My Favorite Red Velvet Chocolate Fudge Cake...

Ingredients:

Cake

1 Cup unsifted unsweetened cocoa, dissolved in 2 cups of boiling HOT water.
2 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour (sift flour b before measuring because sifting changes measurements)
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder

1-cup butter is best for this recipe but 1 cup of your favorite margarine can be substituted

2 ½ cups granulated sugar, bakers finer sugar can be substituted for the granulated sugar

4 large or 4 jumbo eggs

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
The 'true' vanilla bean grows on a vanilla orchid (vanilla planifolia), and is picked when it is yellow. The long dark vanilla bean that we are used to seeing in pictures is achived by a 'curing' process.

Frosting

1 pkg semisweet chocolate pieces
½ cup light cream
1 cup pure dairy butter or 1 cup margarine
2 ½ cups unsifted confectioners sugar…this is what we used to call ‘powdered sugar’

Cream Filling

1 ½ cup pure dairy, heavy cream, chilled from the refrigerator
¼ cup unsifted confectioners (powdered) sugar
1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

Cake

Dissolve the unsifted, unsweetened cocoa in the 2 cups of boiling water, stir the mixture until all of the cocoa is dissolved, and set the mixture aside to cool.
Sift together the flour, soda, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl.
Sifters are hard to find these days, but they are available in most specialty, cooking stores. A sifter will consist of a wire cage with small holes between the wires, and a handle that you turn to agitate the dry flour mixture inside of the sifter, causing the mixture to ‘sift’ through the holes in the wire cage in the unit.

In a large bowl, cream together the 1 cup butter with the 2 ½ cups granulated or bakers sugar.
Beat the 4 eggs together with the vanilla, and add the egg mixture the creamed butter/sugar mixture and beat this ‘wet’ mixture with an electric mixer on high until light and fluffy, which will take about 5 minutes.
Switch your mixer to low speed, and alternate adding in the flour mixture and the dissolved cocoa. The dissolved cocoa mixture should be on the cool side so it will not cook the egg mixture when they are combined together.

Divide the thick, creamy cake mixture into 2 or three 9” cake pans that you have greased and lightly floured. Grease and flour pans even if your cake pans are non-stick.
At 350 degrees, 2 cake pans should take approximately 40 minutes to bake. At 350 degrees, 3 cake pans should take approximately 30 minutes to bake.
Test cake layers with a dry toothpick inserted in center of cake.
When the cake layers are done, the tester toothpick will come out of the layers, clean.

Frosting method:

In a saucepan combine the semisweet chocolate pieces with the ½ cup light cream, 1-cup butter and stir this mixture over a medium heat until the chocolate pieces are melted and the mixture appears smooth. Remove from the heat and with a whisk blend in the 2 ½ cups confectioners (powdered) sugar.
Place this bowl inside of another bowl filled with ice to chill the mixture, and beat the frosting until it holds its shape. Beating in this method insures a melt in your mouth-finished product!

If you are making the two cake layers, you will use a large serrated bread knife to slice through the center of each cake so that you will end up with 4 cake rounds. You will assemble these rounds with the cream filling inside.
If you do the 3 cake layers with 3 cake pans then you will not slice them in the middle because they will be thinner cake layers, and you will end up with 3 layers with cream filling between layers.

Cream Filling Method

Combine the 1 1/2 cup chilled, heavy dairy cream with the ¼ cup unsifted confectioners (powdered) sugar and the 1-teaspoon vanilla extract.
Whip this mixture until it is of the consistency of heavy, whipped cream.

Assembly:

Assemble the COOLED cake layers with the cream filling in between.
I made the cake layers the night before, and refrigerated them. In the morning I sliced the layers into 4 equal layers, and assembled with the chilled cream filling and finished the cake by frosting it with the 'melt in your mouth' fudge frosting.

I made this cake for a family member’s birthday this year. It had been many years since I made a ‘scratch’ cake, and after tasting this cake again, I can tell you that I will be making more ‘homemade’ cakes from now on.

This 'Red Velvet Cake' recipe is older than I am.

Carol Garnier Dutra

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