I'm pretty sure I could've fed a foreign country with all of the food that I saw, made, and ate this weekend. What i'm trying to say is that I had a really great Thanksgiving. I hope you did too. Thanksgiving is my favorite. I get to see my family and all of the friends I grew up with.
Last night (Saturday) was the 5th annual Friendsgiving. Probably my favorite day of the year....definitely my favorite day of the year. It is a pot luck with all of my good friends from highschool that is followed by Thanksdancing. Hudson always gives a toast and wears the reindeer sweater, luv is a verb is always on the playlist...and people actually dance to it. Even if this is the one day of the year that I see these people, it feels like home when I'm around them. I am thankful to know such awesome people. And I apologize if you don't know them, because they're fantastic.
Annnnnyways - I always make a cake for Friendsgiving. This year was Red Velvet with cream cheese filling and decorated with swiss meringue buttercream.....a lot of swiss meringue buttercream. Just try not to think about all of the butter. It's just part of Thanksgiving - you don't dwell on what you're eating, you just enjoy it. You'll lose weight after new years, you always do.
My sister in law, Morgan Rae, took some pictures for me while she was over Saturday afternoon.
If I had her around all of the time I would update this blog more often. But as it is, I do not have a camera....wanna give me yours?
I thought you would.
I got the cake recipe from here. It's the best red velvet cake recipe I've found.
There are only a few things I did differently
1) I made my own frosting and filling
for the filling:
3 - 8oz pkgs of cream cheese (softened)
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 stick of butter
beat that on high until creamy and smooth - then put in the fridge until you're reading to fill the layers.
for the swiss meringue buttercream:
this stuff is time consuming and I used 2 batches to decorate the whole cake (including a crumb coat)
5 large egg whites (30g each–total 150g)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Wipe the bowl of an electric mixer with paper towel and vinegar, to remove any trace of grease. Add egg whites and sugar, and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly, until temperature reaches 140 degrees F, or if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot.
With whisk attachment of mixer, begin to whip until the mixture is thick, glossy, and cool. Switch over to paddle attachment and, while mixing on medium speed continously, add softened butter in chunks until incorporated, and mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture (if curdles, keep mixing and it will come back to smooth). Add vanilla and salt, mix well. You can also add a wide variety of flavourings, extracts, and more.
Keep in airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week, leaving out at room temperature when needed, rewhipping in mixer for 5 minutes.
2) I used 4 - 8 inch layers instead of 3 - 9 inch layers.....oh yeah, and good luck finding a cake carrier that is tall enough to carry a 4 layer cake.
3) To keep the cake moist - after I take it out of the oven:
- I give it about 10 minutes to cool
- dump it out of the pan
- poke holes in each layer with a fork
- then brush it with some of the cream cheese filling and let it cool completely.
- not too much now, nobody likes a soggy cake....well maybe some people. But i doubt they have many friends, or they eat their cake in secret because it's socially unacceptable.
Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful.
Hope you are wonderful.
Hope you're Christmas is equally wonderful.
Much Love.
