[Nanny]

my old recipe

sift the flour real good

[Pointyhead]

My tip - Kroger sells a good one.

[atlantdav]

Does anyone have any tips?  I've never made this cake before and today I'm going to make a practice one, because I'm making one for Christmas and I need to do a practice one first.  Thanks for any help........

I'm using the Waldorf-Astoria recipe........
  Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake Recipe #8972
1/2  cup shortening 
1 1/2  cups sugar 
2  eggs 
2  ounces red food coloring 
2  tablespoons cocoa (heaping) 
1  cup buttermilk 
2 1/4  cups cake flour 
1  teaspoon salt 
1  teaspoon vanilla 
1  teaspoon baking soda 
1  teaspoon vinegar 
FROSTING
3  tablespoons flour 
1  cup milk 
1  cup sugar 
1  teaspoon vanilla 
1  cup butter (must be butter) 

12 servings Change size or US/metric
Change to:  servings US Metric
 
Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.
Make a paste of food coloring and cocoa.
Add to creamed mixture.
Add buttermilk alternating with flour and salt.
Add vanilla.
Add soda to vinegar, and blend in.
Pour into 3 or 4 greased and floured 8" cake pans.
Bake at 350 F.
for 24-30 minutes.
Split layers fill and frost with the following frosting.
Frosting: Add milk to flour slowly, avoiding lumps.
Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly.
Cool completely.
Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.
Add to cooked mixture.
Beat, high speed, until very fluffy.
Looks and tastes like whipped cream.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Looks like alot of work

Got a cold glass of milk to go with it?

[mrsjones]

wow! a friend of mine (non pcommer) lives vicariously through me and my pcom antics asked me this weekend to get a red velvet cake recipe for her. that's kinda cool that you should happen to post this.

i really would love to know how it turns out for you.

happy baking!

me

[PauldingMom]

You can by the mix at most grocery stores (Betty Crocker).
This recipe is not the easiest one for beginners. Be sure to use lots of icing/frosting and dust off the cake well with a pastry brush before icing.

[MizCue]

Does anyone have any tips?  I've never made this cake before and today I'm going to make a practice one, because I'm making one for Christmas and I need to do a practice one first.  Thanks for any help........

I'm using the Waldorf-Astoria recipe........
  Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake Recipe #8972
1/2  cup shortening 
1 1/2  cups sugar 
2  eggs 
2  ounces red food coloring 
2  tablespoons cocoa (heaping) 
1  cup buttermilk 
2 1/4  cups cake flour 
1  teaspoon salt 
1  teaspoon vanilla 
1  teaspoon baking soda 
1  teaspoon vinegar 
FROSTING
3  tablespoons flour 
1  cup milk 
1  cup sugar 
1  teaspoon vanilla 
1  cup butter (must be butter) 

12 servings Change size or US/metric
Change to:  servings US Metric
 
Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.
Make a paste of food coloring and cocoa.
Add to creamed mixture.
Add buttermilk alternating with flour and salt.
Add vanilla.
Add soda to vinegar, and blend in.
Pour into 3 or 4 greased and floured 8" cake pans.
Bake at 350 F.
for 24-30 minutes.
Split layers fill and frost with the following frosting.
Frosting: Add milk to flour slowly, avoiding lumps.
Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly.
Cool completely.
Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.
Add to cooked mixture.
Beat, high speed, until very fluffy.
Looks and tastes like whipped cream.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes I have a wonderful tip!!!!! I want one!!!!!!!!

[Super Girl]

My tip is to skip eating it and just smear it directly on the but-tocks since that is were it winds up (on me at least) anyway!

[Roger]

Does anyone have any tips?  I've never made this cake before and today I'm going to make a practice one, because I'm making one for Christmas and I need to do a practice one first.  Thanks for any help........

I'm using the Waldorf-Astoria recipe........
  Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake Recipe #8972
1/2  cup shortening 
1 1/2  cups sugar 
2  eggs 
2  ounces red food coloring 
2  tablespoons cocoa (heaping) 
1  cup buttermilk 
2 1/4  cups cake flour 
1  teaspoon salt 
1  teaspoon vanilla 
1  teaspoon baking soda 
1  teaspoon vinegar 
FROSTING
3  tablespoons flour 
1  cup milk 
1  cup sugar 
1  teaspoon vanilla 
1  cup butter (must be butter) 

12 servings Change size or US/metric
Change to:  servings US Metric
 
Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.
Make a paste of food coloring and cocoa.
Add to creamed mixture.
Add buttermilk alternating with flour and salt.
Add vanilla.
Add soda to vinegar, and blend in.
Pour into 3 or 4 greased and floured 8" cake pans.
Bake at 350 F.
for 24-30 minutes.
Split layers fill and frost with the following frosting.
Frosting: Add milk to flour slowly, avoiding lumps.
Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly.
Cool completely.
Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.
Add to cooked mixture.
Beat, high speed, until very fluffy.
Looks and tastes like whipped cream.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My tip would be to let me taste test it. I'll bring the milk. Could you add pecan pieces sprinkled on the top, please?

No bought red velvet compares to the one you're making. My wife used to make this one for me until it became too much work.

[surepip]

This brings back memories from many, many years ago.

I come from a rather high strung family.

We had a tradition that you got to choose your birthday dinner. After my older sisters had married and moved out, one of them picked Red Velevet Cake for her birthday. My mother, who was a mediocre cook at best, dutifully made the requested Red Velvet cake.

When served, it was awful.
Everything about it was terrible, except how pretty it looked.
Everyone was kind of pushing it around on the plate, until my mother tasted it and remarked how bad it was. With that, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and pushed their plates as far away as they could.

