Dreaming of Red Velvet

I was really looking forward to my third cake with The Cake Slice Bakers.  I sat out on last month's cake because I couldn't find the key ingredient which was white chocolate.

After looking through my Southern Cakes cookbook I noticed that I had pretty much all of the ingredients for this month's cake...Red Velvet.
 
One of the two ingredients that I didn't have on hand was buttermilk.  But that's easily remedied.  All you have to do is add a tablespoon of white vinegar to a cup of milk and let it set for ten minutes.

And I didn't have liquid or gel food coloring, but the farmacias (pharmacies) carry a powdered version that works great.

My plan was to make this cake for my mother-in-law's birthday.  And so I started...

I buttered and floured my cake pans.

I combined the salt and the flour.

I stirred the vanilla into my faux buttermilk.

And I mixed the cocoa powder with my powdered food coloring.

Then I proceeded to cream the butter.

Added the sugar.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

And added the cocoa powder mixture.

 

Then I added a third of the flour mixture. Just look at that gorgeous color!

And half of the milk.

The final step was adding the baking soda to white vinegar and stirring it in to the batter.

All of this resulted in a light, airy and fluffy batter.  It was like a big bowl of pink meringue or mousse.

I was a little worried that the vinegar might be too overpowering.  I tasted a bit of the batter and fell in love.  It was absolutely to die for! 

I couldn't wait to see what it tasted like all covered in frosting. So I divided the batter into my cake pans and popped them into my preheated oven.

My oven temperature is a little off, so instead of baking the cake for 20 to 25 minutes, I'd have to bake it for 40 to 50 minutes.  Knowing my oven, I gave it a few more minutes.

After the cakes had baked for an hour, I peeked through the oven window to see if they looked done, but was horrified to see that they looked the same as when I had put them in the oven.

So I waited a little longer.  I think I left the cakes in the oven for a total of 2 hours.  Frustrated I opened the oven door to find that my oven flame was even lower than usual. UGH!!! 

I can't believe it!  My oven is dying!  I'm heartbroken and devastated!  And I really wanted to taste that Red Velvet cake!

I'm still not sure if we're going to fix our stove or buy a new one, but it looks like I won't be baking for awhile. 

If you want to see what this cake looks like finished, be sure to check out the rest of The Cake Slice Bakers.

With Love,

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