Mom’s Red Velvet Birthday Cake

Last week was my mom’s birthday and she requested a red velvet cake. I normally make cupcakes for birthdays but occasionally I do make layer cakes.

I used Magnolia’s Red Velvet Cake recipe. It says it maked 3 9″ rounds but I only had 8″ pans and it turned out fine. The cake was a bit dry though. I also used 3 tablespoons of red food color as opposed to the six in the recipe.  A bottle of McCormick Red food coloring is just about exactly 3 tablespoons (not the little 4 pack bottle).

I used the same yummy cream cheese icing recipe from the Martha Stewart Cupcake book that I used for the carrot cupcakes. One recipe was just enough fill and ice the cake, but not enough to decorate with and it probably could have used a smidge more icing on the sides. So I ended up making another half batch.

I was very pleased with how the decorations went. I was inspired by the Scootabaker’s cake. I think it would have looked even better with a touch of gold on it but I only had some silver sprinkles.

My mom loved it and was impressed with my writing. She’s  a master cake decorator and usually when it come to doing the writing I hand the piping bag to her. She said it even looked like her handwriting. Actually, I was pretty good at faking her signature in high school.

This cake was huge! With seven hearty eaters we didn’t even eat half of it, but it’s ok since I’m all about leftover cake.

RECIPE ROUNDUP

• Martha Stewart’s Cream Cheese Frosting
• Magnolia’s Red Velvet Cake (via Epicurious)