good red velvet or pink cake recipe

[partgypsy]

Hello I know that there are alot of cupcake and baking gurus on here (Freke shout out!)

I want to attempt to make my daughter's birthday cake. Nothing fancy, a 2 layer round cake that is either red or pink on the inside (she is having a princess theme). So thinking red velvet or strawberry? Or any other suggestions.

Can anyone refer me to any tasty (but not too complicated) cake recipe? Also I want the frosting to be a cream cheese frosting.

Thanks!

 

[steph72276]

Paula Deen makes a good one, although personally I would just do reg, cream cheese frosting.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/grandmother-pauls-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html

 

[partgypsy]

Oh man, just looking at the recipe makes my stomach hurt.

I think what I'm going to do, is just make a regular yellow or white cake, and make cream cheese frosting, and tint the frosting with some raspberry jam (stealing this idea from Steal in cupcake thread). Now I just need to find a good basic recipe.

 

[Mara]

that's prob healthier than an actual red velvet cake recipe OR using anything from PD hehee. as yummy as it all turns out, it is a heart attack in a bowl!!!

plus red 40 is suspicious in itself. i wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years after we've all consumed countless RV cupcakes they will discover some strange link to some strange disease and red 40.

 

[steph72276]

Mara, I know. I developed a major allergy to all food coloring last year, probably after too many red velvet cuppies. And I do love this Paula recipe...I don't bake that often anymore so when I do, I want to indulge!

 

[partgypsy]

Yeah that cake is the kind of cake my husband likes, rich. His favorite cake is german chocolate cake. Other than that or apple pie he's not a dessert person.

I have a good housekeeping cookbook that has never steered me wrong. I'm going to use their white cake recipe, and found an extremely simple cream cheese frosting on the web: 4 oz cream cheese, 4 oz butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, tsp vanilla, and try to add some seedless red jam of some sort for the coloring. I like that idea because it adds a little flavor too.

 

[Mara]

one note about adding jam or jelly to frosting--you will prob also have to use a little more conf sugar to keep it thicker... whenever i have done that it makes it really hard to pipe the frosting--but that's more for cupcakes. just a 'maybe' though-- adding the jam may require a bit of a thickener. either that or remove 1oz of the butter or similar.

 

[partgypsy]

Thanks Mara for the tip (like adding a little flour or cornstarch). I still haven't figured out how to write on it. I don't have one of those decorator thingies, but I'm sure my MIL does.

Oh yeah, I talked to my daughter, and she wants pink cake, with yellow icing. I have some food coloring so coloring the icing color will be easy. I'd still like to use the jam idea. Can I add jam to the cake recipe? Could it ruin it? And will it make it pink enough? (I picked up some seedless raspberry preserve).

 

[Mara]

Maybe Freke will chime in with if you can modify the recipe you have for adding jam but basically whenever I have added jam or jelly to baked goods in the past--it bakes in and leaves a space... the water in the jelly/jam basically evaporates in the oven. So your cake probably won't be uniform, it might have pockets where the product evaporates. It tastes yummy but it is not a 'pretty' look.

Try googling for a jam cake recipe and see if you find anything that looks good but not sure it would work. You could do jelly/jam as a layer separator while frosting.

Oh one other thing re flavoring and color. I like adding gelatin to cakes sometimes to play with the flavor and the texture. Paula Deen has a strawberry cake recipe a friend gave to me that's really yummy and uses gelatin--the batter is pink. I like using a more 'natural' gelatin than JellO but it gets you the same idea--esp for a kid's cake.

 

[steph72276]

I was going to suggest a strawberry cake too if she likes it. If not, just a drop or 2 of red food coloring should get a nice light pink color.

 

[partgypsy]

Thanks for the ideas. I guess I need to make a decision: yellow cake with pink icing (easier to do) or do the pink cake with yellow icing (what daughter wants). Maybe I'll just use food coloring for the two colors, and put a thin layer of preserves in the middle of the two layers (layer of icing, layer of preserves). Her favorite color is "yellow" so the request is not surprising. the color theme of the plateware and decorations is purple and yellow ("gold").