Nutella: eating it, using it, measuring it

my favorite and go to snack in college was a nutella peanut butter sandwich. when i was only shopping for myself, i would buy the small tub but now that i’m back home... my parents like to shop in bulk which means costco. the best deal for nutella really is at costco... 2 large tubs (seen above) for like $7!!! they usually sell one of the small tubs for like $4 at safeway or any other grocery store... which is crazy expensive now that i think about it. so i had 2 large tubs sitting at home courtesy of my mom... but she was complaining that i wasn’t eating it fast enough and it was sitting on the shelf looking lonely. really mom?! i love her tho... she says the most random and weird things lol solution to my mom’s complaining: make cookies. these cookies have been a hit with family and friends... they’re crispy at the edges and soft/chewy in the middle. the nutella isn’t overpowering but it gives just the right amount of hazelnut flavor to the chocolate cookie.

Ingredients:
-1 1/3 cup flour
-1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp of salt
-1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
-2/3 cup white sugar
-1/3 cup light brown sugar
-2/3 cup Nutella
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 egg
-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

so you may be wondering how to measure nutella (or anything spreadable like peanut butter)... my mom recently got this nifty gadget called the metric wonder cup.  

 

the yellow tube can be adjusted to reflect however many cups ( or whatever measurements you’re using) you need. all you have to do is slide the yellow tube down to the line of whatever measurement you need and fill the empty space with whatever ingredient you need, in this case, nutella. once you fill the empty space, push the yellow tube to empty your ingredient into your mixer/mixing bowl. super easy! you can buy this on amazon for pretty cheap! 

Directions:
-sift together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt)
-cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy
-add the nutella, vanilla, and egg
-add dry ingredient mixture in batches and mix until just incorporated
-add the chocolate chips.
-chill the dough for at least 1 hour before using
-drop tablespoons of dough onto lined baking sheets (i used a melon baller)
-bake at 350F for about 10 minutes until the edges look done (the middle can be slightly undercooked)
-let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes to finish baking before removing them to cooling racks

recipe adapted from sugar cooking

happy nutella nom nomming!

Truffles: Not Just For Pigs!

I'm going to come out and say that I've never been a fan of fungus (though I am, frequently, a fan of alliteration). I don't like mushrooms and don't really see what the fuss is about with truffles.  A coworker of mine loves mushrooms so much that he actually baked some into a cheesecake.  He said that it was to taste like maple.  I thought it tasted like the ground, seasoned with a hint of death.

However, no matter how much I dislike the fungus, I can completely get behind its chocolate doppelganger. When it comes to quick and easy desserts, chocolate truffles are as good as you can get.  All it takes is a little prep, overnight in the fridge and rolling/scooping.

The basic ingredients are heavy whipping cream, semisweet chocolate and butter--how could you go wrong? Everyone seems to have a slightly different preference for quantities but it really comes down to taste.  I use extra unsweetened chocolate because I like my truffles like I like my coffee...black and kind of bitter.

Dark Chocolate and Awesome Truffles

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbs UNSALTED butter

Heat the cream and butter until just under boiling...it can even boil a little bit if you don't catch it in time.  Then, dump in:

• 12oz semisweet chocolate 

(I like making it with Ghirardelli.  Wow...did everyone else know about that second "R" in Ghirardelli?)

• 1.5 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped.
• dash of salt.

Let the chocolate melt for about 5 minutes and then stir until smooth and add:

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or almond/rose/coconut...or your liqueur of choice)

Stir until fully mixed and pour into a small bowl to refrigerate.  You can probably take it out after an hour or so, but I usually leave it over the night and roll the truffles the next day.

If you have a melon baller, forming the round truffles is as easy as scooping.  If you don't have a melon baller, it's still fairly simple to use a tablespoon and scoop out a portion and then roll it round with your hands.  Once you have your truffles scooped/rolled, you can coat them with whatever you want.  Personal favorites are: finely chopped pistachios, coconut and cocoa powder.

Final result

Guys and white chocolate... a correlation?

