Happy New Year and a Recipe, Too!

Does it seem that we blinked and we’re into another new year? Christmas was almost a week ago by the time you read this. And even Christmas sneaked up on me. But the New Year already?

A YEAR-END BIRTHDAY BOY!

This week between Christmas and the New Year has always been a busy one for me and our family. At age 41 and a difficult pregnancy, I was confined to bed as we awaited the birth of this child, so we didn’t travel for once at Christmas. To say we weren’t prepared for him is an understatement of the highest order. When he came home after five long weeks in the NICU, he slept in a drawer for a couple of weeks. No crib had been purchased. Sigh.

We couldn’t go anywhere to shop for the needed things.  Mostly we made many trips to the hospital and getting the three big brothers off to school. And Amazon didn’t exist then. Can you imagine? No way to order anything and have it brought right to one’s door like today.

In the following years after he was two or so, I took down all the Christmas decorations the day after Christmas and got into birthday mode. Even though he left on an airplane last night to fly back to his home in Texas, we still took down all the Christmas decorations and packed them away today. Old habits.

Baby Boy, as I’ve affectionately called him, has always requested a Red Velvet Cake.

That didn’t happen last year nor this year as he has put forth a tremendous effort to lose the pounds gained during the months of isolation due to you-know-what.

But I’m not letting that stop me from sharing my recipe with you. Sharing this recipe will make this Mama’s heart remember all the times I’ve made this lovely cake.

This is a beautiful cake. Mine is a much deeper red than the normal one as I use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa. It’s still very red, but more of a deep wine red than the regular one. I hope you will like this. If you prefer the bright red, just use regular old Hershey’s Cocoa.

Happy New Year and a Recipe, Too! @DDuPreeWilliams #writing #HappyNewYear #AbundantBlessings Share on X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD’s Red Velvet Cake

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare pans by coating with butter or solid Crisco and dusting with cocoa (this will keep your cake dark and will not be white)

 

½ cup unsalted butter                                   1 Tbsp. white vinegar

1 ½ cups granulated sugar                            2 one-ounce bottles red food coloring

2 eggs                                                                1 cup Buttermilk

2 ¼ cups cake flour                                        1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp salt                                                         1 tsp. baking soda

2 Tbsp Cocoa (Hershey’s Special Dark)

 

Cream these until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the cake flour and the salt.

In another separate bowl, (just a little one, glass preferred) mix 2 Tbsp. (heaping) cocoa with the 2 one oz. red food coloring bottles to make a paste. Add this paste to your creamed sugar, butter, and eggs.

Next, alternate your flour mixture with the buttermilk (a little flour, a little buttermilk). When that is mixed, add 1 tsp vanilla

In a glass measuring cup, pour 1 Tbsp. white vinegar, then add 1 tsp. baking soda (hold this over your mixing bowl in which you now have all the other ingredients.

Just stir it in, no beating.

Bake at 350 (adjust your oven to how yours cooks. This is too hot for mine but is what most cakes call for). Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick put into the middle comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool in pans, on racks for at least 15 minutes. Remove from pans onto the rack and cool an additional 15 minutes.

Frosting:

The old-fashioned, traditional RV Cakes use a frosting made with cooked flour. Personally, I don’t like that one. I always make this one. We love cream cheese frostings at our home!

2 eight-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

½ cup solid Crisco will keep this together better than just the cheese and butter alone

1-2 16-ounce boxes of confectioners sugar. Use the entire first box then add as needed for your preferred consistency. Mix all this together with your mixer.

Spread between layers, sides, and top of cake.

Notes:

I bake my cake in 2 eight-inch pans. This makes a high cake with thick layers. Be sure to use a pan that is at least 1 ½ to 2 inches deep. It rises a lot!

Here is a helpful hint: If you have kitchen gloves (the throwaway kind, not the heavy rubber ones), wear those when mixing the food coloring.

Let me know if you try this and how it turns out. I’ve made quite a few of these. Never had one fail.

Do keep it in your cake carrier in your fridge. You will be glad you did! All that cream cheese and butter!

Happy New Year and May the Blessings Flow in 2023!

 

I looked at a few of these and decided on this one. If you’ve read Grave Consequences, my first novel, you know that Uncle Angus Campbell and Cousin Fiona are right Scottish folk.  I am so thankful for each of you, my faithful followers and readers. Happy New Year to all of you. May God pour forth abundant blessings upon each of you in 2023!