You must have heard about the red velvet cake as one of the hottest piece of cake on your popular cooking show on television show.
It is basically a rich velvety textured cake that stands our because of the bright red colour used in it. There are plenty of stories about its origin, but the one that is quite popular is as follows. After the recession due to World War 2, families were using less food colourings to cut down unnecessary expenses.
Then one of the food colouring company The Adams Extracts came out with the recipe of Red Velvet Cake to increase their sale and using less butter to make a rich textured cake. The cake was based on the simple reaction between vinegar, cocoa and butter milk thus giving the cake a red velvety texture. The plan worked out well and the sale of the food colour increased manifolds.
The recipes may vary but all the recipes will feature cocoa powder and buttermilk as these ingredients are the essence of the red velvet cake. The cake is usually frosted with a generous amount of cream cheese frosting, which gives it even more flavour and gives the cake its high-contrast red and white finish.
Red velvet cake
Ingredients
Flour 1 ½ cup
Butter 350gm
Castor sugar 1 cup
Egg 3 no
Cocoa powder 25gm
Vanilla extracts few drops
Baking soda 1 tsp
Buttermilk 60ml
Oil 60ml
Salt ½ tsp
Vinegar 1 tsp
Red colour few drops
For icing
Cream cheese 200gm
Unsalted butter 1/3 cup
Castor Sugar 1 cup
Vanilla extracts few drops
Method
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder and keep aside.
Cream butter and sugar till sugar is dissolved.
Whip the eggs separately and add to the butter and sugar mixture and combine well.
In a separate bowl combine oil, vinegar, food colour, vanilla extracts and butter milk.
Add the above-mentioned mixture to the butter mixture.
Gradually while mixing, add the flour mixture to make a smooth batter.
Pour the mixture in a greased baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celsius for 30 minutes.
Check by piercing with a knife — if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
Allow the cake to stand at room temperature to get cold.
Remove from baking tray and divide into three layers.
Mix together butter, sugar and cream cheese with vanilla extracts to make a smooth icing.
Cover each layer with the prepared icing and refrigerate for 1 hour and portion as required.
Striploin Steak
Also popularly known as New York strip loin or the Kansas striploin steak due to their popularity their, striploin steak is one of the prime steaks which have always been a favourite of meat connoisseurs around the world.
The steak comes from the short loin part of the beef where the muscle size is particularly big thus allowing the bigger cut of meat. Also the muscle in this part of the body does not work out much so the meat has a good marbling effect and is tender, although not as tender as the tenderloin which is the moist tender cut of beef.
One New York restaurant started offering this steak as their signature dish and was an instant hit among New Yorkers, thus getting its name of New York steak. Also, when the striploin is still attached to the bone and the tenderloin, it is known as the T-bone steak or porter house steak and is one of the heaviest chunks of meat to order in any renowned steak house.
Striploin steak
Ingredients
Striploin steak (1 inch thick) 2 no
Garlic cloves 4-5 no
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper crushed to taste
Fresh thyme 2-3 sprigs
Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
Asparagus 5-6 spears
Broccoli florets 200gm
Mashed potato 200gm
Method
In a bowl combine oil, chopped garlic, thyme leaves, salt, crushed pepper and mix well.
Rub this marinade to the steak and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Heat a charcoal grill and grill the prepared steak over medium heat.
Turn the steak to cook evenly.
Once the steak is cooked to the desired doneness remove from grill and allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve hot with steamed broccoli florets and asparagus spears and mashed potato on the side.
Red velvet cake
