The reddest of all the velvets

This past weekend I celebrate my belated birthday. Hello, 20, how are you doing?! Now, this cake...boy, oh boy. This cake was delicious. And the decorations are so cute (courtesy of my best friend's mother)! It's a basic red velvet with butter cream frosting, but the real treat is the filling: it's raspberry jam! Chocolate AND raspberries?! I know, I'm salivating too.

*Note: all of the decorations are done with fondant. Therefore, they were happily eaten.

 For the cake:
    3 cups of all purpose flour
    1.5 cups of sugar
    2 tsp of baking soda
    1 tsp of salt
    1 tbp of cocoa powder
    3 tbp of red food colouring
    2 cups of nondairy milk
    1 tbp of distilled vinegar
    2 tsp of vanilla extract

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees (the magic oven number because I swear almost every recipe calls for it...and when in doubt this is the number I go to...shh...). Next combine all of your dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. After you've done that, add in all of the wet ingredients and slowly combine them to form the batter. Finally, separate your batter into two 8-in. pans or three 6-in. pans and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick (or knife) comes out clean. Once you take  them out, allow them to cool for about 10 - 15 minutes. This ensures that when you put the frosting/filling on the cake, it won't melt off. I know, longest 10 - 15 minutes ever. 


For the frosting:
    .5 cup of buttery spread (this recipe has Earth Balance)
    3 cups of powdered sugar
    1.5 tsp of vanilla extract
    2 tbp of nondairy milk
    optional: add some food colouring to this if you'd like! 3 - 5 drops.

With a hand or stand mixer, whip the spread until it's fluffy. Then, with the mixer on low, slowly add the powdered sugar. I emphasis slowly because...a mess can happen. Add your vanilla, milk, and food colouring if you decided to do so. Once everything is well-combined, you can up the speed and mix for about 2 - 3 minutes to regain fluffy-ness. If it's too thick, you can add more milk (tbp at a time!).

The filling is regular raspberry jam that you find at your grocery store. But if you are feeling ambitious, you can totally make it from scratch.

To assemble the cake, just remove both (or all three) from their pans and flip them upside down so the flat side is facing up. Spread the jam between the cake layers and then with a knife, or spatula, cover the top and sides with your frosting. Finally, cut yourself a piece! Or eat the whole thing...including the left over frosting...I won't judge.