Ok, so this recipe turned out... okay. It was actually a bit disappointing, because I was so looking forward to it. I'm still not sure if I'm to blame, or if it was the recipe (which is written in vague narrative in my grandma's hard-to-read writing), but either way, here's how the battle went:
"1/2 c margarine 1 1/2 c sugar 2 eggs. Creamed together." Okay, I can do that.
"make paste of 2 oz red food coloring 2 T cocoa add to above." Well, the largest bottle of food coloring at the store was only 1 fl oz, and that set me back almost $4. So I decided that would be enough (and it was, enough to make me a little pink, too). But let me tell you, food coloring and cocoa go together like water and oil. The cocoa rolls round and round the coloring but doesn't want to mix in. But it got done eventually.
"Alternate 2 1/4 c cake flour with 1 c sour milk beating well." I didn't have either of these. But I knew the common substitutes. 1 T white vinegar + the rest of a cup of milk = 1 c sour milk after 15 minutes. 3/4 c regular flour + 2 T cornstarch = cake flour. Maybe this is where the recipe went wrong? Too many substitutes?
"add 1 t soda dissolved in 1 T vinegar - salt + vanilla" Okay, we all know what happens when baking soda and vinegar get together. But I did it anyways. After TONS of bubbling the soda refused to dissolve! What to do? Wait and stir, wait and stir... still nothing. So put it in anyways. And then "salt + vanilla?" How much? I ended up with about 1/8 t salt and 1/2 t vanilla.
"divide in 3 pans bake 30 min 350" This wasn't much batter. Three pans? Even if I had them, I didn't know if it was a good idea. So it went in a big 9 X 13, which seemed to fit quite nicely. But the baking? I know my oven runs a little hot, so I set it just over 325 and set the timer for 20 minutes. Then the edges were getting crispy. I don't know how grandma baked hers for 30 minutes in smaller pans.
Then came the frosting... A whole other battle. "Frosting Cook until smooth 1 c milk 1/3 c flour - Cook. Beat 1 c crisco, 1 c sugar until smooth add to cooked flour and milk paste, beat well add dash salt 1 t vanilla." Ok? We'll try. So I first broke Rule #1: Add liquid to powder, not vice versa. That's right, I dumped the flour on top of the milk, which then refused to blend. And I was so frustrated with that that I decided I was going to microwave that instead of cooking it. It seemed to work alright. But when I added it to the crisco/sugar blend, it just wouldn't blend together right. Now, one thing you need to know about me is that I hate using my electric beater. I don't know why, but I just don't like it. So I used spoons, forks, and various sizes of whisks determined to make this frosting submit without the electric beater. It didn't work. Even when I did use the beater, it didn't work. Too much milk. I ended up doctoring it with some powdered sugar to make something passable. I guess maybe there's a reason that grandma wrote "cook" and "beat" both twice?
So, in the end, I ended up with a cake that looked like red velvet, but didn't really taste like it. Too dry (maybe regular flour, or maybe some oil, or maybe an extra egg?) And messed up frosting. Boo! At least it tasted decent and was edible in general. This recipe will go in the "try again later" pile. I'm not quite ready to give up on it yet.
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