Ahhh, Sweet...Success?

Here's a question... how many of you like Red Velvet Cake?

My guess is that most of you are shouting "I do!" (for some reason I hear your collective answer in the voice of a certain teeny little girl...but back to the subject at hand)

Yes, I have discovered that red relvet is a popular cake flavor.  I myself enjoy it from time to time, but if you were to ask me what flavor it was, I would have said... "uhhh, red?"  That's the thing with red velvet cake, it doesn't really have a specific flavor.  I usually just eat it for the cream cheese frosting!!

But in my attempts to master the cake world, red velvet is a necessary recipe to excel at. And herein lies my struggle. There are so many recipes for the cake, but they seem to break down into very close variations of the same 2 or 3 amounts of ingredients.  And I can't seem to figure out any of them!

Each attempt starts out auspiciously...I carefully weigh out the ingredients (though often substituting milk with lemon juice for the buttermilk, maybe that's my problem!), mix them in the correct order, and get a very pretty red batter, seemingly of a good consistency.

But put it in the pan and bake it and... well, it goes ker-flop.

For your consideration, the evidence:



Attempt #1.  Fairly nice flavor, more brown than red, but then the recipe called for 1/4 cup cocoa rather than the more common 1-2 Tbsp.

Attempt #2: This one used beets for the red color, so again a darker tint.  It also, however, used vegetable oil and a lot of beets, giving it a spongey, oily texture that was quite frankly... ew.

Attempts #3 and 4: One was such a wet batter that it boiled up over the side of the pan.  The 4th attempt was probably my best to date, but it still collapsed in the middle.




Attempt #5: Another recipe calling for oil rather than butter... I think I'm done trying any cake recipe with oil!  They just don't seem to turn out!

Attempt #6: I thought maybe since most recipes called for the cake to be baked in 2-3 thin layers (the better to distribute cream cheese frosting upon!) that maybe it was my 3-in deep pan causing the trouble.  So I tried once more with these two oval pans.   No luck .

Attempt #7: This one has turned out to be another of my better attempts.  I substituted light vanilla yogurt for the buttermilk, and while it collapsed a little bit, it didn't collapse as much as other attempts.  It's still not very red, but it called for the 1/4 cup of cocoa and less red coloring than other recipes, so I'll plan on trying it again with less cocoa, more red coloring, and maybe try the 2-layer approach again.

So for now, it's a mixed success.  I think it's the vinegar/ baking soda combination to be used for leavening... maybe I'm not quite getting it right.  But, never fear, I'll keep trying!!