Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Well, it's that time of the year again. Everyone's favorite over-amped holiday: Valentine's Day.

Most people complain about Valentine's Day being too mushy and being a huge money-grab for companies trying to make a buck off of people. Personally, I really like Valentine's day. Maybe I'm a little bit biased, but I like making gifts and goodies for the ones I love.

Plus, I love the color red so that doesn't hurt either.

The last few weeks have been FULL of birthdays. I have made more birthday cake over the last couple weeks than I have maybe all of last year. Being the resident baker among my friends, I am often called upon to whip up the cake.

Not that I mind, though. I have more cake recipes than I can count and, despite what some people say, you really can't just make a cake for any old day of the week. At least, my waistline would not thank me if I did!

I made this cake for one of my friend's birthdays back at the end of January. I know I'm a little late posting about it, but red velvet cake just fits the Valentine's Day-Holiday theme so well that I wanted to save it and post about it now instead.

I'm going to be posting some more birthday cakes in the near future (it's more fun to post about them when it's still relatively close to the actual birthday!) so look for those coming up soon!

Here is the whole gang celebrating! Don't mind us, we had just come from Fencing Practice (OTs know how to party!)

Have a great Valentine's Day!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Bake Time: 45mins     Cool Time: 1hr 20mins      Yields: One 3-layer, 9" cake

Ingredients:
THE CAKE
1/2 cup sour cream
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 Tbsps red food coloring
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tsps baking soda
2 1/2 tsps white vinegar

THE FROSTING
2 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese, cold
1/2 cup butter, softened
4-6 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract


Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease three 9-inch cake pans. Line them with parchment paper and regrease on top of the paper. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
3) In a large bowl of a stand mixer, combine oil, sugar, beating until completely combined. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until well blended. With the machine on low, slowly add the red food coloring, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl every once in a while. Add vanilla.
4) Slowly alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the oil mixture and beat until just combined and blended.
5) In a small dish, combine baking soda and vinegar. Immediately add to batter while machine is running. Beat for about 10 seconds.
6) Divide the batter evenly among the pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Flip over cake, remove parchment paper and re-invert cake onto wire rack. Cool completely for about one hour.
7) While the cake cools, make the frosting. In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until well blended. Add vanilla. Gradually add in confectioner's sugar until frosting reaches a desired consistency. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
8) Once cakes are fully cooled, ice the cake and serve when ready. Cake can be stored for up to three days.

(Recipe adapted from Bakerita)