A shared birthday cake

Hi all!  My husband and I both have birthdays in December.  Years ago when we first got married we would each get a birthday cake--but let me tell you, about halfway through that second cake, the regret would set in.  Two birthday cakes on top of all of the other holiday goodies was way too much!  Now we are sensible and just share one cake.  At least we both agree that Red Velvet Cake is the One Cake to Rule Them All and I have a lovely recipe to share with you.

Now I will say that I also have my grandmother's recipe for Red Velvet Cake.  But that one's gonna stay in the vaults, like the Coca Cola formula.  This recipe's good too, so don't feel deprived.  It comes from the Queen herself, Martha Stewart, but another Martha wrote the recipe.  Note that you MUST use 8" pans with 2" high sides or the batter will overflow.  See how nice and tall the layers look in the photo?

Montclair Martha's Red Velvet Cake

Red velvet cakes are usually served with cream cheese frosting; there is a link accompanying this recipe above if you want to make that.  My son, who will eat almost anything, cannot abide the taste of cream cheese.  I humor him by putting white chocolate buttercream on our cake.  Yeah it's pretty sweet, but I wasn't born and raised in the South just to say something is "too sweet." Get a big glass of milk to drink with your slice and stop being such a wussy.

White Chocolate Buttercream by I Am Baker

Note that I like to increase this recipe by half again to make a generous amount of frosting for the cake.  The cake in the photo (taken a few years ago) has the amount of frosting made by following the recipe exactly, and to me it seemed a bit less than I'd have liked.  Increasing each ingredient by half makes the right amount for this cake. 

I hope you'll try this cake.  It makes a great birthday cake, obviously, but if you want a Christmas showpiece dessert, this one will not disappoint!