Red Velvet in July

I’m ashamed to admit that I have fallen far behind in updating this blog, but there have been a lot of things that have been taking up my time. First of all, I recently got a new job. Yep, after two whole years of being unemployed, I’ve finally rejoined the working world. I’m currently working at this little business that’s objective is to help instill healthy eating habits in kids by teaching them to cook at home. In a lot of ways you can say that this place is a natural fit for me since it’s all about baking. It also helps that things are slow at the moment, so it’s not a big shock for me, going from hang around the house all day to being bombarded with customers. It is still early though. I’m sure by the holidays roll around, we’ll be quite busy.

And if working again weren’t distracting enough, there was a cold that was running its course through my family and I caught it. It wasn’t a bad bug, but since I had literally just started my job at the time, I was quite annoyed. (Note: I was not working with any food or children while sick.) So my drippy nose and constant sneezing kept me even further away from the kitchen. Such a sad state, isn’t it?

The good news is that after being under the weather for almost a week I’m feeling much better and a few days ago I found out my cousin was coming to town and she wanted me to bake something for her. Of course I agreed and decided to bake her some red velvet cupcakes.


As you can see, these babies are very red

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Red velvet? Isn’t that a holiday treat?” Well, yeah it’s definitely not as summery as, say, a blueberry pie, but I asked my cousin what she wanted me to make and she said anything except a pie and since I’m the one who is going to be doing the baking (and because I’ve been absolutely craving it) I decided to just do it.

The recipe I used was one adapted from Paula Deen, who is my go to girl for all things red velvet, because how can you go wrong with Paula Deen?

I will admit to one thing though: I committed something of a red velvet sin with these cupcakes. As many bakers will tell you, a red velvet cake does not equal a chocolate cake. That being said, the cocoa powder should be used sparingly, but since my mother (who is one of my biggest critics as well as my “mentor”) always wants “more cocoa” in her red velvet, I used much more than was necessary, but I’ll go ahead and repost the recipe as listed on Food Network.com.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients
2 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 Tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium mixing bowl, sift flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, and cocoa and then set aside. In a large bowl gently beat vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Add dry ingredient mixture to the wet mix until smooth and combined.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for 20 – 22 minutes, turning pan once half way through. Let cool completely before frosting. Makes ~24 cupcakes.

Oreo Cake

You read the heading right people, it’s an Oreo cake. The idea for this is not my own. I was inspired by the envy inducing baking blog I Am Baker (seriously, browse through that blog and try not to feel inadequate) and its brilliant maintainer. I’ve wanted to try my hand at this cake for a while now, but other baking projects kept getting in the way as well as the sad fact that Oreo cookies are quite pricey. The first problem fixed itself with mere patience; the second however is where I cheated. Technically the sandwich cookies I used are not in fact Oreos, but a cheaper store brand substitute. For the sake of the recipe, however, I’m going to continue to refer to them as “Oreos” since it’s easier than “chocolate sandwich cookies.”


Sorry these pictures all came out so slanted.

As you can see from the two posts, these cakes are not the same. Both cakes are made from a white cake base with chopped up “Oreo” cookies, but there are key differences. While Manda of I Am Baker made her Oreo Heath cake with vanilla Swiss Meringue buttercream icing, topped it with chopped up Heath bars, and used Heath bars for the filling, my cake is less imaginative, but quite tasty in its own right. For my recipe, I used chocolate cream cheese frosting and chopped about five Hershey’s Nuggets to use as a topping.

Either way you want to finish it off, I highly recommend baking this cake. It’s a very simple recipe that comes out quite enjoyable. It’s crunchy and soft all at once, not to mention the different “look” of it.

Since I Am Baker does not list a recipe for the Oreo Heath Cake, I adapted this from a white cake recipe I found in Simple Old-Fashioned Baking. (It’s a useful book).

Oreo Cake

Ingredients
24 “Oreos,” chopped in fourths
½ cup butter, softened
½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups sugar
5 egg whites
3 cups AP flour, sifted
½ tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk


Directions

Grease two nine inch cake pans and preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Continue creaming while slowly adding egg whites. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk to creamed mixture, starting and ending with flour. Stir in chopped Oreos.

Divide batter evenly between pans and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.