Last fall Robin Knoll gave me a copy of an old typed recipe from a great aunt. “Will you make it for me?” Finally got around to making it, strange recipe, no butter in the cake and granulated sugar and flour in the icing! It was delicious though I thought it kinda skimpy in size and volume of icing so below is my revamped version of Robin’s great aunt’s
Waldorf Red Cake
¾ c shortening
2-1/4 c granulated sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 oz red food coloring
1-1/2 t vanilla
2 t cocoa
½ 2 salt
1-1/2 cup buttermilk
1-1/2 t baking soda
1-1/2 T vinegar
3-1/2 cups cake flour (sifted)
Grease two 9” cake pans, line bottoms with greased parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together the flour and salt on a piece of waxed paper.
Make a loose paste of the food coloring, vanilla and cocoa.
In standing mixer, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy, add eggs all at once, beating to combine.
Add cocoa mixture. Alternately add buttermilk and sifted flour mixture (1/3 of the milk, then a 1/3 of the flour and so on, ending with flour)
Add baking soda to vinegar in separate bowl (it will foam up). Gently stir into cake batter.
Divide batter evenly into the two prepared pans.
Bake at 350 for approx 30 minutes (rotating pans at 15 minutes) or until toothpick comes out clean – be careful not to overbake – check at 25 minutes.
Allow to cool in pans on rack. Make cooked part of frosting while cakes are baking and set aside to cool or refrigerate)
FROSTING
4-1/2 T all purpose flour
1-1/2 c milk
1-1/2 c granulated sugar
1-1/2 c whipped butter (not stick butter) at room temp.
1-1/2 t vanilla
Cook flour and milk until thick, whisking constantly. This will only take a minute.
It will be the consistency of that gravy you get with biscuits. Remove to bowl and set aside to cool and then refrigerate.
Press plastic wrap on top of flour/milk mixture to avoid a skin on it.
Cream butter and sugar until very fluffy and sugar has dissolved – about 5 minutes.
Add vanilla and blend well.
Add cold cooked mixture and beat again until the icing is the consistency of whipped cream.
Toothpic trick to put layers back together evenly
Carefully split the each cake into 2 even layers, ice between each layer and the top.
As worth the calories as this cake is, I just had to give half to the neighbors!
I think next time I make this cake I’ll cut off the mounds on top for even layers – those mounds will be good snacking!
Happy Birthday Robin!
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