It's Friday!!! Lets make a cake!!!

If you read the “about me” section you would have learned that I love to cook, key word cook!  If you were to ask me bake something you would find me cowering in the corner. 

I’ve never been one to bake.  In the past I’ve managed to do ruin everything, cakes, brownies, cookies (even the ones that come in a tube), etc.  I just learned to avoid the whole baking experience and leave it up to my baking sister (who, mind you can cook but I’m better!).

But recently I’ve gotten the baking bug.  Who the heck knows where that came from but I’ve been making muffins, cookies and just recently a Red Velvet Cake.

Oh yeah, Red Velvet Cake!

Not one of the easiest cakes to ease your way into the baking world. 

But I did it, with a little advice from my favorite cake lady Alice, and now I would love to share this tasty cake recipe and share my journey of this daunting cake making task with you!

The recipe for this Red Velvet Cake came from one of my favorite blogs, Bakerella.

She can whip up some yummy stuff!!! 

So here's the recipe. 

Red Velvet Cake:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
• Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
• Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
• Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Using a toothpick is key!  With the amount of oil that is in the cake might make it look "wet" and I learned some people have a tendency to over bake because of this.  Keep an eye on it and test, test, test!)   
• After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
• Then make the frosting.

So I mixed!

And I poured!

And I baked!

The oven, yes the oven, managed to burn a little spot.  I just cut it off and then gave my oven a good talking too!!!

I made frosting too, and I learned that you have to beat the living day lights out of it in order to get the right consistancy!  (See, I'm learning!!!)

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

• Sift sugar and set aside.
• Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
• Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.   
• And frost away.

And I attempted to frost...

And then I had P take over. 

We both learned it's not easy to frost a cake!

(Sorry my photos are dark and yellow.  I was anti-flash at the time for some reason!)

And the finished product, ready for a trip to Cleveland and a family dinner this weekend!

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So that's my frist attempt at a cake.  I think it turned out okay! 

Now on to the next project!