White chocolate... not a fan but my friends on the other hand, LOVE it. I should also probably mention that most of my friends are guys and whenever I ask them what they want me to make for them, they always say white chocolate macadamia nut cookies... le sigh. every single time. Even when I offer them things like nutella chocolate chip cookies or red velvet cheesecake bars, they always default to white chocolate macadamia nut cookies... le sigh again. My “ugh” reaction to white chocolate isn’t the only reason I hardly ever bake these cookies, there are other reasons as well. There’s no stash of white chocolate at home so I have to specially go to the store to get some and they’re so much more expensive than dark or milk chocolate which I can’t understand for the life of me because white chocolate isn’t even real chocolate, its mainly cocoa butter and sugar. Macadamia nuts are also not cheap... small bag for almost $6 at Trader Joes. But I’m seeing my San Diego friends for the first time in almost 9 months so I’ll make these for their sake haha

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter (softened)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup white chocolate chips (or 6 oz chopped white chocolate baking squares, see below)

- Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl
- Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy in another bowl (tip: cream the butter first, add the white sugar and cream until fully mixed before adding the brown sugar)
- Add the eggs and the vanilla
- Slowly add in the dry mixture, in about 3 batches, making sure each batch is fully mixed before adding the next one
- Add the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts
- Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using it (prevents the cookies from being too flat)
- Heat oven to 375 F
- Drop spoonfuls of dough about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet (tip: I use a melon baller... gives you more uniform looking cookies)
- Bake for about 9-12 min or until lightly golden brown (tip: I usually under bake them because they’ll still be baking on the cookie sheet once you take it out of the oven since its still hot)

I chose this recipe because it makes sturdy cookies, making them easy to pack when traveling which is just what I needed. But, they were still soft when biting into them which is a must because I can’t stand crispy cookies, they have to be chewy. I've actually swapped out the white chocolate for semi-sweet chocolate before... recipe is still good. Give it a try!

Taste the Love

I was making my own red velvet cupcakes in honor of Valentine's day and when the time came to frost them, I realized that my recipe is slightly different than A's.  Since I'm a giver and all, I figured that I'd post it up here.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 stick of butter (unsalted)
1 box of confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Not many deviations.  I have more butter and powdered sugar than she does and a bit less vanilla.  My frosting is sweeter than A's, with a little less of a cheese flavor.  To be honest, the sweetness goes better with something a bit more savory, like carrot cake, than it does with red velvet. 

Q&A With The Desserters

What would you say that your most important kitchen tool is?  

C- I’m going with standing mixer.  I didn’t have one until about a year ago and can’t believe how much it improved my baking.  No matter what red velvet snobs may say, a standing mixer is the way to go...always.

A- Standing mixer all the way. My second year of college, I moved into an on-campus apartment with a kitchen... I was excited at the prospect of baking since living in the dorms my first year meant zero baking, leaving me helpless when I was stressed out about finals. But, I didn’t have a car so I wasn’t able to bring my standing mixer from home so I resorted to hand mixing which gave me some buff arms but was a pain in the ass. Creaming butter by hand? No way....
I’d call over a guy friend to do it for me--telling him that if he didn’t cream it nice and smooth, there’d be no cookies for him. SO effective.... Boys want their cookies and most I know can’t make their own. 
When I finally moved off campus and got my parents to let me make the 8 hour drive from San Francisco to San Diego, I brought down my standing mixer and I’ve never looked back. Now, I’ve dived into making macarons and let me tell you, don’t even think about whipping those egg whites without a standing mixer... not gonna happen. And personally, I think hand mixers are bad for your wrists and can possibly lead to arthritis. When I took the standing mixer with me to college, I bought my mom a new one and forbade her from ever using a hand mixer... no arthritis please.

C- Things I didn’t understand in college...how effective cookie-bribes are. If only I could go back in time.  
I am absolute rubbish at whipping things with a whisk and most hand mixers seem about as powerful as my own arm.  They make such a sad little noise.  Mixers are like motorcycles...you don’t want a sad little whine, you want a full-throat-ed roar.  

