Red Velvet Cake

My niece Hayley is the baker in our family.

She bakes a cake for everyone's birthday.

The other day she came over and made Bachan's Cheese Macaroni with my mother-in-law.

We also made this Red Velvet Cake.

We decided to make this cake since she is The Baker in our family and she is thinking about moving on from the box cake mix she's been using for as long as she can remember.

 

We chose the Red Velvet Cake from The Pioneer Woman Cooks because we love Ree and are looking forward to her new show The Pioneer Woman on The Food Network!

I had so much fun cooking with Hayley!

I've mentioned before that my family calls her Beeto.

 

She got that nickname when she was maybe this young.

Or younger.

Her name is Hayley Emiko.

At first we called her Emiko--which shortened to Miko--which changed to Meeko-Beeto--which shortened to Beeto.

Back to the cake.

Here's a video of Hayley making the cake or scroll down for photo instructions.

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

1 ounce red food coloring

1  1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder

The Red Velvet Cake recipe is on The Pioneer Woman Cooks here.

 

Get your ingredients together, measure the shortening.

 

Measure and sift 2 1/2 cups cake flour and salt and set aside.

 

 Put the shortening into the mixer bowl.

 

Cream together the shortening and sugar.

 

Mix 1 cup buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, eggs, baking soda and vinegar.

Mix into the shortening/sugar mixture alternating with the flour and salt, adding a cup or so of each at a time until all combined.

 

In a separate bowl, mix the food coloring and cocoa powder.

 

Add the food coloring and the cocoa into the mixing bowl and mix until just combined.

 

Pour the batter into two round prepared cake pans, dividing evenly.

 

I think the next time we make this cake, we'll cut a waxed paper circle for the bottom of the pan.

 

Using only a cooking spray wasn't enough on these cake pans, the cake layers didn't come out of the pans easily.

 

Bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 

Beeto loves icing.

She was so excited to be making the cream cheese icing!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 8-oz packages cream cheese at room temperature

3/4/ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

She LOVED the icing and couldn't wait to lick the bowl!

 

Beeto's fun to bake with.

The cake may have gotten a tad over-baked and was a little crumbly--especially since it didn't come out of the pan easily.

She said--If a little of the red crumbs get into the icing, it just adds to the charm of the cake!

She is my kind of girl!

 

Beeto loves her cake and ice cream!

No printable recipe, recipe found here.