--Ahhh, end of the first full week of blogging and I have baking, the
French and tiredness on my mind. --Recipe of the Day: Red Velvet Cake
I made this a week ago for when my father in law was here (yes, I am a
suckup) because this is one of his favorites. We̢۪re having friends
over tonight for dessert, cigar smoking and perhaps a little drinking
of amber liquid produced by kilt wearers. Since I still have leftovers
of the funky ingredients I needed, I thought I̢۪d just clear the house
out of buttermilk, cake flour, and unsalted butter and make it again.
It̢۪s highly tasty and if you̢۪d like to give it a try, here̢۪s the
recipe.
Cake:
2 ½ Cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 oz. red food coloring
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2, nine
inch cake pans. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking
soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In large bowl, cream
together sugar and butter. Beat in eggs one at a time. Alternately add
flour mixture and buttermilk. Beat in food coloring and vinegar, then
add vanilla. Spread the batter evenly in the pans. Bake 20-30 minutes
or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. For the
Frosting: In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter. Beat in
the confectioner̢۪s sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. This recipe
for cake comes out pretty darn dry. I had been warned beforehand to add
1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Well, that didn̢۪t cut it for someone
who̢۪s used to Duncan Hines cake mixes, but it wasn̢۪t too bad.
It̢۪s still highly edible. I̢۪m thinking that adding an extra egg
along with the oil will remedy the problem. As far as the red food
coloring, well, sigh. I don̢۪t really know what to tell you. You̢۪ll
look at the box you have in your cupboard and see that it says four
ouncesâ€Â¦ total.
That does include the blue, the green and the yellow. Two full ounces
of red food coloring is a lot to come up with. I used just one little
container of red and it worked just fine, but the cake was still a wee
bit pink. Also, when it says to sift the dry ingredients, they̢۪re not
kidding. Sift the CAKE flour (don̢۪t use all-purpose or I̢۪ll come
over and beat you with a wooden spoon), the cocoa and the powdered
sugar for the frosting. It makes a tremendous amount of difference and
will save you about five minutes of beating the lumps out of the
batter.
Enjoy. --Who knew the French would put up a hissy fit about this?
Now, I don̢۪t want to get into it about the French. I̢۪m not going to
smack them upside the head because they were prepared to veto the UN
resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq. They̢۪re a sovereign
nation and that means they̢۪re entitled to act however they want. They
could have done so in a more subtle fashion, I will grant, rather than
pissing off half the population of their supposed greatest ally, but
hey, they have an inferiority complex and that̢۪s understandable. If
you were a citizen of what, only a mere sixty years ago, was one of the
most powerful nations on Earth, you̢۪d be cheesed if you were now
relegated to second class status, too. In March, if you would have
asked me about the French, it would have been a completely different
story, but of course, time has mellowed my views, and I don̢۪t see
that as bad in the overall scheme of things. We simply needed to be
reminded about who they see themselves as a nation. And they̢۪re
different than who we are, so it shouldn̢۪t be so damn surprising that
they don̢۪t agree with us on everything. It̢۪s France,
after all. The French reside in a country that has been the epicenter
of contrariness for a thousand years. What is so surprising about that?
We say potato, they say pomme de terre.
France, I hate to say, is currently en route to hell and the handbasket
is on fire. They̢۪re in serious trouble domestically. Their pensions
are horribly underfunded, their citizens strike at the mere thought of
having to work a few extra years to earn one, they are having a race
and religious meltdown, they̢۪re about the bust the three percent of
GDP national debt ratio that the EU set up as the benchmark for
participation in the Euro, and their CAP Agricultural policy is about
to take a big old hit when they show up in Doha for the next round of
GATT talks. With all of this going on, it̢۪s no small wonder that the
Chirac administration would like to turn the focus of politics outward,
toward an easy target, namely the United States.
But this, as Marie Antoinette would say had she been more
diplomatic, takes the cake. Ugh. Balking at letting up on Libyan
sanctions because the UTA victims didn̢۪t get as much money as the
Lockerbie victims is completely superficial and quite honestly is
beneath them. There̢۪s a massive heatwave going on in France this
week. Reportedly over three thousand people have died because of it. No
small wonder Chirac and de Villepin are looking for distraction.
Bleech. --Ok, enough about that. I haven̢۪t found a chuckle of the day
because, for whatever reason, my homepage isn̢۪t linking up to
stories. It keeps saying “empty” on all of the lines and I’m too
tired to go search one out. Pffft. Sorry to disappoint, alas, however,
it̢۪s not my fault. I̢۪m choosing to blame it on the blackout. Seems
as good an excuse as any.
Why am I tired, you ask? I was up reading Angels and Demons
until six a.m. Goddamn that evil little bugger Dan Brown for writing
intelligent, thought provoking thrillers that you can̢۪t put down.
Since I̢۪m feeling like a victim today it̢۪s his fault I looked up at the clock and it said one-thirty. It̢۪s his fault, I looked up again and it said four twenty-three. It̢۪s his fault the buses started rumbling by before I was done. It̢۪s hisfault the sky was a lovely pearly gray when I went to bed.

{working self up into fit of righteous glory}I should sue, damnit! Get me a good lawyer, would you? The husband was not amused when I crawled into bed.

If you didn̢۪t know, this is the guy who̢۪s been making boatloads of cash with his novel The Da Vinci Code. Angels and Demons is the first Robert Langdon, Harvard symbologist extraordinaire, story and is, I am conflicted to say, much better than The Da Vinci Code.
I don̢۪t know if it was his publisher̢۪s idea or not, but he dumbed
Da Vinci down, and while I loved that book, the difference was
remarkable. Maybe I̢۪ll delve deeper into the subject on Monday, but I
wouldn̢۪t count on it. Run out and buy it. It̢۪s fabulous.

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