Country Living Cupcakes

      Sorry this is even later than planned, yesterday was my youngest brother's 15th birthday, and I was happily spending time with family and forgot to make a cake.

     But anyways, here is the final cake of my baking marathon: Country Living's Red Velvet Cupcakes

The Husbandman's Ranking: Unkown (He's way too far away in Geogria for work this week, and saddly can not give me his opinion)
The Little Wife's Ranking: 9

Pros:
     It's a very thick batter, which makes getting the batter into the cupcake tins much, much easier.
     It's very chocolatey.
     Since you have less drips, clean up is a breeze.

Cons:
     Uses just the egg yolk, it always seems a little wasteful
     It's just a tad drier than the other recipes, but this might have been my fault for not reducing the bake time when I made mini cupcakes.

Other Notes:
     I would be really careful not to overfill the cupcake tins, and just as a precaution, I would definitely take their hint on spraying the top of the tray so that the tops of the cupcakes don't stick.  I torn the tops of a few cupcakes off trying to get mine out.

The Winner!
     It depends.  If you want to make cupcakes, I would defiantly use Country Living. But on the other hand, if you want to make a sheet or layer cake, it's a toss up between Farm Chicks and Pioneer Woman's. Both are very good, easy to make, and almost foolproof. Go with your gut, both will lead you right!

     I've really enjoyed my baking marathon, I think I'll try it again in May.  Any suggestions for what to make? There has already been a request for cinnamon rolls, if you have read this post, I think you can guess who it's from.

Baking Marathon Postponed

     Unfortuantly, I'm going to have to postpone the last day of the baking marathon. I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and I don't want to risk getting everyone else sick.   And since I'm going to visit my amazing brother, his lovely wife, and the too cute for words Miss G this weekend, it is being pushed back till Monday. But on the bright side, you know you'll have something to look forward to!

Image From Google

   But stay tuned! I still have a post for you today!!

The Farm Chicks' Red Velvet Cake

Today I made the Farm Chicks' Red Velvet Cake.

The Husbandman's Ranking: 9
The Little Wife's ranking: 8.5
Pros

     It has a real butter base
     It's tasty
     It's the perfect shade of red
     It has just the right amount of cocoa.
     It is really, really easy to make.

Cons

     Does NOT make cupcakes.  I repeat, it does NOT make cupcakes. They don't rise into a pretty dome.  They rise enough to spill over the edges into a pancake and then burn.

Other Notes:

     However, I have made this recipe many, many times before and know that it makes wonderful sheet or layer cake,  it rises just enough to fill a normal cake pan perfectly, and since it doesn't dome you don't have to trim your cake before you ice it.

     See, it makes very pretty cakes, just not cupcakes. But that's my fault for trying to make it into something its not...

     And since I don’t have much of a post tonight,  I’ll share a tip! If you ever have to fill an icing bag by yourself (having someone hold it open while you scoop it in is easiest, but it requires  4 hands) Put your tip on your icing bag and then put the icing bag in a tall glass or cup or mason jar (or whatever). Make sure you fold the tip up, so your icing doesn't leak out as you lift up the bag.  Then if you fold the top of the bag down, it stays open and doesn’t flop over! (oh, and a freezer bag with a very small art of the corner cut off works like a dream in a pinch.)

Martha Stewart's Red Velvet cake

Today I made Martha Stewart's Red Velvet Cupcakes.

The Husbandman's Ranking: 8
The Little Wife's Ranking: 8.5

Pros
     Clear and simple directions
     The taste is subtle, not too chocolaty, not too sweet
     My mom says this recipe looks a lot more like the red velvet she grew up with (the others were apparently too red)
     Just an all-round good recipe.

Cons
     The batter was very, very runny, which as you know makes me nervous, but it all turned out OK.
     The husbandman says that he doesn't like my icing as much as cream cheese icing, which sparked a debate on the proper icing to use on red velvet, but that was the thing he didn't like about it.
     And it doesn't use butter or Crisco, but rather a lot of vegetable oil, which isn't wrong, just a little weird.

Other Notes

    Well rather than ranting at you, I thought I might show you.  Since Martha doesn't have many pictures of the finished result, let alone a walk through (like Pioneer Woman's) I thought I would take you through step by step. Ok?

The Pioneer Woman’s Red Velvet cake

Today I baked The Pioneer Woman's Red Velvet Cake

The Husabandman’s ranking: 7.5

The Little Wife’s ranking: 8.5 

I have to stand on a stool to stir anything on the counters comfortably.

Pros

     Its very red

     The icing is amazing

     I really like the directions for this recipe, especially the icing recipe.  They are very clear.  My favorite example is when thickening the flour and milk mixture.  Most recipes would simple tell you to thicken it and leave it at that which drives me crazy because there is a huge range of consistencies that fall under the “thick” heading.  This recipe tells you that it need to be thicker than the cake batter, almost like brownies.  That is so much more helpful!

     I also really liked this order of ingredients, the recipe adds the red food coloring and cocoa powder last, so that the batter can do double duty as a white cake if you just skip the last step.  I also like that because you mix almost everything and then set it aside, before blending the butter and sugar it seems much easier (it also gives me more time to bring my butter to room temperature)

     This cake really was so easy to bake.

     It’s very, very moist

     It has a very light and subtle flavor (which seems classier than most of my red velvet cakes)

     I loved the recipe, it was honestly fun to read (but anything Ree writes is) and the pairing of this cake with this icing is very nice.

I dusted it with cocoa powder to give it more pizazz (and to hide crumbs)

Cons

      I don’t like that it has a shortening base rather than a butter base, it makes clean-up messier (I absolutely hate the feeling of Crisco on my hands) and I think that a butter base just tastes better.

     The batter is very runny before you cook it (which always makes me very nervous)

     The batter is very sticky.  I greased and floured the pans as well as humanly possible, but it was still a little difficult to de-pan, and the cake layers also stuck to the cooling rack

     The cake had an odd texture, it still tasted wonderful, but the texture was a little different than most cakes.

     I would have liked to have a little more cocoa taste.

Cooling near a window

Other Notes

     Baking this cake reminded me of why I don’t bake during the summer months (it was in the upper 80’s today) we grill as much as humanly possible (we don’t have a/c) and eat outside as much as we can. This is the same reason that I am probably the only one in the world hoping for a few more cooler days before summer.

     Cool the cake (and the flour and milk mixture) in a window – no seriously! I know it sounds corny, but it really does the trick (especially on a windy day like today.) I guess you could cool it under an air vent, but we don’t have any, and it is not nearly as homey.

  

   When the directions say to cool the cake, you really need to cool it.  I usually skip this step.  Not a good idea with this cake.  You will end up with a huge mess (but very yummy) on your hands because the butter in the icing will melt and take everything with it as is slides off the side of the cake, slithers over the cake plate and pools all over the counter. Stick it in the fridge or even the freezer if you are the impatient type (like me) just don’t forget about it (like me.) I would suggest making the cake, making and having dinner, and then icing the cake right before you serve it for desert.

     If you are not going to make it in a sheet pan, I would cook it for an addition 10 to 15 min.

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