On June 15 I turned 23. Birthdays at my house are always special occasions, mostly because my parents and sister are good sports about letting the birthday girl be queen for a day. One of the best characteristics of Gilmore-Valenze birthdays is that we get to request our birthday cakes. This year, inspired by frequent Magnolia Bakery stops during my week in NYC, I requested red velvet cake. My mother, a general perfectionist and all-around doobie (translation: person who does everything - this term was coined by her friend to describe her), rose to the occasion. Magnificently.
The recipe was taken from the New York Times, which published a red velvet cake article a few months ago. It just happens to be Magnolia's recipe. The frosting is vanilla buttercream, and we disregarded the article's suggestion to make it with cream cheese and mascarpone. That would've been insane.
My mother embarked on the journey with a search for red food coloring. Red velvet cakes are made with cocoa - that's where the flavor comes from - but they are colored with dye. I don't know why the overall effect is so amazing, but it's pretty shocking to realize how much food coloring a famous recipe requires. Here's the idea: if we had followed the recipe perfectly, which we didn't, the batter would have included THREE bottles of red food coloring. As it was, we used one bottle.
What a surprise when the three layers emerged from the oven and they were IMMENSE! This birthday cake rose to new heights. It may have been almost a foot tall. It was truly a sight to behold.
We could barely believe it as my mother put the layers in place.
Through its stickiness, the frosting prevented it from toppling. Making a cake this big is an adventure. Rosa and I acted as assistants, to the best of our abilities.
What a star!
No one cheated and sampled the glorious birthday cake before the ceremony. Instead, we all went out to dinner. The cake was to come afterwards. The stoic Gilmore Valenze family rejected all of the fancy restaurant desserts: the red velvet cake was waiting at home!
Upon our return, we were stunned, once again, to see the mighty cake. To make matters worse, there were 24 candles to light. (The 24th for good luck, of course.) Three of us worked hard while Rosa did camera duty.
Then it was time to cut the cake. This turned out to be very difficult. A cake that tall presents the imminent danger of collapse. And there was no way that any of the pieces were going to stand up straight.
But they were so beautiful anyway!
And the cake tasted great. It was one of the best birthday cakes ever (at least, for me!), and certainly reason enough to fly home from Bologna! These photos will have to sustain me, as there's only one piece left as I write this, two days later. I love my birthday cake. Thanks, mom!
