THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701090339
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 74 lines
For 393 readers who requested it, here is the recipe for red velvet cake as baked by Eva Hennage of Montross.
John Pruitt, a colleague, says of red velvet cake: ``It isn't easy to bake but it's easy to eat.''
I'd rather dog-paddle up Niagara Falls than spell out a recipe, but, at your behest, let's begin with ingredients: 2 1/2 cups of cake flour; 1/4 teasp. baking powder; 1 teasp. salt; 1 teasp. regular old cocoa.
Rest a while. Now go on: 1 stick of butter; 1 stick margarine because, Eva says, it's cheaper; 1 1/2 cup of regular, granulated sugar; 3 eggs; 1 teasp. vanilla; 1 ounce of red food coloring; 1 cup of buttermilk to which one adds 1 teasp. of baking soda; and 1 teasp. of vinegar. Just stir them into buttermilk.
So much for ingredients. Now comes the hard part, but take heart. My way would be to fling all the ingredients in a pan, stir them and let `er bake.
But first, Eva counsels, you beat the shortening (butter and margarine), after letting it sit overnight in the mixer so it will be soft and malleable. As you beat it, add the sugar and put in the eggs one at a time (after breaking the shells, of course, else you`ll come up with one gritty cake). You also add coloring and vanilla. Mix it all real good.
OK so far? Now you are ready to add the batch of flour and the buttermilk doctored with baking soda and vinegar. The flour contains the baking powder, salt and cocoa. Mix the flour and the milk gradually with the shortening blend.
Grease the cake pan and shake flour lightly on the bottom. Now pour the blended batter into the pan and bake it at 350 degrees. (I have never known anybody to bake anything but what it was at 350 degrees, it seems.)
In 15 or 20 minutes, peek in the oven and you can tell when the cake is done, Eva says. It rises, she says. Press your finger to the top of the cake and if the surface is firm, not soupy, the cake is ready.
While it is baking, prepare the icing. Here we go again with ingredients: 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese; a half cup of butter or margarine; 1 teasp. vanilla; 1 pound box of 10X sugar; 3/4 cup of coconut.
Have the cream cheese and butter at room temperature so they will beat more easily; now add the vanilla and the sugar. Beat them together until the icing is smooth, ready to be applied to the cake.
Some cooks ice the cake while it is warm; others, after it cools. That's up to the cook.
Eva tints a handful of coconut with a drop of coloring and shakes it atop the frosting, which makes the cake look pretty.
``I hope whoever makes the cake will enjoy it,'' she said.
All I claim is the right to lick the spoon and the bowl. ILLUSTRATION: SHOPPING LIST
FOR CAKE:
2 1/2 cups of cake flour
1/4 teasp. baking powder
1 teasp. salt
1 teasp. regular old cocoa.
1 stick of butter
1 stick margarine
1 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teasp. vanilla
1 ounce of red food coloring
1 cup of buttermilk
1 teasp. baking soda
1 teasp. of vinegar
FOR ICING:
8 ounces of cream cheese
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 teasp. vanilla
1 pound 10X sugar
3/4 cup coconut.