Steelers Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 4 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar WELL. Add eggs and beat well.
3. Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add to creamed mixture. Mix salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla and buttermilk together. Add alternately the flour with the milk mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix soda and vinegar and FOLD INTO CAKE BATTER. DON'T BEAT OR STIR NOW.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.

This recipe made me so nervous because of all the reviews I've seen about how hard it is to make red velvet cake. Red velvet isn't my favorite but those who tasted it said it was really good so I suppose it was a success. The thing to remember when making this cake is once you mix the soda and vinegar together, you need to get it in the batter as fast as you can and into the oven. The longer you wait, the more dense your cake will be. As long as you follow the directions to a "T", you should be fine.

The only thing I did differently was the food coloring. I only had about 2 tsp of it and just added a bit of water to make the mixture a "paste". It didn't turn out as red as you'd normally expect but it still was pretty red. It's really your preference on how bright you want the cake.

Sorry i couldn't get a picture of the inside.