Boy or Girl??

Last weekend at a friend's bachelorette party, one of the bachelorette's friends who is expecting said that she would be having her ultrasound soon and were going to find out what they are having. They wanted to break the news to her family and her in-laws of the baby's sex by having a cake filled with either pink or blue frosting. This sounded like something that was just up my alley. I'm always looking for an excuse to practice my cake-ing skills! And (thankfully!) she accepted my offer.

She opted for a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The recipe? So glad you asked. Keep in mind this was supposed to feed at least 15 people, so I decided to go with a 10-inch round 2-layer cake. Ergo, large quantities of ingredients.

For the cake
4 c cake flour
1 c unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp salt
2 2/3 c vegetable oil
2 1/2 c sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla extract
3 oz red food coloring
2 c buttermilk
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vinegar

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together in a large bowl. With an electric mixer, in a separate bowl combine oil and sugar. Add eggs. On low power, add vanilla, then red food coloring. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. In small bowl mix baking soda and vinegar; add to batter. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes.

For the frosting
24 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 c + 2 tbsp vegetable shortening
6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
4 tsp vanilla extract
6-8 c powdered sugar, sifted (more or less, depending on consistency)

Using an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese, shortening, and butter. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Add vanilla and mix well. I colored about 1/4 of the frosting with the appropriate color -- the question is, was it pink or blue??



Here's the finished product, complete with a gold cake plate and box!

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the cake cut, but...

It's a girl!