Babies change time. Not just because early on they scoff at simple distinctions like “day” and “night.” The first few months are like having a job that requires your absolute attention at random increments twenty-four hours a day. So you learn to fit things into the shifting margins of free time. Sudden thirty minute nap? Time to prep dinner. Unexpected ten minutes of contentment in the crib? Time to catch up on email or make a phone call. You get the picture. It’s a difficult adjustment; I’m finding it much easier the second time around. This might be why I found myself baking a red velvet cake with a two week old. (It might also have had to do with my wonderful mother-in-law still being here helping out and a visit from a red-velvet-cake loving best friend). To some this might sound crazy. Not, perhaps, as crazy as making boudin blanc with  a seven week old and without an electric meat grinder or sausage stuffer. Screaming infant, meat-filled pastry bag, lamb intestines. Rookie mistake. We’ve not tried making our own sausage since, though we might venture again now that my husband bought me the grinder attachment for our KitchenAid (what woman wouldn’t want to come home after childbirth to a gift like that?).

So, the cake. I love red velvet cake. It’s southern for sure. And there really is no good reason to make it red. It’s basically just a very tender mildly chocolatey layer cake. One pet peeve I have, though, is that people persist in icing it with cream cheese frosting. No, no and NO. Red velvet cake needs boiled icing. Made right it is, as my buttercream-hating husband said on tasting it, a revelation. Lighter than buttercream and with a delicious dairy sweetness. I’d been wanting to make my grandmother’s recipe, recently unearthed from my mother’s recipe file, for a long while. But a cake needs a crowd. And a baby brings one. So it seemed the perfect thing to make while we had a full house after the baby was born.

There is a great bakery in my hometown that makes a red velvet cake put over-the-top by a schmear of chocolate ganache between the cake layers. I used a whipped ganache recipe from The Cake Bible, but any ganache that’s spreadable would work.  Credit for the decorating idea goes to the folks at Baked. These pictures aren’t great, but they’ll do.

Boiled Icing

Prep 1st and let cool in fridge. Cook until thick:

1 c. milk

5 T. flour

Beat with mixer until creamy:

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. 10x sugar

1 t. vanilla

pinch of salt

Add cooled milk mixture slowly until smooth.

Cake

2 eggs, room temperature

1 ½ c. sugar

1 ½ oz. red food coloring

1 T vinegar

2 ½ c. flour

1 t. vanilla

2 T. cocoa

1 t. soda

1 t. salt

½ c. shortening or butter (you could sub the appropriate amount of butter)

1 c. buttermilk, room temperature (set aside 1 T)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease two 9″ cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.

2. In a medium bowl, cream shortening, salt and sugar until light.

3. Add eggs. Beat 1 minute.

4. Blend in food coloring and cocoa.

5. In a small bowl, combine vanilla and buttermilk.

6. Add to shortening mixture alternately with flour.

7. Add vinegar and soda to remaining T of buttermilk. Gently mix into rest of ingredients.

8. Bake in two 9” layers for 25-30 min.

Optional: Your favorite spreadable ganache to use between cake layers.

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