Red Velvet Birthday Cake

Not being american, I didn't grow up knowing about red velvet cake, but was instantly curious the moment I discovered it. RED!?!? MOIST!?! CHOCOLATEY!?! Yes please! Unfortunately, I haven't had a great amount of success with finding good recipes in the past. They've all been passable, but none had been good enough that I'd want to make them again. But I decided it was time to try again, and went on another recipe hunt so I could make it for my birthday.

It was a long, but very successful hunt: the cake was absolutely delicious! Rich and moist and not too dense and with that lovely hint of cocoa, so good! The original is from joyofbaking.com but I tweaked it to add more cocoa (because cocoa that's why), and replaced the icing, because I hate cream cheese with a fiery passion. I was going to add shredded coconut on the icing between layers, and on top, but one of my guests was opposed, so I didn't. I'm definitely trying it next time though.

TLDR: Some red velvet cake recipes suck. This one definitely doesn't.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups cake flour*

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoons cocoa powder (any kind)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk*

2 tablespoons (or 'a lot') red food colouring (make sure it's not a natural one made with paprika!)

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

* to make your own 'cake flour': for each cup of flour used, remove two tablespoons of it, and replace with two tablespoons of cornstartch (tip via joythebaker)

* to make your own 'buttermilk' (it's not really buttermilk at all, but will have the same reaction, if not quite the same taste): for each cup of buttermilk needed, pour just under a cup of regular milk, add 1 tablespoon or white vinegar or lemon juice, and wait 5 minutes (or if you're feeling ambitious, you can try to make real buttermilk from scratch)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and line two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper, and butter them.
2. In one bowl, sift together the flour, salt and cocoa powder.
3. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until well mixed and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the vanilla.
4. Measure out the buttermilk, and mix in the red food colouring.
5. In the large butter/sugar/egg bowl, slowly mix in the flour and buttermilk mixtures, alternating between them (beginning and ending with the flour mixture). Beat until thoroughly combined.
6. In a small bowl/cup, mix the baking soda and white vinegar. Allow to fizz, and quickly fold into the batter. (*make sure to only add this when you're ready to put the cake in the oven! if your oven is not yet at temperature, wait until it is. if you're going to bake the cakes in two batches because you only have one pan, divide your batter now, and only use 1/2 t. vinegar & 1/2 t. baking soda for the first batch, and the same again for the second, just before you pour it into the pan)
7. Divide batter evenly between your two pans, even out the tops, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Let them cool in their pans a little before removing. Once removed and nolonger hot, it's best to wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour or so before icing. The cooled cake will be firmer and less crumby to work with. Ice and decorate as usual for a layered cake.

You don't get a proper icing recipe because I didn't have one for this, I just kinda...  mixed up 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 150ml heavy cream and 3-4 cups icing sugar, until it seemed thick enough and tasted right to me. :| (Sorry. One day I will make this again, and pay closer attention to what I do, and write down the recipe more exactly)