Red Velvet Cake Recipe — Pinch My Salt

Red Velvet Cake. Until I met my husband, I had never even heard of a red velvet cake. Since it seems to be a southern specialty, I guess it’s not surprising that I never ran across one growing up in California. But thanks to the California cupcake boom, it seems like there’s now a cupcake shop on every corner and every single one of them features some version of miniature red velvet cake. But that’s not why I made this cake. And partly because I was tired of waiting, but mostly in celebration of a momentous occasion, I decided to take matters into my own hands, and give this cake a try myself. You see, right before we left Sicily last year, my husband was promoted. I even toyed with the idea of a Black Forest Cake, another one that gets requested from time to time (maybe next time, Justin). Now, I won’t lie. Sure enough, lots of Red Velvet Cake recipes require the same amount of food coloring. Especially my hands. I thought this really was a great cake. Save Recipe Print Recipe Ingredients

Red Velvet Crêpes I rolled my eyes at the red velvet cake trend, but now I can’t get enough. I’ll make any excuse to have ‘cake’ for breakfast– here’s my take on a classic. Red Velvet Crepes (Makes about 24, 8″ crepes) Ingredients: – 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour - 1 teaspoon baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon salt - 3 tablespoons sugar - 2 cups butter milk - 1 1/4 cup whole or lowfat milk - 1 large egg - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted - 1 tablespoon red food color gel - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted + 2 tablespoons cooking oil (for pan) *Update: Because the buttermilk lends to the acidity of this batter, do not substitute the baking soda for extra baking powder. Mascarpone Cream Filling- 500 mL heavy cream - 300 gr mascarpone cheese - 1/2 cup icing sugar - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - zest of 1 orange (optional, but adds nice tang) + 1/2 cup raspberry jam (optional, for filling crepes) Directions: For the Mascarpone Filling:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Red Velvet Sheet Cake I’m a sheet cake type of girl. I love the simplicity…the ease…the I-don’t-have-to-make-layer-cakes-if-I-don’t-want-to-dangit beauty of a sheet cake. With a sheet cake, it’s all about the cake, and very little about stacking and icing and crumb layers and balancing and cursing because you just don’t have it in you to create the beautiful layer cakes you see out in the world. (See: I Am Baker. Girl’s got talent.) This is the red velvet cake recipe from my cookbook; I adapted it ever so slightly when I made it yesterday afternoon. Guys, this frosting. And after trying my first bite last night, it was instantly clear that these two things were M.F.E.O. (If you know what that stands for, you watch way too many movies. Let’s make the cake! Here’s what you need. Begin by throwing cake flour and salt in a sifter (Thanks to Bridget, who very kindly sent me a sifter after discovering during her visit here that I just use big, unwieldy fine mesh strainers to sift my dry ingredients.) Two eggs… Bueller?

Brown Butter Double Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookies Little bit of a mouthful there. But it’s like a cookie on top of another cookie! Yeah. Like total dirty cookie on cookie action. Except these ones down below wanted to try a few different positions. I dunno… they’re all mixed up. In order to solve a common I-want-a-chocolate-CHOCOLATE-cookie-but-he-wants-a-plain-chocolate chip-cookie dilemma that happens like, every single weekend here… I made both. Some of them smashed up against each other while others sat on top of each other but in the end, they all tasted… fantabulous. And then they tasted extra delicious after I spent two hours cleaning out the contents of our bar (take that as you will), after he spent three hours organizing the pantry (that was weird) and after we both needed to severely eat our emotions immediately post-Boardwalk Empire finale. WHAT was that. ??????? Why??? Then I tried to dunk a cookie in milk and failed. I need cookie dunking lessons, a redo on season 2 (thanks HBO), and a salad. [from giant rainbow cookies]

peanut butter pretzel bites « Two Tiny Kitchens Salty and sweet. Crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth. Peanut butter and chocolate. Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites recipe courtesy Foodaphilia.com Calorie estimate: 4,000 – 5,000 for complete recipe (depending upon dipping chocolate and pretzels used, etc.) Yield 60 – 80 pretzel bites Ingredients 1 cup creamy peanut butter 2 tbsp softened butter 1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more) 3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more) Pretzels 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips Directions Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or whisk, or in a stand mixer. Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted.

mom’s apple cake My mother makes the best apple cake, and has for as long as I can remember. Big cinnamon-y chunks of apple nestle into a coffee cake I would call “unbelievably” moist, but really, should not be hard to believe considering that my mother is also the one who brought us another of the best cake recipes on this site, The Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake. The cake gets better the second day, when the apples juices seep further into the cake and I have seen the conviction of many a chocolate-obsessed/fruit dessert non-believers crumble upon trying a single slice of it. Not above pilfering content for my website from my nearest and dearest, I talked my mom into coming over (and heaving up all 51 stairs–she likes to count them) on Sunday to bake the cake with me for the New Years dinner at my in-laws today. As it turns out, the actual story is, uh, a little less romanticized. One year ago: Bronx-Worthy BagelsTwo years ago: Flower Cupcakes Mom’s Apple Cake Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Picky Palate Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes It happened again. I had one of my cupcake visions. And I couldn’t shake it. I kept thinking about these cupcakes, constantly, even dreamed about them multiple times. And much like the last ones, the only way to stop obsessing was to hunker down and make them. So I did. What’s odd about this is I don’t usually like lemon-flavored sweets. And you know what? I used a variation on the tropical cupcake base I’ve used previously, with all coconut milk rather than soymilk (I thought the coconut would play nicely with the lemon). The frosting was tricky. Nevertheless, another cupcake for the books. You may also like...

chocolate peanut butter cake Alex’s birthday was this past weekend and in case you are new here, let me give you a loose outline of a Standard Dessert Alex Politely Requests: Chocolate. Chocolate with chocolate. Chocolate with caramel. Chocolate with toffee. Chocolate with coffee. What, can you sense a theme or something? This year we added one more to the chocolate cake pile: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. Because did I mention the chocolate cake? You might be noticing a recurring theme here this summer, but what can I say? If you like baking cakes, especially celebration cakes, you really want to get this book. But here’s the other best part (you know, if the notion of a boston cream pie cake wasn’t enough to convince you)–a lot of these cake recipes are one-bowl. Peanut butter, previously: Peanut Butter Brownies and Peanut Butter CookiesOne year ago: Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake This cake is INTENSE. Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake; serves 12 to 16 (the book says, I say a heck of a lot more) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 1.