A few of my readers and I are cooking our way through Ree Drummond’s book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. We’d love to have you join in with us. Jump in any time, cook the recipe, and then come discuss it here on the comments section of my blog.
Don’t let the above picture fool you. This recipe, for me, was a disaster. But I’m pretty sure it was my fault, and not PW’s. Allow me to explain.
First of all, despite the misleading heart I put on top of my cake, I did not bake this over Valentine’s weekend. No, I baked it about two hours ago. Valentine’s turned out to be a lot busier than I anticipated, and then this week has been busy too with Jack Henry having his first head cold and all of us trying to make preparations to make a quick trip this weekend. So, knowing I needed to get this posted today, I was rushed, and I’m blaming baby snot for it.
Secondly, I think my shortening was a little on the old side. I had just used it before Christmas, so I don’t think it was detrimentally so, but it did look a little glossier than I think it should. I threw the tub away after I made the cake, but by the time I realized it had seen better days, Jack Henry was napping, and Bonny Annie was at her tutorial, so a grocery run was not a prospect at the moment.
Thirdly, I had a headache. I think it was because I colored my hair last night, and I always get a little bit of one when I do that. I am more than likely giving myself a brain tumor for the sake of vanity concerning a handful of white hairs. But, regardless, by the time I was finished I just felt like I was throwing ingredients everywhere and not really baking with purpose.
I think that’s all, but I’ll let you know if I can think up any more reasons that this cake kinda failed for me.
This is the kind of recipe that will totally trash your kitchen. By the time I was finished, every single counter was covered with baking paraphernalia.
I pretty much stuck to the recipe, with just a few minor changes. I used plain, old all-purpose flour and not cake flour. My Publix apparently doesn’t carry cake flour, and that’s where I made a quick grocery run yesterday afternoon.
I have no idea how much red food coloring I used. I didn’t have the liquid kind on hand. I had the gel kind that comes in little tubes, and the tube wasn’t full. This accounts for the lighter pink color of my cake.
The only other variation was, like I said, using shortening that was a little “off.” This may account for the slight aftertaste that I think my cake has. It’s slight, but it’s there.
I had to bake my cakes for about ten minutes longer than the book calls for. When I checked them at 20 minutes, there was still wet batter on my cake tester. Then I think the outsides got a little too brown. Then they stuck a little in the pans too, even though I let them cool longer than the 20 minutes that was called for…
Nothing terribly tragic, and they frosted up just fine. The icing, I thought, was really good, but then how can you go wrong with cream cheese icing?
Overall, the cake tasted okay. Dirty Harry was the only one available to taste-test, and he gave it a thumbs-up…but then he’s a nine year-old boy who is having a piece of cake before his lunch, so he’s perhaps not the best critic. After a few more people have tasted it, I’ll let you know in the comments.
My sister-in-law, Susan, sent me these sweet pictures of her baking experience…
As you can see, she opted to make cupcakes, and I’ll let her share the details of that in the comments section.
So, how did it go for all of you? Did you whip it out for Valentines Day? Are the ingredients still in your pantry? Weigh in below and let us all know…
For our next assignment, we’re going to the “In the Morning” section. Let’s get back to the basics and try the Buttermilk Biscuits on pages 44-45. I’m going to skip all of next week and give you until Monday, March 1 to cook up a batch of these babies. Have fun!
I decided to be a bit wild as I approached this week’s assignment. My cookbook had not arrived, so I had to use a different recipe. In searching for recipes on the internet, I found there was a bit of an obvious “fight” over two different styles of both cake and frosting. Since I’m 33 weeks pregnant, have a 10month old and a 3 yr old and obviously don’t have enough to do, I decided to try two different cake recipes and two different icing recipes. I also decided to only put food coloring in one of the recipes.
The first cake recipe had a shortening and vinegar base. Reviewers claimed it to be the old-fashioned type of red velvet cake, and cautioned that it had the tendency to be dry. Many had substituted oil for shortening to help with that problem. I decided to go with the recipe as written. This was the (cup)cake I decided to use food coloring in.
The second cake recipe had a butter and sour cream base. It also had rave reviews. I did not put food coloring in this batter.
Frosting: One frosting is your basic cream cheese frosting, which seems to be the modern day “must” for red-velvet cake. The second frosting was the “old fashioned” version that requires you to heat milk and flour over the stove and then, when cool, beat it into a butter/sugar/vanilla mixture.
So, I baked my cupcakes and then frosted 1/2 of each batch with a different frosting. Does that make sense?? Thus the reason my red-velvet cake loving husband has 4 different samples to try. One red cake with old fashioned icing, one red with cream cheese icing, one brown cake with cream cheese, one brown with old fashioned icing.
*Note: Before tasting my husband assured me his favorite icing ever is cream cheese, and that is all a red velvet cake should be iced with*
Verdict: The old-fashioned red velvet cake with, you guessed it, the old fashioned icing. He couldn’t believe he was admitting it, but the old fashioned icing seemed to be the true compliment to the red velvet cake. The second cake was just blah in flavor. The red cake was a bit dry, and by the next day it was even more so. Should I make this again, I’ll try the oil substitution and see if that helps.
