An Elegant Red Velvet

This weekend, while K was away floating on the delta, I wanted to challenge myself by baking something that I have only done once before...make a tiered cake! I chose to challenge myself even further my adding fondant into the mix. My first step was to call my best baking friend who I knew would be up for the challenge, Tara (K is my best taste tester). We debated over flavors until deciding on a classic red velvet. We picked a delicious recipe off of epicurious for both red velvet cake and creamy cream cheese frosting.

Red Velvet Cake:
2 1/4 Cups sifted cake flour
2 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F ( I have an oven that heats up fast, so I wait to do this step until the end to save energy!) Butter and flour two 9-inch pans. Sift sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla in a small bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternating with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter between pans. Bake until tester inserted (toothpicks work great) comes out clean, about 27 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tbs. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I like mine a little less sweet so 2 cups worked perfectly!)

Beat Cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Tara and I baked a total of 5 cakes. 3 layers for the bottom tier and 2 layers for the top tier. All 5 of our cakes we baked in 9-inch pans so to make a smaller tier we took cardboard cake rounds at 6-inches and cut around the cake....don't consider it wasted cake, consider it your taste test, everyone at my house sure did!

When everything was cooled and frosted, we began rolling out the fondant. We bought Wilton Fondant at a craft store and it came ready to use. Doing so was both a work-out and exciting, fondant is so much better than playing with clay! We kept ours white for a nice contrast against the red cake, but colored small parts lavender to add detailing!



As soon as the cake was complete K and other close friends came running over to enjoy the finished project with us! I hope you will accept the fondant challenge or just make this fantastic red velvet to savor on warm summer day with friends and family!

-A