Red Velvet Cake

I can't really say that I like red velvet cake- to be honest I really don't understand the hype about a plain cake that is coloured bright red- but each to their own! Most of the cakes I make aren't really for myself, so given how popular it is, I it was only a matter of time before a request would come up, so I needed a good recipe to have under my belt.

Whilst most recipes are a similar formulation made up of your usual cake candidates- flour, eggs, sugar, butter and of course red food colouring- I have settled for an oil based recipe rather than a butter one..... because a whole block of butter for the buttercream icing is really way more saturated fat than one needs in a serving (those who have followed this blog for a while will know I'm not particularly fond of working with too much butter!).

I'm a bit skeptical when it comes to 'dump everything in a bowl and mix' recipes as I haven't had huge success with these recipes in the past, but I'm pleased to report this one worked a treat. It was a simple five minute job to whip up, the addition of yoghurt makes for a nice, moist texture and the cake went down well with the family, who also aren't red velvet fans either! I've added a bit of cocoa to the recipe to give it a bit of flavour, but leaving out the cocoa will give you brighter shade of red, if that's what you're after.

Fun fact: when I made this red velvet recipe without the food colouring, all I got was confused looks as to what flavour the cake was meant to be. We settled on calling it 'caramel' because that's generally what brown and sweet cakes tend to be associated with....

Red Velvet Cake Recipe
Recipe from All Recipes

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tbsp cocoa powder (Optional)
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup Greek yoghurt
1/4 cup milk
30mL red food colouring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 8 inch round pans.

1. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, oil, and eggs. Add food coloring and vinegar to buttermilk. Add baking soda and cocoa to flour. Add flour mixture and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the sugar mixture. Mix well. Stir 1 teaspoon vanilla into batter. Pour batter into prepared pans.

1. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven, and cool on wire racks.