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April's Blue Ribbon Red Velvet Cake
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Southern Recipe Restoration Project
The contributor: April Cobb, a floral designer and the wedding director for Morningside Presbyterian Church.
The story: Cobb has always loved to cook. “When I was 10 or 11, I would have the entire dinner ready when my parents got home,” she said. But there was more to learn from her mother than the basics of meat and vegetables. There was baking — especially the beautiful red velvet cake that was the staple of many a church dinner and family celebration. Since her mother died of breast cancer 10 years ago, the spatula has been passed to Cobb. The cake is her signature dessert, often requested by friends and family for special occasions.
— Margaret Evans
Hands on time: 40 minutes Total time: 1 hour and 10 minutes Serves: 12 cake or 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
-
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup red food coloring
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 1/2 cups cake flour (Swans Down preferred)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 recipe Buttercream Frosting (see recipe below)
FOR BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions:
FOR RED VELVET CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch cake pans with baking spray (or grease with shortening and line with parchment). Or, prepare 24 cupcake tins with liners. With a mixer, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. In a small bowl, make a paste of the food coloring and cocoa. Add to shortening mixture. Sift or mix together the flour and salt. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to shortening mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, mix soda and vinegar. After it fizzes out, add to batter and lightly fold in by hand, until completely incorporated (be sure not to beat the batter).
Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake or cupcakes spring back when touched. Cool on racks for 5 minutes, then remove from pans. Ice with Buttercream Frosting or meringue.
FOR BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
Mix together the cornstarch and water. In a saucepan, cook over medium-heat until thick, stirring constantly. Cool completely to room temperature. Mix together the sugar, butter and vanilla. Add to the cornstarch mixture and beat until light and fluffy.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch cake pans with baking spray (or grease with shortening and line with parchment). Or, prepare 24 cupcake tins with liners. With a mixer, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. In a small bowl, make a paste of the food coloring and cocoa. Add to shortening mixture. Sift or mix together the flour and salt. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to shortening mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, mix soda and vinegar. After it fizzes out, add to batter and lightly fold in by hand, until completely incorporated (be sure not to beat the batter).
Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake or cupcakes spring back when touched. Cool on racks for 5 minutes, then remove from pans. Ice with Buttercream Frosting or meringue.
FOR BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
Mix together the cornstarch and water. In a saucepan, cook over medium-heat until thick, stirring constantly. Cool completely to room temperature. Mix together the sugar, butter and vanilla. Add to the cornstarch mixture and beat until light and fluffy.
Notes:
We had success following the recipe as written, which calls for making a paste of the cocoa and food coloring and dissolving the soda in vinegar. But we got a very similar, but slightly springier, cake by preparing it according to the more conventional method: With a mixer, cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift all the dry ingredients together, then in a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Alternately mix the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Nutrition:
Per serving (based on 12, including Buttercream Frosting): 578 calories (percent of calories from fat, 50), 4 grams protein, 69 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 33 grams fat (18 grams saturated), 98 milligrams cholesterol, 165 milligrams sodium.
Per serving (Buttercream Frosting only), based on 12: 310 calories (percent of calories from fat, 66), trace protein, 27 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 23 grams fat (14 grams saturated), 62 milligrams cholesterol, 4 milligrams sodium.
Per serving (Buttercream Frosting only), based on 12: 310 calories (percent of calories from fat, 66), trace protein, 27 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 23 grams fat (14 grams saturated), 62 milligrams cholesterol, 4 milligrams sodium.
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