October 15, 2013

Red Velvet Cake and Dessert Sugar Slam!

I know I know I have been really busy. But, I just started working. Oh my gosh, I really don’t get enough time to post recipes. Last to last week I participated in a Dessert Sugar Slam at a local high school athletes sports association. It was a fundraiser. There was a chili -cook off competition as well. But I only participated in Dessert Sugar Slam. I had decided way before the competition that I would participate and make cupcakes. But, as the competition was coming closer I started freaking out. Actually, we had to prepare for at least 200 attendees. I was skeptical in how am I going to complete this task of baking and frosting , not only that we had to transport them to the venue of the competition.

At one point I had decided not to participate and then all of a sudden I thought no I should , whether I win it or lose it. It’s an opportunity to test my skills and ability to bake for 200 people. That’s a huge number. Finally, I thought of making sheet cakes and red velvet would be the flavor of choice. As I had made up my mind, I started whipping up the batter one by one and dedicated whole afternoon in baking all the cakes. I had decided to make the frosting on the day of the competition which was a huge risk in itself. But then I had no choice after having made the decision to participate. It was make it happen moment in Heidi Klum’s words. (I am fan of project runaway). So sad Helen is out.

As I started frosting my cakes, I was out of cream cheese and butter for the frosting and had 3 more cakes to frost. My judgement in terms of quantities of frosting proved to be wrong. I love disasters. I had to rush Mr. Handsome to get me some more of the ingredients from the store. And, finally I frosted my cakes like frosting fairy in just 10 minutes frosted all the 3 remaining sheet cakes. Meanwhile Mr. handsome transported them in the car.

The venue was just 10 minutes away from where we lived. So, we were there in time, actually we were late. As people had not started walking in, I count it as on time. Hehee..And, then people started coming and tasting our cake gave us lot of compliments. I was on top of the world. All of sudden I forgot about how tired I was. People would tell us that those who have tasted our cake ,suggested them to come out and try our cake. Cool..right, yes. I was all hopes for winning it.

Some people would come and talk to us and then ask us our table number so that they could vote for us as there were three prizes. First place, second place and people’s choice. So let me share the recipe of this tasty red velvet cake. I have adapted the cake from Martha Stewart blog. And, have made it several times. You should also try it. It is the best.

I guess first I made it when I had invited friends for mozzarella making potluck. Then also lot of them really loved the cake. I made them as cupcakes. Here’s a picture –

Then, I have baked it for so many birthdays and also for my husband’s holiday party I made this same red velvet cake. Here’s the picture.

Here’s the recipe which I have adapted from here

For the cake I followed exact recipe, but for the frosting I had reduced sugar from 4 cups to 2.5 or max 3 cups. I don’t like too sweet frosting or for that matter any thing overly sweet. But if you like sweetness go ahead with original cream cheese recipe provided in this link.

Finally, leaving you all with the sheet cake picture and me getting the trophy and my obsession with Rose piping. I did not win the first prize which came out as a surprise to us and many of the other attendees who told us we deserved to win, because the first prize winner had used ready made chocolate syrup instead of any frosting. But, I am totally happy for all that love that people showed us. And, I could only wish best for the winning team. But, I won the second trophy.