The remains of the cake were wrapped in aluminum foil and given to the birthday girl to take home.

When they left on their way home, both of my sisters and their husbands ended up next to each other at the traffic light a mile or so from the house. One was going straight and the other was turning left.

They rolled down their windows to say something [this was 30+ years ago, no cell phones] and the cake suddenly flew from one car into the window of the other.

And just as fast, it flew back into the original car.

As they sat in their cars at a traffic light on Peachtree Road in Atlanta, they were tossing the cake back and forth like a hot potato.

Finally the light changed, and as the cake changed hands one last time, they took off on their separate ways. I do not remember which one ended up with the cake.

And for one reason or another, I have never really cared for Red Velevet Cake, but I always smile when it is mentioned.

[MaryKayMomof3]

My grandmother makes her homemade Red Velvet cake every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just actually ate the last bit of what I got to bring home from last week.
I agree about the store bought ones tho, they do not compare at all to the homemade kind with the good cream cheese icing with pecan pieces mixed in!
When you get done with it, I'm sure all of us can come over for a taste test!

[Cuteyellowbug]

Great story Surepip, that was funny.  I consider myself a very good cook, I've just never done this cake before.  I expect it to taste good,  I'm just worried about putting it together and making it look good.  I'm going to split the two layers I bake so that I end up with four layers to frost.  And I was amazed at the frosting, I always thought it was a cream cheese frosting, but the recipe calls for no cream cheese.   So, we'll see, it's really the frosting I'm worried about.  And I told everybody at work, if it didn't turn out, they could have it    

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dental floss splits cakes layers fast and easy. It's also great for cutting cinnamon rolls.

[April Showers]

use lots and lots and lots of red food coloring or it will turn out pink...

[mrsjones]

PCOMTROLL called and reminded me of a funny story that happened one year involving a red velvet cake and his dad.

his dad was just getting used to a new morphine pump and it was cold/flu season. we left red velvet birthday cake with him (it was spose to be devils food cake, but dummy me couldn't remember the right name, all i could think of was that it had a "v" in it.. la la la la) and went on a little holiday, when we returned a couple days later he had been admitted to hospital cos he was spitting up blood... really all it was was the red velvet cake food colouring and a little phlegm. 'tis funny now, but i'm sure the doctors were a little worried.

me

[Ellen]

My tip is.....................leave out the RED coloring.

Turns your mouth red when you eat it.

[Mrs. Avalon]

use lots and lots and lots of red food coloring or it will turn out pink...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

AMEN to that! I made one for my hubby's birthday this year as they're his favorite and didn't get enough of the Red Food Coloring. It was funny giving this man what turned out to be a PINK velvet cake!

[doxie247]

I am so excited to be posting for the first time! I am actually using my daughter's screen name here, but I am so passionate about this particular recipe that I want you to SUCCEED!!!

This is the recipe my mother made me every single year for my birthday, and now I have to make it for myself; I have actually eaten it at the Waldorf in New York!...and it tastes exactly the same...and it is SO MUCH BETTER than the recipes that have the cream cheese. This has also been a favorite of my 4 teenagers for many years!

Here are my tips for you:

Sift the flour; measure your flour BEFORE you sift it by spooning it into your measuring cup.

NEVER substitute the butter.

Instead of greasing/flouring the pan, cut out brown paper sack circles and line the bottom of the pans with the paper, greasing and lightly flouring only the sides. This is an extremely tender cake and breaks very easily. When you turn it out, it will kinda smell like a cooked brown paper sack, BUT I PROMISE it won't taste like it when you're through. I do all my scratch cakes like this! Just peel the paper off the bottoms right away and let the layers cool very well before icing. After the layers are cooled, if you don't split them again, you should be able to handle them without crumbles.

AND...I always split the batter into three pans and NEVER split them after baking only because it's such a tender cake and it breaks easily (I know I said that already, but it can't be said enough). Also, not splitting it will all but eliminate the crumbs. If you only have two pans, don't run out & buy one, the batter can sit out for 30 or 40 minutes until you're ready to bake that third layer.

I consider the icing to be kind of a custard icing, because it's cooked, but it is SO GOOD, don't try this first with any other kind of icing. Make sure the cooked part is totally cooled, else you'll melt the butter when you whip it together. Whip it until the icing is absent of the grainy sugar (it shouldn't crunch!) IT HAS TO BE REFRIGERATED AFTER YOU ICE IT.

I've made this cake FOR YEARS and you can do it. Yes, it's a bit of work, but SO WORTH IT!

[doxie247]

OOps, one more tip...

don't use an electric mixer to blend in the vinegar/soda. Use a spatula and FOLD it in. This is your levening. Overmixing it will make it flat as a pancake.

[InterestinglyBoring]

PCOMTROLL called and reminded me of a funny story that happened one year involving a red velvet cake and his dad. 

his dad was just getting used to a new morphine pump and it was cold/flu season.  we left red velvet birthday cake with him (it was spose to be devils food cake, but dummy me couldn't remember the right name, all i could think of was that it had a "v" in it.. la la la la) and went on a little holiday, when we returned a couple days later he had been admitted to hospital cos he was spitting up blood... really all it was was the red velvet cake food colouring and a little phlegm.  'tis funny now, but i'm sure the doctors were a little worried.

me 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ewwwww..now that makes me want a Red Velvet Cake.

[Cuteyellowbug]

Have you looked at allrecipes.com? They have ratings and reviews. I find some of the best recipes there!

[North Carolina Froggie]

lowrider this is my fav cake so when you get it right ill buy one from you if youll make it for me .

[InterestinglyBoring]

lowrider this is my fav cake  so when you get it right ill buy one from you  if youll make it for me .  

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Love the Av...BF.