Red Velvet Cake

The Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes book has so many beautiful wedding cakes that it was difficult to decide which cake I wanted to make for the Martha Book Club selection. However, the decision was made easier due to the fact that I am not a wedding cake expert and I knew that I would have to simplify whatever cake that I chose. After carefully reviewing and salivating over every page of this book, I finally chose the Red Velvet Cake on p. 183. Since I spent many years as a young girl growing up in South Carolina where red velvet cake is synonymous with celebrations, I decided that I would pay homage to my Southern roots and try my hand at this cake

My interpretation of this wedding cake was to do a three layer cake. The cake pans are my husband's grandmother's pans and so they are a little unusual in size, 8-1/2" rounds and the depth of the pans are only 1", but I love how cakes come out when I bake with them.

Here are the cakes cooling on the rack. You can see the bright red layers.






The frosting recipe in the book did not include walnuts, but to me, red velvet cake simply must have walnuts in the frosting! I also did not wish to attempt to make gum paste magnolias, so I used a silk magnolia instead. Here is the result:






Of course after the picture was taken, I had to cut a slice! My husband came into the room as I was photographing it and even though he saw the layers cooling on the racks in the kitchen, remarked, "The lighting is making the cake look red." You gotta love him.

I am so glad that I made this cake. It brought back a lot of childhood memories, and it gave me a chance to bring out my mother's china and my grandmother's silverware. I think that is exactly what wedding cakes are supposed to evoke - family memories and traditions, and I think that is what Wendy Kromer captured in the book.