BON APPETIT: Luv Shuv and a Red Velvet Cake

“Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

"After all this time?"

"Always," said Snape.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

To me the above paragraph epitomizes love. Love is eternal and forgiving. Love is pure bliss and all-encompassing. Love is anything but pressure ; love is not proving a point or settling a score; neither it is something to show-off. . Wondering why I am waxing eloquent on love ? Well, a few days ago my daughter came home all animated. Bursting with giggles she asked me ~

Mom do you know Feb 14th is Valentine's day ?

I looked at her and said~

Yes, so what ?

She gave me an impish smile and said~

how are you going to celebrate ?

I gave a big grin and said it was not a festival per se. She persisted to which I replied ~

I will give you and your brother a big hug as always :)

She asked~

What about dad ?

I replied with a poker face

A bear hug to him too :D

She clapped her hands and giggled merrily, leaving me amused.

I launched myself to a flashback of sorts. When I was a 9 year old or for that matter of fact even as a 13-14 year old, I did not know what a Valentine's day was. Neither was the day this huge as today. In fact it was only when I stepped in to college did I find what V-Day was all about.

Pinching myself back to reality I thought out loud about the nifty bunch of marketing pros who have worked their magic in to making the concept of Valentine a must celebrate festival. Love gets in to a feverish pitch around the month of February. The air is laden with cards, flowers and chocolates. Don't get me wrong. I am a romantic at heart and any talk that even remotely begins or deals with the word love has me weak in my knees . But the levels of utter commercialization the day has been made out to be has me cringing.

Enjoy the day for its actual meaning. And let the 364 days not take an offense. Go shower love all year long :)

Now coming back to the cake , I baked this beauty last week. The cake was pounced upon leaving me with little pictures to work around. It is a red velvet cake topped off with a traditional vanilla cream cheese frosting.

Did I say I made the cream cheese too. It's such a pleasure to make things from a scratch :)

(Recipe Source : Book -Traditional Family Cakes)

Ingredients :-

(Serves: 12, Baking Time : 40 mins)

Red Velvet Cake

Butter - 225 grams (unsalted)
Water - 4 tbsp
Cocoa Powder - 55 grams
Eggs - 3
Buttermilk - 250 ml
Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp
Red Edible Food Color - 2 tbsp
Plain flour - 280 grams
Cornflour - 55 grams
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Caster Sugar - 280 grams

Frosting :-

Cream Cheese - 250 grams (I used homemade cream cheese)
Butter - 40 grams (unsalted)
Caster Sugar - 3 tbsp
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Here's How:-

Preheat Oven to 180 C. Grease and line the cake tin.

Place the butter, water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and heat gently without boiling, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and leave to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, corn flour and baking powder and set aside.Beat together the eggs,buttermilk,vanilla essence and food color until frothy. Beat in the butter mixture.Stir in the sifted flour mixture along with the caster sugar quickly and evenly.

Spoon the mixture in to prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until risen and firm to the touch.

Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then turn on to a wire rack to cool completely

To make the frosting, beat together all the ingredients until smooth.

Before we proceed to assemble the cake here's a simple tip to retain the moisture of the cake :-

Splash sugar syrup before slathering the cake with the frosting. This syrup ensures the cake does not dry out. For the sugar syrup combine equal quantity of sugar and water in a pan and let it simmer for a few minutes. Add a few drops of vanilla/rose essence Now use this to sizzle the cake.

Assembling the cake :-

Slice the cake horizontally in to three equal rounds. Generally splash the sugar syrup on to the rounds before slathering it with the cream cheese frosting. Sandwich the rounds together with the cream cheese frosting as required. Spread the frosting liberally over the top and sides of the cake.

And yes you can go crazy with the piping bag too :D