Saturday 12 February 2011

Valentine's Velvet Cake


Sometimes, as a singleton, it can be difficult to enter into the spirit of Valentine's Day. I am engaged with what borders on a love affair with my food, however, and see that there is hope still for me to feel included without the need to go boy-hunting.
Red Velvet Cake looks as though it were made for 14th February by St. Valentine himself. Ok, so the cocoa flavour of the sponge is not in keeping with its red crumbs and thus a strange feature for anyone who doesn't know it's in there; and yes, cream cheese in a butter-cream icing is to an acquired taste, BUT people...look at the colour of it! I assure you that the novelty of eating bright red cake, particularly on this upcoming Day of Love, will not wear off before you've finished eating a slice, although by the end of a second portion you may well wonder what the effect of all that food colouring could be on your delicate, love-struck mind.
I had my first attempt at making the cake with my friend Lucy, gleefully getting into the spirit of things by adding double the quantity of food colouring to the cake batter (well, if you're gonna bother to colour a cake...) and strewing crystalized rose petals all over its surface, as though decorating the bed of some romantic boudoir. We even held the knife together to cut the first slice (see above for a photo of 'the happy couple'). Everyone in our biology class loved it, and we loved them for loving it, and they loved us for loving them and...well, you get the picture. Either the spirit of St. Valentine fell upon us, or the mutual attraction was a nasty side-effect of too much food colouring.
Singletons and couples alike: Happy Valentine's Day- treat yourselves to a slice of Red Velvet Cake!

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