Red Velvet Cake

Unfortunately we ate a good chunk before I got the camera out,
and it was gone before I could get another snap!

Loaded with the knowledge that my friend will eat anything with cream cheese icing, I baked her this red velvet cake for her birthday. I went down a treat! The recipe is from the ' Good Housekeeping Easy bakes, cakes and puds' magazine and has the best cream cheese icing recipe I've found. FACT! You can make a blue velvet one by omitting the cocoa and using....blue! but a blue one would remind me too much of the blue velvet song/toilet roll advert.

Ingredients :
200g softened butter
250g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1.5 tsp baking powder
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
250ml sour cream
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp bicarbinate of soda
a few tsps of red food colouring

400g full fat cream cheese at room temp
125g softened butter
125g icing sugar

Method:
-Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C. Grease and line a 8"/20.5cm loose bottomed cake tin with baking paper. Sift the flour and baking powder and cocoa in to a bowl. In another, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs.
- Alternately beat the flour mix and the sour cream in to the butter mix. Once all this is nicely mixed, add the vinegar, bicarb and colouring.  Spoon in to the prepared tin and bake for 1-1hr 10 mins. Check with a knife/skewer to see if it's done. Leave to cool in the tin fr 10 mins, then remove to a wire rack.
- For the icing, beat the butter and cheese together until smooth (it's best if they are the same temperature to avoid little lumps of butter), then mix in the icing sugar. Split the cake in two, spread half the icing on one half, add the other to the top, then load on the rest of the icing!
Ta da!