Red Velvet Cake....... Finally!!

So, like most things that end up on here, I've wanted to make a red velvet cake for ages. Yesterday I finally got my act together and made one. And I'm in love, again. I'm gonna get a cake belly.

So I did my research.... by research I mean I read a few blogs, and looked at a lot of pretty pictures. From what I gathered, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the red velvet cake originates from somewhere in the southern area of the USA. Also, according to my research you will either like it or loath it. I'm of the former group, although I dont think I could eat a whole cake worth in one sitting. Maybe.

I picked my favourite researched cake, and went to work. I will post the recipe here as I've made a few adjustments, and changed the quantities from ounces etc to grams, and confirmed some ingredients as we dont have cake flour, that I've seen, in Australia.
So the original recipe is from pinch my salt. I loved her post about the cake and the history behind this particular recipe.

RED VELVET CAKE (made 6 layers, 6" cake tin... I ate 2)
2 1/4 cups twice sifted plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
50ml. red food coloring (or 1 tub, 28g, wiltons red gel & 50ml queens pillar box red)
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Butter and flour your cake tins, the original recipe suggest you cook them all at once, but I didn't as I only have 1 6" tin. Nothing happened. It didn't effect the batter, just made it a little darker, but the outcome was still good.

2. Sift together the plain flour, baking powder, and salt over baking paper; set aside.  In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.

 My OCD sifting

Start of paste, I added the queens red as well

Pasty

3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. 

Butter & Sugar

So I played with my butter sugar mix a little..... it was fun :)

 
 Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go.

Egg 1

Egg 2

All combined

Cocoa food colour paste & vanilla

I may have splashed the food colour a bit.... I mean, those damn vampires are everywhere now, sparkling in the sunlight and shit....

All mixed in with out too much mess

Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

Flour mix

Buttermilk, I'd never used it before, its really thick, so I played with it a little.

More flour

More Milk

More flour

All mixed

4. Make sure you have cake pans buttered, floured, and nearby.  In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda.  Yes, it will fizz!  Add it to the cake batter and stir well to combine.  Working quickly, divide batter evenly between the cake pans and place them in a preheated 170 degree oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check early, cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Action shot!!!

In the tin

5. Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. To remove the cakes from the pan, place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, then gently lift the pan.  Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting. Frost with buttercream or cream cheese icing (recipe below).

Cream Cheese Frosting

500g. cream cheese, softened

125g unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract2 1/2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in pure icing sugar and vanilla extract.  Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth)

butter & cream cheese, just chillin'

sugar

last lot of sugar

Crumb coated see finish pic at the start :)

School Holidays

Ahhh school holidays, as a kid it was the stuff dreams were made out of. Now that I'm on the other side (the parent side) I'm not so fond of them.
Dont get me wrong, having a chance to spend some time with your kids is fantastic if you can A. afford it, and B. it doesn't send you crazy within 2 weeks.
Anyway, I actually worked for most of the holidays (coming up to the last day tomorrow) so my sanity is still intact. Not so much for Miss C but that's another story!

I gave in to the school holiday demon that was my child and took B to the National Museum on Monday. We had fun. No really. There were no tantrums or foot stamping (from me) and lots of excitement and learning (from B)
Our museum is quite child friendly..... I dont know what any other museums are like else where, but just saying, the word museum usually conjures up the mental image of a lot of dust.... and old people.
So, child friendly, yes.
We entered the museum and headed straight for the info desk. I had been previously, but B wanted a map. So we got a map and headed up the stairs for the start of the permanent exhibitions. They have this rotating theatre at the start of the exhibits which pretty much gives you a brief (but exciting coz the theatre moves!) overview of the things you can view through out the museum. Timing was good so B and I started there. Quite enjoyable.
Ok, so now, honestly the rest of the museum rushed by in a blur..... a blur of blonde hair and legs as B ran (or walked with haste) from exhibit to exhibit, I received lots of excited, what's this? come touch this? wow that's so big!

Oh, I just read that back, it sounds really bad....... Let me clarify. :)

What's this was a question I frequently got asked about the stuffed animals, they had echidnas, kangaroos, platypuses? (platypie?!) even a Tasmanian tiger.
Come touch this, there are so many exhibits with hands on components, there was a wool box, a cow hide, a whole section where kids could try things out, and a few "books" that she could flick through.
B surprised me by reading out the scientific names of the animals, with mostly correct pronunciation.

Oh that's really big, in the mining section they had a big excavator scoop (B's name for it, and, although the hubby works in earthworks, I still didn't get the correct term out of him) B was able to fit in between the prongs (teeth?!) of it. It was huge!

After looking at all the exhibits, we headed back to the main hall area where, for the school holidays, they had set up a kids discovery centre which was based on their temporary exhibit Travel the silk road... or something. B made a hat :)

We had lunch then went outside so B could run up the skate ramp. Its not really, but it sure does look like one!

Then home, I was so tired and still hadn't made the red velvet cake that I had planned to.

What Does 64 Ladybug Cookies Look Like?!

A handful!

