Grease and flour two 9 x 2- inch or 8 x 2-inch round cake pans or line the bottoms with wax or parchment paper.

Whisk together until thoroughly blended flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.

Beat the butter in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually add and beat the sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Whisk together eggs, then gradually beat in vanilla, taking about 2 minutes.

Beating at a low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk/red food coloring. After adding the first part of buttermilk, add in your red food coloring.

Beat the batter until smooth and scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Divide the batter between the pans and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes in 9-inch pans, 30-35 minutes in 8-inch pans. Let cake cool in pans on top of cooling rack for 20-30 minutes or until you can easily handle the cake with your hands. Invert cakes to peel off paper if used and let cool completely on cooking racks.

Once completely cooled fill and frost cake with cream cheese frosting. Recipe below. Then decorate by sprinkling with shredded coconut. You could also add any leftover cake crumbs if you had to level the layers and/or toasted pecans! I used my cake crumbs to sample the cake with frosting. Yum yum!

Cream Cheese Frosting Adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients

8 ounces cold cream cheese
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted

Direction

Beat in a medium bowl at low speed just until blended the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add one-third confectioners' sugar at a time and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. If the frosting is too stiff, beat for a few seconds longer, do not over beat.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, this pretty cake would be perfect to share with someone special or with yourself and an awesome chick flick!

Always,

Fallon     

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Ever since my birthday I've been in the baking itch for cupcakes. I want to try different flavors and make delicious frosting. Which means I must bake cupcakes and try them. Isn't that horrible? ;) 


I decided I need to own Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I must put that on my list of cookbooks to buy! Being not the cupcake baking expert but definitely at eating I went on my Google search for cupcakes. I also had a specific ingredient I wanted to use. Bananas. I have TWO bunches of bananas in my freezer right now. My mom likes to go a little crazy with the grocery shopping when it comes to produce. There is just so many bananas I can eat. Therefore they head into the freezer for future baking projects.


I found two recipes during my search but went with the one that had a deliciously different frosting. Thank you Martha Stewart! These cupcakes were the bomb! So moist, light and full of banana flavor. The honey-cinnamon frosting was the best pairing for these cupcakes. Very creamy and smooth. I didn't use as much powdered sugar because I wanted the honey to be the star. I also loved the very pale tan color the cinnamon made, almost like a natural tint for frosting! 


I split the dozen cupcakes so my dad would enjoy them as well because he does not like frosting! Hello that is the best PART! So his were baked with a banana on top. He ate all the cupcakes within one day and said he really enjoyed this banana recipe. As for my leftover cupcakes, I ate one and 1/2 cupcakes. There was one lonely cupcake left and I wanted my dad to have it, so I cut the top part off with the frosting and saved him the bottom part. I wasn't letting no frosting go to waste!!

I love the simple garnish because it tells you what the main ingredient is in the cake

Click HERE for the Banana Cupcake recipe. Click HERE for the Honey-Cinnamon frosting recipe.


You also have to check out this link because it is a list of the 50 Best Cupcake Recipes on the Internet. Enjoy!! Fallon PS: Don't forget about the giveaway I'm hosting! You have till this Wednesday by Midnight to submit your entries!

Fallon

Sugar Cookie Bars

After seeing this recipe for Sugar Cookie Bars on several blogs I finally gave in to make them. These are easy to serve for large crowds and gives you that childhood feeling again. I like when a dessert can take me back in time! Nothing like a thick sugar cookie with a hefty layer of frosting. I opted to make my own frosting. I went with cream cheese frosting because it would make a good contrast to the sugar cookie. Plus it uses real ingredients, and not shortening that is called for in the original. So I of course made a few mistakes. I'm always goofing up something! I used too small of a pan and the cookies were slightly under cooked. I'm not always a perfect baker! At least I'm honest ;) Don't make the mistake I made, make sure you use a the large baking sheet it calls for, I used my pyrex thinking it was the right size. Boy was I wrong! 15 minutes and my bars were still not cooked. So I cooked them longer. I just couldn't figured it out until I finally added the frosting and ready to cut them into squares I realized I probably used the wrong size pan. ;) They were still delicious regardless!

Click HERE for the Sugar Cookie Bars recipe. 

Click HERE for the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. I can't wait to make these again with zero mistakes. Don't forget about the Cream Cheese Frosting either!

Always, Fallon

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting

Frosting to me is what makes the cake or cupcake. Sometimes cookies. There are many ways to make frosting and one tiny mistake can definitely ruin a good frosting. I've tried many frosting's like butter cream, swiss meringue, royal icing, ganache, and cream cheese. They are all very good, but my favorite has always been the cream cheese frosting. What can I say, it just that good! It is a favorite with many. It tops well with red velvet and carrot cake. Plus you have to make it fresh and homemade. The pre-made kind just doesn't cut it, even if you are in a hurry. MAKE HOMEMADE!

How do you eat your frosting? Well its always the first to go on my piece of cake. Meaning I start eating the frosting first and work my way to the cake. Sometimes not finishing the cake because I really just wanted that delicious frosting. ;) I'm not a frosting expert by no means and I saw my Joy of Cooking cookbook looking lonely. This book is an expert! The book is bigger then my college textbooks I use to have to lug around! I flipped to the frosting section, and came across 2 variations on cream cheese frosting. Perfect! Either the food processor method or the electric mixer method. I went with the electric mixer method.  

Cream Cheese Frosting (From Joy of Cooking)  

Ingredients
8 ounces cold cream cheese
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted

Beat in a medium bowl at low speed just until blended the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add one-third confectioners' sugar at a time and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. If the frosting is too stiff, beat for a few seconds longer, do not over beat.

Fluffy goodness!

I could not wait to lick all the left over frosting from the spatula and beater from the mixer. THIS WAS AMAZING! It was smooth, creamy and sweetened perfectly. I added 3 1/2 cups of sugar. Even then I felt it was much but I wanted to make sure the consistency was right with the sweetness. There are 2 secrets they mentioned that make the perfect cream cheese frosting. Cold cream cheese and to not over beat= perfect! I use to always let my cream cheese come to room temperature with my butter. Definitely could notice the difference this time around. I'm learning so much already from this cookbook already! This will always be my go to cream cheese frosting recipe. So what did I use the frosting for? Oh well you will just have to come back and see! 

 
Always,
Fallon
 
PS: Any day now my boyfriend will be heading home from Iraq. I can't believe a full year has gone by and how fast the deployment went. I'm just glad he is coming back happy and healthy! That's all that matters. I wanted to thank my readers and fellow bloggers for following me on this rough journey, your supporting comments were thoughtful and helpful! Thank you.  

PPS: My friend Robin Sue over at Bed Red Kitchen is hosting an awesome giveaway featured by Bertolli "Pasta Party." Definitely check it out and leave a comment!