Red Velvet Cake Recipe

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbl. cocoa
one 1-ounce bottle (2 tbl.) red food coloring
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tbl. cider vinegar or white vinegar

TO MAKE THE CAKE, heat the oven to 350°. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans generously, and line them with waxed paper or parchment paper. Grease the paper and flour the pans.

PREPARE THREE SEPARATE MIXTURES for the batter: combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and use a fork to mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk. Combine the cocoa and the red food coloring in a small bowl, mashing and stirring them together to make a thick, smooth paste.

IN A LARGE BOWL, beat the butter with a mixer at low speed for 1 minute, until creamy and soft. Add the sugar, and then beat well for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl now and then. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one, until the mixture is creamy, fluffy, and smooth. Scrape the cocoa—fold coloring paste into the batter and beat to mix it in evenly.

ABOUT A THIRD of the flour mixture, and then about half the milk, beating the batter with a mixer at low speed, and mixing only enough to make the flour or liquid disappear into the batter. Mix in another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and then the last of the flour in the same way.

IN A SMALL BOWL, combine the baking soda and vinegar and stir well. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to quickly mix this last mixture into the red batter, folding it in gently by hand. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

BAKE at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes, until the layers spring back when touched lightly in the center and are just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans.

COOL THE CAKES in the pans on wire racks for 15 minutes. Then turn them out on the racks, remove the paper and turn top side up to cool completely.

ICE WITH COCONUT-PECAN ICING