Nurturing my inner... southern tradition resurgence

Desserts aren't my main weakness.  About two or three bites is all it takes to satisfy my sugar craving.  (Wish that could be said for pasta and various other carbs.)  I just made cookies the other day which normally would be enough for me for some time.  But, see, I've had this thing I saw on tv on my mind and wanted to make for weeks now.  I had plans with some friends, so I figured it would be the perfect time to go for it.  Two desserts in one week!  Wowie!

Sunny Anderson made these on the Today show, but, yeah, I tweaked it a little.  Which, I believe technically makes it my own.  (And since I don't get paid for any of this, that's good enough to be legally okay.)

Red Velvet Brownies

1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (the good stuff)
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp red food coloring (or mine was .5 oz of red gel)
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

I hadn't heard of red velvet cake until I came to Virginia.  It's definitely a Southern specialty that had a popular revival when Steel Magnolias came out in 1989.  (The groom's armadillo cake.)  Other than that, I didn't find much history on it.  Perhaps some homemakers just had a wild day playing around with food coloring.  Now I'm noticing that red velvet is EVERYWHERE.  Truffles, whoopie pies (a fav of mine as we know), even an ice cream flavor from our famous Vermont pals.  Wonder what our fascination is with it?  In the end, it's just chocolate.  (But don't let me spoil the mystery of it for you.)

Chocolate powder and vanilla liquid.

I didn't bother with a lot of stepped out pictures because it all pretty much gets dumped into a bowl.  Butter, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, eggs, salt, baking soda, oil, food coloring and vinegar.  If you're wondering about the vinegar part (like I was), from what I can tell, it helps make the red more vibrant.  Don't worry, you can't taste any vinegar.  (I read cakes made this way contain buttermilk which reacts with the vinegar to make the red brighter, but this is a dense brownie, so no buttermilk used.  Seems like it worked anyway.)

I combined this until everything was incorporated and super smooth, using a hand mixer.

We don't have to make this difficult.
Everything goes in and mix.

I'd say that's pretty vibrant red.  (Thank you secret ingredient vinegar!)  I also used a gel coloring, so that might have helped as well.  I folded in the chocolate chips last thing.

Thought this would add some extra texture.

I buttered a 9" x 9" metal pan.  I love these industrial grade ones.  They just cook so evenly.  I see them not only at the Williams & Sonoma outlet, but also at places like Home Goods.  You just have to look around, but they appear to be more widely available than they were even just a few years ago.

Wanted to prevent sticking.

It's a very thick batter, so I scooped it into the pan and then used a spatula to spread it evenly into every corner.

Bright!

350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.

Perfectly baked. Still colorful.

I let the pan sit aside until it cooled.  And I made the frosting.  Though I read traditionally red velvet is accompanied by buttercream, I prefer cream cheese frosting.  (Since I'm not a southerner by birth, I guess I can do whatever I want.)

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks of butter
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
2 cups of confectionery sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I let the butter warm up a little, but got impatient, so I just cut it up into pieces.  Into a bowl I put the butter, cream cheese and vanilla.

It's best to let the butter fully soften. Be
patient, unlike me.

I added the confectionery sugar and then out came the hand mixer again.

Frosting is easy to make.

I blended it on high until it was silky smooth.  It's really so easy, you may never buy canned frosting again.

Luscious. That's the word I'm looking for.

I put the bowl of icing into the fridge to firm up just a little.

Once the brownies are cool, (you can put them in the fridge as well to speed up the process), you can do this little trick to make serving clean and easy.  So red doesn't get all over the creamy ivory colored frosting.  Cut the brownies up into the desired size.  As I go back to my two to three bite is enough for me rule, I was able to get 16 out of one pan.  I'm guessing most people would have cut them three by three to get 9.  However, cutting them smaller also allows for less guilty second helpings.  (It's all in how you can trick your brain into thinking less is more.)

The perfect size for me.

I took a regular spatula, scooped and dropped frosting onto the pan of brownies.  Then with an icing spatula I tried to swirl it up a bit and make an appetizing design of swirls.  (Since I'm not very good at baking, I try to make it look as good as possible.)

Swirly and oh so appetizing.

As mentioned earlier, I was going to a friend's house, so I took a risk and didn't taste them ahead of time.  Hey, what are friends for!  (If not to possibly serve them something inedible and horrific.)  For convenience, I brought my own mini serving spatula and easily popped out each precut brownie.  That cutting before icing trick really was the way to go as you can see below.

The ivory cream stayed nice and clean, without
red crumbs to mess it all up.

Thank goodness I didn't have to be embarrassed by a wicked failure - everyone said they turned out yummy! My friend's four year old said her two year old brother really liked it, as she had icing all over her face. Which actually translated to she really liked it. (I know the kids enjoyed them for sure because the two year old suddenly sat perched on top of my friend's sister, who he had completely ignored for the previous 2 1/2 hours, saying after every mouthful she fed to him, "Cake, cake, cake."  Toddler stamp of approval.  Btw, those two rascals ate so much of her piece, she had to go get another!  Couldn't have been too bad I guess.  Her husband had a second brownie too!)