Red Velvet Cake

For my first New Year's Eve here in the US, I chose to bake something that not only appeals to me but that which can give positive vibes....something to start the year 2010 right. :-) So I chose to bake a Red Velvet Cake to welcome the year. After all Asians, the Chinese specifically, associate red with good luck. Although I'm not a Chinese and not a real believer of superstitions or anything of that sort, the Red Velvet Cake just tugged at my heart. It's something that I just needed to try! :-D

I visited my favorite and reliable baking website so far and looked for a recipe (Click here for the Red Velvet Cake recipe).

SPOONER'S MODIFICATIONS

I made the following modifications when I was making my Red Velvet Cake.

Ingredients:

• substituted Dutch-processed cocoa powder with unsweetened cocoa powder mixed with baking soda (Click here for Ingredient Substitutions)
• subsituted butter with a spread that is 50% butter and 50% vegetable shortening
• used low-fat buttermilk

Since this is my first time to bake a Red Velvet Cake, I'm not sure if my last two substitutions have a significant effect on the cake. But my substitutions sounds healthier. ;-)

Procedures:

• The face of my cakes had a little dome. I wanted my cakes to be really flat (I can be really obsessive-compulsive when it comes to baking haha!). So this is what I did to each of the cakes... Using a small steak knife (what can I say, it's a beginner's kitchen!), I very carefully dip about one-eighth of an inch of my knife's tip on the cake's face to create a "t", therefore dividing the cake's face into four (I did this because I am using such a small knife). Then by placing the knife parallel to my cake, I ran the knife carefully around the edges and worked my way towards the center SLOWLY...taking off one quarter of the dome at a time. (Next time I'll buy a long, serrated knife to do this task, promise!)
• I used the cake crumbs I've collected as a result of the preceding procedure to make some Red Velvet Cake Balls (Click here to see how I made my Red Velvet Cake Balls). I used some of the uncoated cake balls to decorate my cake.

Below are the pictures I've taken before I assembled my cake.

The 2-tier cake with levelled faces already.

Notice how rich and deep its red color is! Lovely! :-)

Top view 

These are some of the crumbs I've got from levelling the 2 tiers.

Cream cheese frosting

These are some of the cake balls I made. They are about one-eighth of an inch in diameter.

After freezing my cake and cake balls long enough for them to hold their shape very well, these will be all that I need during assembly time. :-)

SWEET INSPIRATIONS

Before I assembled my cake, I've searched the web for inspirations for my cake design. Here are my top favorites in no particular order.

SPOONED SWEETS

Here are some pictures of my Red Velvet Cake. :-)

Yes, I used a pizza pie bakestone as my cake board!

My cake balls can either pass for raspberries or cherries!

I decorated the sides with shredded sweetened coconut.

SPOONER'S VERDICT

• The cake was very, very moist. It's been almost one week since I baked it and the leftover cake that we still have is very good and moist.
• I fell in love with the cream cheese frosting!!!
• I almost cut the required red food coloring in half and was willing to substitute cream cheese for the required mascarpone cheese. But I'm very thankful that my husband, who was unmindful of the snow and the fact that he was sick, willingfully drove to the nearest grocery store with me. By the way, he was such a darling that he blindly reached for the mascarpone cheese for me. Boy! It was sooo expensive! It costs three times more than my cream cheese.

NEXT SPOONING...
 
I will double the ingredients called for to make the cream cheese frosting so that I will have enough icing to use for piping my decorations.
 
Til our next... 

Sweet Spooning!