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!