Red Velvet Cream Cake

Red Velvet Cream Cake
Dorcas Annette Walker

I remember as a youngster how the suspense would build each year right before Valentine’s Day. How many valentine cards would one receive? Would you be included in the popular girls’ list? Most important would a certain boy that you had your eye on give you a special card? We didn’t have money to buy store bought cards. Instead my mother would create attractive homemade heart cards years before the idea of crafts became trendy. I wish now that we had appreciated the time invested from an overworked mother and the intricate artwork instead of secretly longing for store bought cards to hand out like the few rich kids. Our mother also didn’t believe in showing partiality so we always had a card for every student in our class.

Finally Valentine’s Day would come and we would arrive at school loaded down with a stack of cards and a batch of cupcakes or a gallon of drink that had been designated for us to bring. That afternoon as our teacher set out the snacks us students would go around putting cards in the decorated boxes sitting on each desk. What anticipation and excitement as you opened up your stack of cards that were mostly homemade and read the signed name on the back.

When my children were young I would take the time and make homemade Valentine cards, but soon I ended up buying store bought cards like everyone else as it was so much easier and quicker. Now each year as I see the aisles stacked full of boxed Valentine cards- some of which look more like a horror movie advertisement than a Valentine card- and all the decorations, bags of candy, and commercialism that surround today’s youngsters, I sigh and remember the days when homemade Valentine cards and cupcakes was the norm.

My Red Velvet Cream Cake is ideal for making into a heart cake for your Valentine celebration with its soft cake texture surrounded by white frosting. The special pudding layer in the center makes this Red Velvet Cream Cake stand out. The elegant Red Velvet Cream Cake is something that even a beginner cook can make with success. Preparation time for my Red Velvet Cream Cake is about seventy-five minutes (not counting the cooling time) and this large heart cake serves twenty-two.

Red Velvet Cream Cake

1 red velvet cake mix
1 (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding
1½ c milk
½ c powdered sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1 (16 oz) container of vanilla frosting

Mix the cake mix according to the directions separating the batter in half and baking it in a heart-shaped pan. Cover and let cool. In a small bowl mix together the pudding, milk, sugar, and extract with a Wisk until smooth. Spread over top the first cooled cake layer. Carefully put the second heart layer on top of the pudding. Cover the sides and then the top of the cake with the vanilla frosting. Garnish with Valentine hearts, gel writing in red, or surround the cake with roses!

Weekly tip: Whenever an egg is stuck to the carton, wet the carton, and the egg will come out without breaking!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com