Nancy's Waldorf Red Cake

This is a feelgood posting for me, because I was able to bring back a happy childhood memory for my roommate, Chris. All growing up, his favorite cake that his mom, Nancy made was her Waldorf Red Cake. It was his birthday cake every year and as he got older, something his mom made for him everytime they would see each other. About 5 years ago or so, I asked Chris to see if his mom would share the recipe, which she very graciously did. The cake was different from any I had made at the time, with the last step being to add baking soda and vinegar, which acts as the leavening agent. Well, long story short, I forgot the vinegar, which left me with 2 completely flat, horribly dense and basically unusable cake layers. Also, the frosting was new to me as well, as you cook the flour and milk until very thick, then chill until cold and then whip it into the butter, vanilla and granulated sugar, which in itself was new to me too....all the frostings I had made up until that point had used confectioners sugar. Anyway, the first try was a disaster, and even though Nancy and I had a good laugh when we figured out what I had done wrong, I think it made me nervous to try it again.

Unfortunately, Nancy passed away recently and so I decided, with some gentle suggestions from Chris, to try out the cake again. I made sure to have all the ingredients out and accounted for, so as not to make the same mistakes again, however, my only real hesitation and nervousness came from wanting to bring justice to such a meaningful cake for Chris. I only hoped that it would be good enough to make Nancy proud and to allow Chris to enjoy something he savored his entire life.

Well, according to Chris, it was great and I think it meant a lot. To him and to me. It's always a pleasure to bake things for people, but this was probably the most meaningful thing I've ever baked. It's also very special to me that I have these beautiful recipe index cards, with Nancy's sweeping cursive and helpful hints to treasure always. Most of you know it as a Red Velvet Cake, but to me, it will always be Nancy's Waldorf Red Cake.

NANCY'S WALDORF RED CAKE

For the Cake:

1/2 cup shortening, room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 ounces red food coloring

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

For the Frosting:

6 tablespoons flour

2 cups whole milk

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

*NOTE: I felt that there wasn't enough frosting to sufficiently frost this four layer cake, so I doubled the frosting recipe. If you are used to your Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting, the frosting recipe for the carrot cake a few posts ago would be a great substitution.

To make the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 9-inch cake pans and then line bottoms with parchment paper and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together the shortening and sugar, then add eggs and mix together until smooth. In a small bowl, mix the food coloring and the cocoa and then combine with shortening, sugar and egg mixture. Mix salt with buttermilk and alternately add the buttermilk and the flour to the mixture. Add vinegar and baking soda last and stir until just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX. Divide the batter between the 2 pans and bake for 30 minutes. Cool cakes for about 30 minutes in pans on wire racks and then turn out to wire racks to cool completely. Once cooled, and once the frosting is made, cut each cake layer horizontally for assembly.

To make the Frosting:

Cook flour and milk in a small saucepan over medium low heat until very thick, constantly stirring with a flat whisk to prevent any lumps from forming. Once mixture is very thick, pour mixture in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold. Once mixture is cold, cream together the sugar, butter and vanilla until very light and fluffy. Beat cold flour mixture into sugar and butter mixture and beat until smooth. Fill and frost the layers to assemble a 4 layer cake and refrigerate until about 30 minutes prior to serving. Enjoy!

NANCY'S HELPFUL HINTS:

1. You can use one 1-ounce bottle of red food coloring and add one bottle of water. It's less expensive and you can't tell the difference.

2. If you don't have buttermilk, mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and let stand 5 minutes before using.

3. Once both cake layers are cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. It makes cutting the layers much easier.

4. When making the frosting, once you transfer the flour/milk mixture to a bowl, apply wax paper directly to the surface of the mixture to prevent a tough top from forming while chilling.