Birthday cake…
Today is my friend Lisa’s birthday so I thought I would contribute to the celebration with a cake….we are going to eat chicken wings & watch the Oscar’s but who doesn’t love a cake !! I was up early and inspired to get baking… I have a 3 hour conference call starting at 1pm and I know sitting that long will suck the life out of me so I thought I should get cracking early. I decide to do a red velvet, the old school way with beets. So I get all the stuff out, puree the beets and realize I don’t have any white sugar…dammit – so I modify me recipe for brown sugar…yeah, that should work. Get the batter made and go to get out the cake pans – dammit – they are all at work…all I have at home are 8×8, 9×13 and a bundt pan. oooohhhh, Bundt – that could be fun. Okay so I need to adjust the cooking time a little, no problem right ? We shall see – cake is in the oven now….
Okay, checked it at 35 minutes…not ready, give it another 15 but it’s looking good…smelling good too.
FYI….the Black Eyed Peas are great cake baking music…
still not quite there….another 5 minutes….
Okay – cakes out of the oven, listening to Melodie Gardot, also good Sunday morning baking tunes !
Will let it cool while I conference, ice it and take it with me to the party….I will report back.
Velvety Beet and Cocoa Bundt Cake
3/4 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup valrhona cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 ½ cups pureed canned beets, juice drained off and ½ cup reserved
½ cup reserved beet juice
Heat the oven to 325′F. Cream the butter, sugar and beat in the eggs until light, pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt – add in alternating amounts with the milk. Add the beets and the beet juice; mix for a couple minutes until very smooth. Pour into greased Bundt pan and bake for about 50+ minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the pan – cool and ice with cream cheese frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 x 8 ounce brick of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate shavings for garnish
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla and then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Cover the cake with the frosting, garnish with chocolate shavings and serve
Bundt with cream cheese frosting… And wings and rooting for George Clooney and Up in the Air (my pick)
have fun!
Wow that sounds so good. Way better than the time that I dyed a white cake hot pink with red food colouring before I knew what Red Velvet cake was. Next excuse I have to make a cake, this is going to be it!