All about the cake

Now I have had this song stuck in my head after St Albans parkrun posted some photos of the lake, saying something like “we’re all about the lake, about the lake…”. I don’t even know the song, such an earworm!

Anyway, last weekend the cake I went for was a red velvet cake. Again, from the CCC book- never had a bad recipe from it.

One of the ingredients was buttermilk, but having never even seen that (well apart from when we made butter at school) I googled for an alternative. BBC food assured me I could sour normal milk by adding a few drops of lemon juice, so I used that instead.

It was baked in two pans, and you were meant to cut each cake in two, so you ended up with 4 layers, but my cutting is terrible and I didn’t see the point, so just went for the two.

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It had a cream cheese frosting, which I made, but about half of the suggested quantity, and that turned out to be plenty. In fact I could not shut the lid on my cake box! I had to cover it in cling film and hold it on my lap as Andy drove- goodness knows what it would have been like if I had made it all.  A few sprinkles for good measure, as otherwise it looked a bit bare. The book has it covered with dried cranberries, which went with the red theme, but I didn’t have any (it’s not Christmas) (although I think they are Christmas sprinkles…).

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We even had a few slices left over, so I had one on Tuesday after a tough run. Usually I add a bit on before Sweatshop, but I had a late meeting this week so knew I would not be able to. Coupled with being on a course on Tuesday (meaning I got home early) plus trying to give myself time before the 20 miles of this Sunday, meant that is was sensible to go out before the club run instead. I drove to our meeting place, did 2.7 miles, and then met the girls. There were only two of them, and they are the fastest ones- I managed to keep up for the 5 mile loop (apart from the dreaded Hill where they had to wait a minute for me) to total 7.7 miles. I was pleased with that, but once home and showered I started to feel pretty awful. I think I had not drunk as much as usual, but I had eaten well so it wasn’t that. Anyway, the cake was to help!

Another great recipe from that book anyway.

What are your weekend plans? I am trying to focus on Saturday and forget that Sunday is going to be dominated by such a long run….

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15 thoughts on “All about the cake”

  1. I’m too scared to taste red velvet cake because i might just never want to eat anything else, they always look so amazing as does yours.
    Have a great run Sunday, be strong and enjoy x

    1. It’s OK- just mild chocolate cake with a bit of vanilla- I think the cream cheese frosting is the main selling point 🙂

  2. I think Ben used that recipe when he made his red velvet cake (oh so long ago…remember me saying he would make a cake every two weeks? Ha!!) But the cake definitely wasn’t as beautifully red as yours. I loved the cake though. I’d say it was one of my favourites but I think I say that about most cakes!!
    Weekend is same old same old!

    1. More gel food colouring! It said to use a lot (a tsp and a half of the gel stuff) which I did Although the colour doesn’t really matter 🙂

    1. Sorry for the song!
      I think it is OK- I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake, but I quite like the vanilla in there, and the frosting. I think it is looks over taste, although it does taste quite nice if that makes sense!

  3. We have two tins that are the same size and I’ve always just baked two separate cakes and iced them together rather than cut into the layers as I don’t trust my cutting ability! You can get cool wire cutters that cut the cakes for you but I don’t think I bake enough to warrant buying one!

  4. I’m all about the cake, bout the cake…

    Heheh. That looks divine – great tip about the buttermilk, should I ever need to add some!

    1. Right after this I saw some in Sainsburys- but I had never seen (or noticed) it before. It worked fine so I think it is also more economical to use what you have and not buy a big carton of something when you only need a bit too.

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