Red Velvet Cake

I decided to surprise mum with this cake for her birthday. A brief encouter with a Red Velvet Cake a few months ago stuck in my mind and this was the perfect opportunity to try my hand it it. The recipe is from joyofbaking; no particular reason, it just simply happened to be the first result when I googled for a recipe. Apparently, the vinegar brings out the red in cocoa, which when combined with the red food colouring gives this chocolate cake its rich red colour. The entire thrilling history of the cake prefaces the recipe on the site. A few people I know have tried to replicate this cake to little success, but I believe that this recipe is flawless. All I did was follow it to the T (whatever that actually means).

I foolishly served up standard sized slices on her birthday, and I experienced a literal sugar rush. Light headedness, a roaring in my ears, and the desire to bounce from place to place. It was divine.
The Red Velvet Cake now ties for first place with the Sachertorte.

And now some pictures...

Red Velvet Cake

Heaven...

Baking Blindfolded

During my week back home in Gabs, I was able to convince my very tolerant friends to indulge me and my baking. Having carelessly forgotten 'Chocolate', I quickly summoned the power of the internet, and was able to find a variation on the recipe, which I was able to further vary to produce an approximation of the cake I was looking for.
We began baking, and soon found that we were lacking in a sieve, any measuring instruments or sensibly sized baking bowls, or a scale. Or mixing spoons.
We managed though:

Yep, chopsticks.

Let me put this in perspective; I normally use perfect cup, spoon, volume and weight measurements, going out of my way to get them just right. Here, I had little or nothing of the sort. Oh, and we were making twice the normal (already monstrous) amount. We estimated everything, and ultimately, it came out alright in the end.

In fact, we had only one hiccup, and it was not the fault of adventurous equipment. We poured the first quarter of the batter (we intended to make four cakes, you see) into the baking tin, popped it in the microwave, and returned to our game of counterstrike. Forty minutes later, upon removing it from the oven, I was struck by a very obvious fact; We had forgotten in our haste to grease or line the tin. Inevitably, this meant that when we gingerly tried to ease the cake from the mould it did not oblige. Instead, it collapsed out of the tin, still desperately clinging to the sides. In the end, we were left with a broken, steaming mass of dense chocolatey goodness. It was not a complete waste though, as we were able to enjoy a rare thing. While one usually must wait for a cake to cool before icing it, thereby missing the fresh-out-of-the-oven warmth. It was this moist warmth that we greatly enjoyed before cleaning out the tin, properly lined and refilled it, and put it back in the oven. In the end, we produced four perfect cakes which we sandwiched into the two you see above. We finished icing it well after two in the morning, true to our insomaniac style.

Devil's Food Cake

Adapted from Linda Collister's incredible book, 'Chocolate', the Devil's Food Cake must be one of the densest things know to humans. It is my favourite recipe, so far.

For those who are metrically challenged, here's a helpful unit converter...

Devil's Food Cake

Ingredients

 Cake

• 140g of Milk Chocolate (grated or finely chopped)
• 125ml of Sour cream
• 175g of Brown or Muscovado Sugar
• 300g of Plain Flour
• A pinch of Salt
• 3 tablespoons of Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of Bicarbonate of soda
• 115g of Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
• 200g of Castor Sugar
• 2 large Eggs (separated)
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence
• 175ml of Water (room temperature)

Icing

• 280g of Milk Chocolate (grated or finely chopped)
• 225ml of Sour Cream

 
Grating milk chocolate is an incredibly satisfying and tempting experience.

Method

Cake

Put the chopped chocolate, sour cream and brown sugar into a heavy-based saucepan and set over very low heat. Stir occasionally until melted and smooth, but not hot. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Sift the flour, salt, cocoa, and baking soda onto a sheet of wax paper and set aside.

Put the butter into a bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the castor sugar. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, followed by the vanilla essence. Mix in the flour mixture and the water. When thoroughly blended, work in the melted chocolate mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pans, and then bake at 180°C for 25 minutes (for 20cm cakes) or 30 minutes (for 23cm cakes). Let cool for 5 minutes, then invert on a wire rack, remove the lining paper, and cool completely before icing.

Icing

Melt the milk chocolate by suspending it in a bowl over a larger pot of steaming but not boiling water. Remove from the heat once melted and stir in the sour cream. Leave until very thick and spreadable.

Ice the cooled cakes by sandwiching three (for the 20cm cakes) or two (for the 23cm cakes) together and icing the sandwiches.

See more pictures on facebook.