Ravishing Red Velvet

I first became aware of Red Velvet cake while watching an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" where Christina was having to taste different cakes for her wedding. I was instantly curious and hooked on finding out what this fantastically bright red and white cake was all about.

I was surprised at the amount of results that came up, it was as if I was the only person in the world who didn't know about it!

Looks like any other cake, until... My search also led me to find one of my now favourite blogs to browse, Pinch My Salt.

I was struck by the beautiful photos and enjoyed the commentary given about the family recipe. In fact, that post created the itch to create what is now my own blog. You'll notice that my top banner is of red batter... yes, that's right.

Anyway, back to the recipe, I found it really easy to follow and the result was great. If you don't know what's in a Red Velvet cake, you might not be able to figure out the flavour just because the colour is so bright, but what it is, is a lovely moist buttermilk-with-a-hint-of-chocolate cake. In all honesty, if it weren't for the colour I don't think it would as sought after, but I don't care, I like it. It's beautiful to look at and tastes great.

A traditional Red Velvet is frosted with a roux frosting, but I can highly recommend using cream cheese frosting. It's tangy, sweet, creamy and smooth, and of course, the perfect bright white for this cake. I keep telling myself to try out the traditional frosting but I always end up back with the cream cheese, it's just so moreish.

The recipe is also great for cupcakes, I bought some fun bright red edible glitter just for the purpose of these cupcakes :) For the last Valentines I made Red Velvet cupcakes for a brunch with some friends and made these cute little red fondant hearts to go ontop.

Topped with Jewel Glitter
Give this Red Velvet recipe a try, it really is a winner :)