Red Velvet Mini Cake

If there is one thing that betrays my Southern roots, it is my love of red velvet cake. I *love* red velvet cake. I have *always* loved red velvet cake. I loved it before trendy people born above the stupid Mason-Dixon line "discovered" it and decided to get all foodie douche about it.

Anyway, my lil ole heart durn near skipped a beat when I saw this recipe on Super Eggplant's site a while back. (A note: Southern people do not typically utilize that sort of corn pone vocabulary unless they are taking the piss.)(Another note: It really is a good recipe. Super Eggplant knows her baked goods.)

But seriously. How can one not love a recipe that calls for 1/4 cup of red food dye?

Another another note: Let me warn you not to get all nanny state on me about the extreme use of food dye in red velvet recipes. I'm not force feeding this to you so kindly shut the f--k up.

Here is what the cocoa, vanilla extract and red food dye looks like when mixed. (The amounts have been quartered.)

Beautiful and slightly blurry, isn't it? It looks even better when it's combined with the batter.

The vinegar and baking soda mixture hadn't been added to the batter in the above photo because I was too busy taking a shot of....

science!

The same tasty science that I also use to unclog my drains.

Doesn't the batter resemble ketchup in coloration? Like, the cheap kind that separates into tomatoes and that icky plasma way too easily?

Amazing what will happen to a condiment doppleganger after it's been in the oven for around 20 minutes, isn't it?

Ok, maybe amazing is a strong word. Still. Red cakes!

Once the cakes cooled, I used the same cream cheese icing that I made for the carrot cake.

Yes, cream cheese icing and not some roux strangeness like in this Waldorf-Astoria recipe. In my world, roux is for gravies and bechamel and such, not cake.

Besides, my Meemawmeestiltskin would clean flip her fiddlesticks if she caught me icing with something so sacrilegious.