Apart from eating, writing, reading, and sleeping, I spent my Lebaran holiday trying out this Red Velvet recipe from Magnolia’s recipe book (a present for my 29th birthday from Ri). It was indeed quite complicated, so many ingredients, and took quite a lot of time to finish, but it turned out surprisingly well!

Red velvet cake recipe:

• 3 ⅓ cups flour (not self-rising) 
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 ¼ cups sugar
  
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature 
• 6 tablespoons red food coloring
  
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk
• 1 ½ teaspoons cider vinegar
  
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Steps:

• In a bowl, sift the flour and set aside (a)
• Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixture (medium speed), for around 5 minutes, until it’s light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time (b)
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla, add to (b)
• In a cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. If you have difficulties in finding buttermilk (like me), you can replace it with 1 ½ of milk + 1 ½ tablespoons of vinegar (cider vinegar) and wait for 5 minutes before using it. Add this and the flour (a) to the batter (b). Beat until the ingredients are mixed well
• In a small bowl, stir the cider vinegar and baking soda, then add to the batter (b)
• Bake the batter in the oven, 180^oC,  for around 20 minutes
• Let it cool

Vanilla frosting recipe:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Steps:

• Beat the butter (medium speed mixer) until it’s creamy and smooth, around 3 minutes
• Add the vanilla extract and the milk
• Add the sugar gradually
• Refrigerate for around an hour before using

Well, you can decorate the cake as usual, meaning: cut the cake in half and spread the vanilla frosting on it. On the other hand, I love love love this cute birdie jar Nia gave me for my birthday, so I decided to store the cake in a jar.

I layered the bottom of the jar with vanilla frosting, then put some of the cake on top of it, and covered it with vanilla frosting, and then the cake, and the vanilla frosting, and the cake, and so on. Then I refrigerated my cake-in-a-jar and used the ice-cream scoop to serve the cake—thus, the Red Velvet Scoop-Cake, served cold! You can have around 30-35 scoops of red velvet with this recipe. Perfect for a lovely summer party! 🙂

Happy baking!