The Original Red Velvet Cake

There are a lot of different recipes for Red Velvet Cake. Here is the one that I grew up with and still use. I have to say, it's worth buying a couple of heart-shaped cake pans just for this cake. It's a perfect Valentine's Day dessert.

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1/2 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 bottles of red food coloring
3 Tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Light oil and flour 2 9-inch cake pans.

Mix vinegar and baking soda in small cup. Let stand until settled.

Cream sugar, shortening, and eggs until light.

Make paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add paste to shortening mixture. Combine.

Combine buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.

Combine salt and flour in small bowl.

Alternate adding the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture to shortening.

Add soda and vinegar mixture to batter. Mix just until blended.

Divide batter between the prepared pans, and bake for about 30 minutes or until cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool on baking rack. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen cake. Invert pan and remove cake. Frost as desired.

Photo by LauraFries

3 Tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cook flour and milk on low heat til thick, stirring constantly. Cool.

Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.

Add to flour-milk mixture.

Beat until frosting is consistency of whipped cream.

Spread on cake layers.