So, in my family, we always have a red velvet cake at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Since I have to have a dessert for next weekend's Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to bring a little family tradition to my new "adopted" family in Clermont. Here's the photos of the first attempt.
Ingredient assembly on my one little counter and the top of the stove.
Zoom in on the ingredients, a combination of US and French products. The French "crisco" is already in the bowl with the eggs and sugar. It's solid coconut oil... maybe a contribution of coconut flavor to the cake???
This is the first attempt at using the French "crisco." Obviously I didn't find the right temperature to start working the shortening. I tried again and was reasonably happy enough with it to actually bake layers.
35 minutes later, and I have two and a half ruby red layers. The one with the knife on it is very thin. They are pretty, but they don't taste right. I think the fermented milk I used in place of the buttermilk was too acidic and there were still lumps of the shortening. I'm giving up for tonight and might try again during the week. Gotta figure out how to soften but not melt the shortening and will probably try to make my own "buttermilk" using regular milk and lemon juice, or a combination of fermented and regular milk. If any of you have any suggestions, I'll gladly take them.
When I am ready to cream the Crisco with the sugar, if my shortening is too firm I microwave it on low power for 10-15 seconds but there is a fine line between soft enough to blend and melted. Try blending the Crisco and sugar completely before adding the eggs one at a time. I agree with making your own buttermilk. The Southern Living cake book says one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk to make one cup. Your layers look pretty.
ReplyDeleteI just realized what you said--you put the Crisco in the layers. I make the layers with margarine and the Crisco goes in the frosting! Sorry for the confusion. I looked at my recipe and it does say "shortening" in the layers but it means margarine or butter. When I tried butter the layers were too tender to work with when frosting so I use margarine. That may solve your problem. Sorry for the confusion.
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