She’s may not be Julia Roberts…

But she does have a pug-like obsession with armadillos (and by ‘pug-like’, I mean a love equivalent to my love of pugs…however, unlike me, she can’t just stop random strangers in the street who are walking them). Last year, my college roommate Gleason got married in Beaufort, NC (of the pig in a puppy fame). So, for her bridal shower, I decided to channel my inner Dolly Parton (or, really, the woman who played Lana on Three’s Company, the randy older neighbor who was always hitting on Jack) and make a red velvet armadillo cake.


I’m definitely no Duff from Ace of Cakes, however, considering that I’m a mediocre baker at best (as a relatively impatient cook who likes to futz, I generally prefer when measurements need not be exact) I was pretty pleased with the outcome. I tried a variety of red velvet cake recipes (my mother always made a red velvet cake for Christmas when I was growing up) to come up with the ideal version (the picture was the third cake). I even made grey icing – cream cheese frosting with black food coloring, that is.

The most fun (funnest?) part of making this cake was definitely the tail. While the taste of fondant has much to be desired, it is easy to mold and aesthetically, it looks great. Unfortunately, having never worked with fondant before, I wasn’t aware that it needed to be kept moist in a refrigerator overnight. I had left it on my table (covered), and it dried out a bit. Lesson learned – although I’m not sure I’ll be making more armadillo cakes anytime soon.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (but no fondant)
Adapted from Bon Appétit
I usually use red food coloring gel, which is a bit more concentrated than the normal red food coloring you find in the grocery store. I like my red velvet cake dark red, especially for an armadillo cake – “blood red” as Julia Roberts would say. However, since most stores just carry the bottles of liquid food coloring, this recipe accounts for that. The instructions are for a standard round layer cake, however, feel free to shape into an armadillo if you’d like.

Cake
2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup vegetable or canola oil
2 large eggs

Frosting
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese – room temperature (very important!)
½ cup (one stick) unsalted butter – room temperature (alas important)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar - sifted

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch diameter cake pans.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla in a small bowl.

In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat sugar and oil together until well-blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. While continuously beating, alternately add in dry ingredients and buttermilk mixture – starting and ending with the flour.

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake about 27 minutes until tester comes out clean. Let cool for ten minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.

For frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter in stand mixer until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Place 1 cake layer on serving platter, flat side up. Spread 1/3 of the frosting over top. Add other layer and spread completely with remaining frosting.