Eat Your Heart Out Red Velvet!

Bake a Red Velvet heart cake for your Valentine's!

This year I made my life easy and bought a beautiful heart shaped Nordic Ware Bundt cake mold for my Valentine's Day cake. The focus is on a great tasting recipe where you can omit the frosting if you are out time or ingredients!  

Food historians may differ about the origins of Red Velvet cake, many believe the name comes from the naturally reddish hue from the cocoa powder, which is enhanced by a chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda. Today most versions rely on red food coloring (some bakers use beet juice) to achieve it's vivid shade.

 

So bake that special someone this fab cake, there's still time!

TOOLS

baking spray

standing mixer

heart shape bundt cake - I found mine on Amazon.com

rubber spatula

cooling rack
toothpick
small- medium size strainer
pastry brush

INGREDIENTS

2-1/2 cake flour (not self rising) sifted

2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1-1/2 cup sugar

1-1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs room temperature

1/2 tsp gel red food coloring

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp distilled white vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare bundt cake pan with a good spray coat of baking oil. Use the pastry brush to get into every crevice, nook and cranny. 

 Whisk together cake flour, cocoa and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter and mix on medium speed for 10 seconds. 

Pour batter into the hear shaped bundt pan making sure the batter is spread evenly, use the rubber spatula to achieve this. This will help the cake bake up the sides of the pan a bit instead of puffing up in the middle, which doesn't help when you invert it.

Bake for about 45 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cake cool for a while in the bundt cake pan before removing it.  If the cake is too hot, it's more likely to come apart when you invert the pan over the cooling rack or serving plate. Let it cool and set before you disturb it. About 20 minutes. 

Serve with your favorite sparkling wine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

BE MINE, Madeleine!

 Rosewater Madeleines

Madeleines are little cake-like cookies that are baked in special shell shaped molds. These elegant French tea cakes to bake and share are traditionally from the Lorraine region in Northeastern France. Madeleines date back to the court of Louis XV and the name was give to the cookies by 'Louie' himself to honor his father-in-law's cook Madeleine Paulmier. Louis' wife, Marie introduced them to the court and soon they became the rage at Versailles...and the rest is history.

Aside from the traditional small shell moulded pan, commonly found in specialty kitchen stores or amazon.com, no special tools are required to make madeleines.

A genoise cake batter is used. The flavor is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, sponge cake. Traditional recipes include very finely ground nuts, usually almonds. A variation uses lemon zest, for a lemony flavor, but the ones I made here to celebrate Valentine's use a couple of teaspoons of rosewater and a small drop of red food coloring for the rosy pink. 

In addition to the traditional shell mold I used a cast iron mini heart shape mold that I recently found with my other love, Amazon.com which never disappoints! This recipe comes from a book called Madeleines by Barbara Feldman Morse. So many wonderful recipes to try I thought I would start with this one!

TOOLS
Madeleine pan - amazon.com or local kitchen specialty store
Heart shaped baking pan or cast iron - amazon.com

Standing mixer

Rubber spatula
Small offset spatula

Wire rack

INGREDIENTS

1-1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 tsp rosewater

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 or 2 drops of red food coloring

1 cup all purpose flour

Baking spray

Sugar crystals - optional

Place rack in the center of oven and preheat oven to 350°.

Coat 2 heart-shaped or madeleine pans with baking spray.

Place butter and sugar in a small sauce pan and melt over low heat on the stove. Stir to make sure butter is fully melted. Let cool. Combine eggs and the sugar/butter mixture in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment and mix until thick and foamy. Add rosewater and vanilla extract plus 1-2 drops of red food coloring and continue mixing. 

Add flour and whisk in gently until just incorporated.

Using a 1-1/2 inch diameter scoop or a teaspoon, fill the molds with batter until almost full. Optional: sprinkle sugar crystals on top of each cake. Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the heart-shaped madeleines puff up and spring back when lightly pressed.

Remove pans from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 2-3 minutes, then invert and tap madeleines onto rack. You may also use a small offset spatula to remove each one individually. Bakes about 2 dozen.

Share these sweet little things with the special people in your life. Take them to work for your co-workers (if you like them!) or wrap them up in a basket, add some teabags and surprise the little ol' lady next door! Whoever you choose to share these with will bring a warm smile to their faces and your heart!

XOXO