Foodie Fridays: Reddish-Velvet Cake

  What on earth is reddish velvet cake? It's what happens when the chef gets a little too enthusiastic when adding cocoa powder to a red-velvet cake recipe. But I think what's important is that the cake turned out great...especially considering the fact that I totally abandoned the recipe and went with my gut feeling and what the ancestors told me to do.

   I made this cake for a friend's birthday and it's honestly the biggest cake I've made to-date. I used two 12x9 inch rectangular cake tins. So now I can check that off my bucket list.

    I've also been promising several friends that I'd sit down and start sharing my cake recipes so here goes. When I eventually find the right balance of cocoa powder to everything else and make an actual 'red-velvet cake' I'll be sure to do a follow-up post. But for now, …

Ingredients

For the cake:

4 cups self-raising flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon instant coffee (for flavour enhancement)

1½ cups of sugar

1 cup melted butter

6 eggs

2 tablespoons of baking powder

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

Red food colour

1 cup of milk

For the butter icing:

½ cup melted butter

500 gm icing sugar

¼ cup of milk

Chocolate syrup

Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2.      Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together in a bowl. Add the baking powder on top.

3.      In another bowl combine butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence. Cream together. Add red food colour and mix well.

4.      Add the egg mixture to the flour and gently fold-in, adding milk as required until you achieve a dropping consistency.

5.      Pour batter into greased cake tins and bake at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes.

6.      Once cake is ready, lay on a wire rack to cool.

7.      Whisk the butter rapidly for about 2 minutes then gradually add in icing sugar and a bit of milk until you achieve a soft creamy consistency.

8.      Once cake is cool, Ice as desired.

Bon Appetit!