One of the great mysteries of baking is the time that it takes. Cooking, I can taste as I go along, but with baking, there is a special magic that happens from the time that everything is mixed, to the time that it is baked.

I attempted to make red velvet cake. The batter tasted good. I used this recipe from Pinch My Salt (but it was very similar to most other recipes that I read.)

The cakes came out an interesting mottled color:

But, I figured it would taste fine. (The cake pictured was baked in a 6×3 Cake Pan. A few sites suggested cooking cakes in a 3 inch pan, as to not have to make two layers. This is important when my oven will not hold two 8 or 9 inch cake pans.)

I frosted the cake with cream cheese frosting. The frosting climbed my beaters, which was weird and I am not sure why or how that happened. It also seemed that the frosting could have used more powdered sugar to make a thicker consistency, but I ran out of sugar (and forgot about the box in the pantry.) I should have done a crumb coat, but I was impatient to actually try the cake. So, not the best icing job in the world

And, I didnt like it. The cake was not as rich or moist as I would have liked. It also did not have a deep enough chocolate flavor. Sad. I think when I go back home for winter break I will steal my grandmothers recipe and try it again.