MAKES 2 DOZEN
Yes, they’re everywhere now, but this particular recipe comes with Cass’s top-secret frosting recipe. (She got it from Sheila Roberts, who kept both the frosting and the cake recipe a secret since she first got it from a Southern belle at the age of sixteen. We don’t really know how many years ago that was, since Sheila has been lying about her age since she turned thirty, but we do know it’s quite a long time.)
Ingredients
2 oz red food coloring
3 Tbsp powdered chocolate milk mix
(such as Nestle’s
Quik)
½ cup shortening
2¼ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp soda
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
(Note: if you forgot to buy buttermilk,
you can substitute milk with a small amount
of vinegar added to
it.)
1 tsp (scant) salt
Directions
Mix food coloring and chocolate powder in a small bowl. Cream the shortening and sugar. Combine beaten eggs and food coloring mixture, then add it to the shortening mixture. Sift flour and salt together and add alternately with buttermilk. Add vanilla. Remove from mixer and add one at a time by hand, first the soda, then the vinegar. Pour into muffin tins lined with paper baking cups and bake at 350˚ for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched. As with the chocolate cupcakes (or any cake), don’t overbake. Cool and then frost with Red Velvet Cake Frosting.