I want to make one of these for my sweetie for Valentine's Day. The best one I've had included chocolate chips, and a cream cheese frosting. Anybody have a good recipe? Een, you out there?

Red Velvet Cake

Vegetable oil for the pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
Crushed pecans, for garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

Frost the cake. Place 1 layer, rounded-side down, in the middle of a rotating cake stand. Using a palette knife or offset spatula spread some of the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake. (Spread enough frosting to make a 1/4 to 1/2-inch layer.) Carefully set another layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Top with the remaining layer and cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting. Sprinkle the top with the pecans.


Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)
Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Inky, YOU RULE! This looks great. Do you think I can add chocolate chips to the recipe easily? Say, 12 oz.

I have never tried adding chips but I don't see why not...whatever you do though, be sure to use the highest quality REAL chocolate chips, and fold them in at the end just before adding to the pan.

Will do. I'll get the good stuff, Guittard at the minimum, and may chip up some Valrhona 70%.

Thanks again!

This is ironic for me to see this thread. My birthday is today and this is the cake that my wife alway makes for me.

Bob, definitely do not add semi-sweet chocolate chips to this recipe. Too sweet. 70% cacao content is much better. Also keep in mind that the velvety texture is a key feature of the cake. Do you want that to be interrupted with chips?

If you want some extra sweetness, I might suggest caramelizing the pecans. It's not hard. I can walk you through it.

Happy Birthday, Altoholic!

Een,

Ok, thanks for the advice. I hear you on the texture, but there's a local shop that makes a red velvet cupcake with chips in it that's just amazing. The chips inside are quite small, and I'll bet you're right, they're probably 70%, or more. I'd thought of just buying a few, but I'd love to tackle one at home. I'm not a bad baker when I put the time in.

How would I go about caramelizing the pecans?

And, Happy Birthday Alta!

Bob, another tip: After you prepare the batter, cover it so it doesn't develop a skin on top and pop it in the fridge for a couple of hours. This rest and aging will make it richer.

As for the nuts, I do scale everything in metric but it's easy to convert. Take 200g of nuts, 50g, sucrose, 2.5g vanilla and 5g cocoa butter.

Put the water in the pan, followed by sugar. Turn on the heat and let it cook to 115c/239F. No stirring. When it's almost to temp, put the nuts in the microwave for 30s. You don't want really cold nuts hitting really cold sugar (boy, that sounds bad). Take the sugar/syrup off the heat, add nuts. Stir the nuts and syrup until they look sandy.

Put the pan back on the heat and let them cook until the sugar melts and caramelizes evenly. Don't stir too much. It promotes crystallization and you want melting at this point. If the sugar smokes, heat's too high.

Turn off the head when the nuts are roasted and caramel is brown. Add the vanilla and stir. Then add cocoa butter and mix well. This is going to keep them from becoming massive nut clump. Put them on a silpat and separate. Let them cool. Store in airtight container. Don't put them in the fridge. Ever.

Let me know if you need more help with this.

Looks great! I've got a good metric scale, so am cool there. Thanks again Inky and Een for the recipes and tips. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again! The cake turned out incredibly. Thanks Inky for the wonderful recipe, and Een for the additions. I can't wait to make it again!