And so I learned my second lesson of break, there are reasons why people make red velvet cake and not blue velvet cake. First off, they don't sell huge bottles of blue dye at the grocery store. They sell red, they sell green, they sell yellow in the large 2 oz bottles you need for red velvet cake. And finally, they sell black. Not blue. Black. Ridiculous. Who dyes frosting or cakes black? That's just unappetizing. So I had to settle for buying a second set of red, yellow, green, and blue dyes in .25 oz containers. In all, I had maybe .5 oz to dye a large cake blue. It was in this way that I learned why you don't really see many blue velvet cakes around. As it would happen, chocolate wants to turn red, not blue. It seems obvious, but really, I thought it would be easier to make blue velvet cake than it was. I eventually got blue velvet cake by adding highly concentrated gel dye, but it was a darker blue than I was envisioning.
Oh well, you live, you learn and because they're delicious, people still eat your funny looking blue velvet cake balls.
*Red Velvet Cake (lightly adapted from eatfirst)
Ingredients
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1 oz red food coloring (I recommend sticking to just red!)
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 T distilled white vinegar
2 C all purpose flour
1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t salt
Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 11 x 7 inch pan.
2) In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, buttermilk, food coloring and vanilla. Stir in baking soda and vinegar.
3) Combine flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir into batter until just blended. Spread evenly in pan.
4) Bake for 25-30 minutes.
*Even though I would highly recommend this red velvet cake for making cake balls, I'm not sure I'd make it to eat on its own, every time I've made it, it's taken forever to bake on the inside and almost burns on the outside. It's fine for cake balls though!
Cream Cheese Frosting (also from eatfirst)
Ingredients
16 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 C (1 stick) butter at room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
2 C sifted confectioners’ sugar
Directions
1) In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the cheese and butter until soft and smooth.
2) On low speed, beat in the vanilla and sugar, then beat on high speed for a few minutes until smooth.
Red Velvet Cake Balls (adapted from Bakerella)
Yield: 80 small or 60 large cake balls
Ingredients
One 11 x 7 inch red velvet cake (see above cake recipe)
16 oz of cream cheese frosting (see above frosting recipe)
24 oz of chocolate, separated (milk, white, or dark chocolate)
Parchment paper
Directions
1. Cool cake completely and crumble into a large bowl.
2. Add 16 oz of cream cheese frosting, or less if you want a more cake-like texture to the cake balls, and mix with the cake. You'll need to end up mixing it with your hands. Even though it's messy, it ensures the
3. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls, as though you're making meatballs, and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Chill for several hours in the refrigerator. Do not put them in the freezer or they will be too hard and may get frost on them, which is not good when it unthaws inside it's chocolate shell.
5. Using a double boiler, melt enough chocolate to dip 1/3 of the balls in chocolate, about a cup. Then, melt more chocolate for the rest of the chocolate balls. (I like to melt it in a few batches because the chocolate firms up pretty quickly and then it's difficult to work with)
6. With a spoon, roll balls of cake in melted chocolate and lay on cookie tray with parchment paper until firm.
7. Store in a plastic container and refrigerate up to a week.
