Red Velvet Cake.....Paula Deen Style! :)

Ingredients for cake:

2 cups sugar

2 sticks butter at room temperature (I used unsalted)

2 eggs

2 tbs. cocoa powder

2 ounces flavorless red food coloring (I used 1 oz)

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tbs. vinegar

Preheat oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into 3 (8 inch) round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Ingredients for icing:

1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese

1 stick butter, softened (I used salted)

1 cup melted marshmallows (I used 7 oz. jar marshmallow cream)

1 lb. box confectioner's sugar

1 cup shredded coconut (didn't do this)

1 cup chopped pecans (didn't do this)

Blend cream cheese and butter together. Add marshmallows and sugar and blend. Fold in coconut and nuts. Spread between the layers and on top and sides of cooled cake.

What I did differently: I didn't sift the flour because I don't have a sifter. I was sure to use cake flour, though. Also, I creamed the butter and sugar and then after that, just added all the ingredients. I didn't do all of that mixing in different bowls except for the baking soda and vinegar because that's supposedly important. I only used 1 oz. of food coloring. I also used a 9x13 inch pan. I like inside pieces of cake and you don't get as many inside pieces using smaller round pans. I cooked for 45 mins. and it was perfect. I also didn't use nuts or coconut because I don't like the texture or coconut and don't like nuts unless they're by themselves. Oh, and I melted the marshmallow cream for about 15 seconds in the microwave which made it much easier to get out.

The sweet little princess helped me. She actually was playing with Play-doh at the table and baking her own "cake". :) She cooked us "dinner", too. :)

I only used 1 oz of red food coloring and it was plenty red for me.

The icing! YUM!!!

Enjoying the icing!! Rosy kept asking me for more.

I got the recipe from the food network. I read all the comments and took notes. One lady said to be sure and wear an apron because you would no doubt get red on you. I thought there was no way I'd get red on me (I'm too careful for that). Well, I got red all over me!! That lady was right! I'll know next time!!! It happened when I was blending everything. I washed my sweatshirt right away so all the red came out. You can see the red on the recipe, too! :) Some of the other commenters said to use 1/2 pkg. of vanilla pudding or 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce to make the cake more moist. I didn't do this because I wanted to try it the regular way first just to see. I may want to add pudding next time. A cake just can't be too moist for me. :) I also got the idea for the marshmallow cream from the comments. Lots of people said the marshmallows were too difficult to work with. I got the idea to change the food coloring from 2 oz to 1 oz from a commenter also. Someone said they could taste the food coloring so I made sure the food coloring I got was flavorless. I couldn't taste the food coloring at all.

Here's the cake out of the oven...plenty red for me.

And, with the icing.

YUM!!!

My sweet niece gave this cake a thumbs up!!! :) I give it a thumbs up, too!! It was really good!!! The only problem is now I have a HUGE temptation sitting in my kitchen. I know I'll eat a piece every day until it's gone. I'm going to have to bring it to my mom's tonight and share. :)