In preparation for tomorrows demo at work, I thought I had better actually try out the recipe we'll be using, just in case :)

I'm in love with Sugarbelle's cookies, so who better to turn to when looking for the perfect cookie recipe. Her recipe didn't disappoint. I had made all the cookies from getting ingredients to pulling the last lot out of the oven in about an hour.

I didn't adjust the recipe at all, so to see measurements and method head here. After looking at my awesome pics!

My ingredients

About to cream butter & icing sugar

My OCD sifting setup

Creamed butter & sugar, eggs & vanilla added

All mixed!

Adding the dry ingredients

Again

Finished dough, looking sexual ;)

The start of my ladybugs

Fish..... coz who doesn't love fish??

Let the icing begin.....

Although to me they look like lungs right now

But not now!!!

I just used royal icing for the, erm, icing....... It didn't take super long, but I wont lie, there were more than 64 cookies, but I ate some so I didn't have to ice them..... and coz they were just the right bite size pieces :)

Looking forward to tomorrows demo, hopefully get some good pics to share <3

Afternoon Naps

Day 2 of the school holidays and already B is exhausted! Thats cool though, means quiet time for me.

Part of the fun of working at a cake store, especially the one that I work at, is that I get to play with the products I sell. On Thursday I'm making cookies and decorating them with things from the shop. I can't wait. I'm gonna get fat. In a good way. In the "my hard work baking has paid off and I will reward myself with the food I've just cooked" way. Oh yeah.

Speaking of cooking and eating said cooking, I've decided the project for the weekend is Red Velvet cake. I've found a recipe that doesn't sound too complicated, the pictures with the recipe look amazing, and if I can get the flavour anywhere close to what Miss K's cupcake versions were, I'll be in heaven.

Om nom nom nom.

I *think* I'm also making more cake pops and macarons over the weekend, however the hubby is organising whether or not I'm doing them, so I probably wont find out till the day they are needed. Gotta love hubbies :)

Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup

Today was the first day of school holidays. And I worked. Luckily I have the wonderful Miss C who, along with her kidlets, came by today to look after B while I made the bacon..... so to speak :)

After I got home I had to do grocery shopping, which I was dreading, as I always get caught in the chocolate aisle (and not because B wants chocolate. Its all me) but shopping was not so bad and I thought, you know, after such a big day, it would be nice to curl up with a big bowl of soup.
Winter, here I come!

Again, because I'm all about the easy way, this soup is really quick to make if you have left over chicken roast. Just shred the chicken you have and then follow the recipe using your chicken. chicken chicken (coz I hadn't said it enough)

CHICKEN & SWEET CORN SOUP (makes.... over 1litre of soup)

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, no skin (or left over chicken as above)
Bunch of spring onions
2 - 4 teaspoons of garlic, minced**
1 1/2  - 3 teaspoons ginger, minced**
1 420g can super sweet corn, drained
1 420g can creamed corn
2 egg whites lightly whisked
1L good quality chicken stock
soy sauce to taste

Notes*** I dont actually measure what I put in, so start off with the lowest quantity and have more ready if you need to adjust the taste. I usually add more garlic and ginger half way through once I've tasted it.

Step 1:
Fill a pot, big enough to hold the 2 chicken breasts, with cold water. Place chicken in the pot and put on a high heat for 20 minutes with the lid on.
Once the 20 minutes is up, remove chicken from the water and place on a plate to cool for 5 minutes.
Shred the chicken with 2 forks, or your fingers...... the chicken will still be hot on the inside.

Step 2:
Chop up the spring onions, separating the white section from the green section. Place the white chopped up section into a pot along with 1 - 2 tablespoons of oil, ginger and garlic. Place on a high heat. Stir until they start to sizzle and smell fragrant. Pour in the sweet corn and creamed corn, stir briefly, then add the stock and the chicken. Bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 20 minutes. During this time, check the flavour and add soy sauce if needed, and ginger/garlic (see note)

Step 3: When the soup is ready turn off the heat and start stirring the soup with a fork. Slowly, whilst still stirring, pour in the egg whites.
The soup is now ready to serve, sprinkle with green spring onions and enjoy!

How easy is that?! and so delicious :)

Ruffle Cake

Sooooo, just secretly, I'm a little in love with this cake. Its really easy to do, it doesn't matter if its not perfect as it just adds to the charm and every time I open my fridge it makes me smile, sitting in there all pretty and pink :)

You will need:

Pre-prepared cake

Piping bag

Buttercream

Petal tip (I used #104 by Wilton)

Obviously fit the piping bag with the petal tip and fill with buttercream.

Pick a side to start with. Position the tip with the fatter end pointing into the cake. Holding the piping bag pretty much up right, steadily squeeze the bag whilst moving it in a slow zigzag motion. Continue up to the top of the cake and then start another line. Keep going until the cake is covered.

For the top it is a similar process, putting the fatter end towards the middle of the cake, just instead of zigzagging up the cake, you want to sort of layer the icing over itself as you work around the cake.

It doesn't matter if the icing is messy, it just adds to the effect, the ruffles up the side dont need to be the same size. Its a really forgiving style!

 Note that the fatter end of the petal tip is sitting towards the cake

First Ruffle strip done!

 Finished cake, looking pretty :)