This whole experiment did not change my overall opinion of red-velvet cake. I am just not a fan. BUT, I will be using that icing again. It has a really great texture and delicate flavor!
Susan´s last blog ..It’s Christmas time!!
Jack Henry and I ate this cake together with Jack Henry eating the icing and me the cake. I think Captain Jack probably got the best of the deal. What little icing I tasted was delicious. The cake was not bad but a little dry and the idea of the “old” shortening was a little disturbing. Now that I read Susan’s comment I think I have to agree that all Red Velvet cakes are a little dry and they definitely are not my favorite either. I do enjoy being a taste-tester, however, and next time I hope it’s something Mexican !!
I passed on this one. Sorry! I had already bought ingredients to make cupcakes for a V-day party and just didn’t have it in me to make cake, too. However, I did whip up a batch of her mocha brownies (sans icing) last night. They were delish! I’m sure the icing would have been good, but I just couldn’t bring myself to use ONE POUND of butter for 16 little brownies. Half a pound would just have to do.
Now I must let Ethan have a say or he just might rip my computer from my hands and throw it to the ground:
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Very interesting, Susan! I was wondering why the cupcakes were halved like that. I might like to get that traditional icing recipe. My kids will only eat cream cheese icing, but I think that’s because there’s so much overly sweet, just plain bad icing out there.
Indiana Mimi…you ate the whole slice of cake, so I doubt you found the shortening rumors that disturbing. And we are making buttermilk biscuits next, but feel free to put salsa on yours if you’d like.
Debbie…that’s okay. I totally understand. Not everyone can make them all, I’m sure. Yum…the mocha brownies sound great! But you will have to bake them again when we get to that recipe.
All the pictures I reference are here… http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=393176&id=815880507&l=6dd5e51ea3
I was extremely excited when you posted that Red Velvet Cake was going to be this week’s recipe. #1) because it involved cake, #2) because I’d been having an idea skittering around in the back of my mind about something else I wanted to try that involved cake and #3)because it involved cake. Seemed like the perfect combination. This time of year, I always seem to crave whoopie pies (a traditional PA Amish dessert that earned it’s name when children would get one in their lunch pails and shout “Whoopie!”) Combine cravings with the fact that I’m in the development stage of various desserts on a stick for my little stress-relieving venture, I thought why not make a Red Velvet/Whoopie Pie/Cake Pop? Armed with all the ingredients listed, some chocolate, and some thin mints (for the baker’s utmost comfort level during the process), I threw on the apron and got started with PW keeping watch (see picture #1). I pretty much stuck to PW’s recipe adding just a wee bit more flour to hopefully thicken up the batter so it wouldn’t run everywhere once I made the mini cakes for the sides of the whoopie pie. For the sides, I piped batter onto some parchment paper. (see picture #2). Then I baked for about 7 minutes, see picture #3 (aka Fail Number One). Next cookie sheet, I piped smaller and further apart which seemed to work (picture #4 and 5). Then I made the cream cheese icing as PW directed. The consistency wasn’t quite right for whoopie pies, so I did add some extra cold butter (about 1 Tb more) as I’d used all my shortening in the cake (traditional whoopie pie filling is with shortening not butter). It may need a bit more work to really perfect the innards if you will, but it did do the trick for this time around. I piped a bit of the icing onto one side of a cake flat, place the other on top, and either inserted a stick or dipped it in chocolate and then inserted a stick, or just put them in a spare olive dish. Tada! (pictures # 6-11)
Of course, I had TONS of cake batter left because I didn’t have it in my to pipe that many little cake flats, so I had a mini cake (where I let my love for chocolate overwhelm me and I overdrizzled the cake and my wall – don’t ask. Fail Number Two) and some cupcakes too (where I worked on some icing techniques, read Fail Number Three). (pictures #12 and 13).
I didn’t think this was the greatest red velvet I’ve ever had. I have a recipe I’ve used for several years that I really like that I think far surpasses this one. I tried to locate it to post it, but as most things are still in boxes here, it’s not going to happen right now.
All in all, lotsa fun and enough buttermilk leftover for this week’s recipe and some buttermilk pancakes between now and then!
I am enjoying this series even though I am not participating. I have seen some of PW’s recipes and I am just too cheap with my calories to try most of them.
Toby´s last blog ..Day 129
ahhh. here it is!
http://tinyurl.com/36ehq3
I’m not ashamed to use doctored-up cake mixes.
Looks like you did just fine. I don’t have the cookbook, so I couldn’t participate. I would like to try the biscuits, I may have to see if I can search for the recipe. I do make her ranch chicken recipe, which is on the internet, and its scrumptious!!
Have a wonderful day and hope Jack Henry feels better soon!
Michelle´s last blog ..weeks of excitement…..
Brenda~Thanks for posting the link to your pictures. We are out of town for the weekend, and I can’t post them to my blog from here. I totally enjoyed reading about your rendition. You are one brave, creative gal! Oh, and thanks too for the alternate cake recipe. Doctored cake mixes are always some of my favorites, and maybe it won’t be as dry.
Bakerella has a recipe up right now too…
http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake
and I quote.. “Note: This cake has a pretty good amount of oil and is really moist.”
4×4 chicken coop…
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