Cooking Louisiana  -  Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cake

½ c Crisco shortening
1 ½ c sugar
2 eggs
2 c cake flour
2 bottles or 1/4 c. red food coloring
1 c buttermilk
2 T Hershey’s cocoa powder
1 T baking soda
1 T white vinegar
1 T vanilla extract

To make cake, beat sugar, eggs, and shortening together. Mix in all remaining ingredients and blend well. Pour into greased and floured 9X13-inch pan. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Note: Personally, if using the following icing, we usually leave the cake in the pan.
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The most delicious icing for Red Velvet cake...

1 ½ c milk
2 T vanilla extract
1 stick butter & 2 sticks margarine
1 ½ c sugar
8 T flour

Put milk to simmer. Mix sugar and flour together. Add to milk. Stir well. Add butter and margarine. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Place in refrigerator, to cool. When cool, pour on cake. Store cake in refrigerator.

Note: Although in my cake shop I used the usual icing used on red velvet cakes, This version is the one my family loves most. It actually came about by my making a mistake in the ingredients the first time I made it. Everyone loved it, thus, a new recipe was born!
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Audrey F.
Larose, LA.