Red Velvet cake

I am not sure if I have said this earlier that how sensitive my stomach is! If I eat anything that is stale or bad, I immediately fall sick. After coming to Austin this was the first time I had food Poisoning which happened mainly because of my carelessness, or call it laziness. This was a day before Valentine's day, when I was too lazy to cook a full meal. Since I had some leftover Roti's I decided to make enchiladas. I used some left over Canned tomato Puree that was lying in the fridge. This puree had some blackishness around & I was too lazy to open a new can; so just used it. This caused a very bad stomach pain & diarrhea:( The whole night, I spent in the bathroom & regretted for using that can of tomato puree. The next day went to the doc & I was admitted for 3 hours . I was given IV & some medicines. So my valentines day was a disaster & it was spent in the hospital. 

So I had made this cake on 13th morning & I decided to refrigerate it. Since I was sick & had aversion towards food, I dint want to cook nor eat anything for few days. After 4 days I decided to decorate this cake. I went ahead with a simple decor as I dint wanted too much icing in the cake. Well this was a tall cake & I sent almost 70% of it to my hubby's office. My hubby told me that the cake got over within minutes:) I was very happy that the cake got over fast or else I will end up eating a lot & put on weight:(. This was the easiest & tastiest red velvet cake I have eaten. This cake is very moist & yummy. I got this recipe from Mccormick site. I just copy pasted the recipe & the result was just amazing. This is how I made the cake. 

Serves: 45- 30 people
Making time: 30 minutes
Decoration: 30 minutes
Need 2 9 inch Pan (I used use & throw silver foil pans)
Recipe: mccormick

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups Plain flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder
• 2 cups sugar (powdered)
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks Butter (226 gms)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp food color Red (I used wilton gel paste)

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350* F. For the cake, grease & flour 2 (9 inch) round cake pans. 
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & salt. set aside.
3. Beat Butter & powdered sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. 
4. Mix Sour cream, color, milk & vanilla in a separate small bowl. Now add in this mixture into the bowl butter sugar egg mixture. 
5. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not over beat. Pour the batter in the prepared Pans.
6. Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean. 
7. Cool in pan for 10 mins, remove from Pan & cool completely on wire rack. 

Vanilla Butter cream:

• 350 gms salted Butter
• 8- 10 Cups sifted Icing sugar
• 6 Tbsp Whipping cream
• 1 Tspn Vanilla Essence
• Pinch of salt
• 10 Strawberries to decorate. 

Directions:

• Make sure butter is at room temperature & not very soft.
• In the bowl cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes with an electric beater on medium speed.
• Add 9-10 cups icing sugar one cup at a time. Once the icing sugar is well mixed add whipping cream and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. This should take about 6 to 8 minutes. If if you feel the frosting consistency is not right, then add in some more icing sugar. 

Here are the step by step picture collage. 

If you don't like so many layers, you need not cut the cake into half. You can just have one layer of icing in the middle. I made 3 layers of icing coz it looks good. 

Notes:

• It is always better to cut the cake cold. So refrigerate the cake before you ice it. Make sure you bring the cake to room temperature before you eat it.
• Once you ice the full cake, keep the cake in the fridge. Make sure you have a big cake box.
• Cut the cake while it is still cold to get the perfect slices.