What about your favorite?

A- I’m gonna have to go with gas stove. In college, all the apartments were furnished with electric stoves with coils which I really didn’t like, but it wasn’t even really the stove top that bothered me.  Maybe it was just those university bought stoves but the ovens NEVER baked anything evenly. Even if I baked my cookies one pan at a time or rotated the pans halfway through the baking time, some would always be more well done than the others and it drove me crazy.
I remember my mom calling me to ask how a recipe turned out and I would never know because the oven screwed up my chance to really evaluate the finished product. I even had one oven my junior year where it’d overheat and cause the fire alarm to go off.  I had to leave the oven door slightly ajar to prevent “overheating”. It’s an oven... how is that even possible? 
Coming home during college breaks, I baked so much because my parents have this amazing gas stove and that oven has never failed me. So, if you have a choice, gas stoves!

C- I was torn between two here.  I really love my chef’s knife.  It has the heft to flatten, dice and slice.  Also, to scare away home invaders.   The second is a medium sized whisk that’s silicone coated.  You don’t realize how nice a no-stick whisk is until you have one.  I don’t usually use the gimmicky kitchen tools.  You can do most everything with a good knife and some stirring apparatus (whisk/fork depending on resistance needed).  

Most embarrassing cooking FAIL?

C- I exploded a key lime pie once.  

A- I tried this double chocolate chip cookie recipe and, after baking, it literally looked like poo. AND, the person I wanted to give the cookies to was standing right next to me. *hangs head in shame*

Exterior Design

When it comes down to it, baking isn't that difficult.  Once you get a handle on the basic ingredients and how they will behave together, you can make nearly anything.  The difficult part, at least for me, comes when you attempt to make your confection look decent.

I've never been a form over function kind of girl (Unless we're talking about shoes.  Obviously, shoes are always an exception).  I believe that the flavor and the texture of a dessert are more important than how it looks.  Buttercream or cream-cheese frosting just tastes better than fondant, no matter how beautiful a nicely fondant-ed cake may look.

About a year ago, I was baking a cake for a friend who adores chocolate.  I made him a flourless chocolate cake with a ganache poured on top. 

But wait, there's more. 

I wanted this dessert to be lovely and whimsical as well as delicious.  I decided to make a fondant iPad to decorate my cake.  The first challenge was creating a fondant that didn't taste like it had been dumped in confectioners sugar and chalk.  Most recipes that I found required glycerin.  Sadly, with none available, I resorted to a recipe that included marshmallows. 

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioners' sugar 

While I was kneading the incredibly sticky fondant, my cat decided to get into the mix by leaping onto the counter (where she is not allowed).  After a fair amount of cat wrestling, hand washing and rekneading, I rolled out the fondant to a sheet and cut multiple ap-shaped squares.  I individually dyed each square and meticulously placed them on top of my fondant iPad.  As I was nearing completion, the cat again made her presence known, leaping on to the only clear part of the counter...the part where the fondant was arranged.  With little cat foot-prints all over the "screen," I was forced to get rid of the whole thing.  I used the remaining scraps to decorate the cake as well as I could.

The cat spent the rest of the evening trying to get fondant scraps off of her paws and now avoids the counter when cooking occurs.  Even if the fondant wasn't a success, at least it was a good feline-trainer. 

The recipe made adequate flavored fondant...without the chalky aspect that I usually have problems with.  However, I'm fairly certain that it was not a real rolled fondant due to the lack of glycerin.  Marshmallows have gelatin, so that ingredient was covered. 

My fake-dant didn't taste good enough to merit a second attempt.  Give me a cream-cheese or a chocolate frosting any day.  Hell, give me a glaze and I'll be a happy camper.  Fondant may look lovely but it's all hollow and empty on the inside.  I'll stick with my flavorful-on-the-inside recipes. 

Pop Polls- Baking Inventions

Silpat... heard of it? It’s only the most popular invention the baking world has come up with. Its a non-stick baking mat made of silicone and fiberglass and can be washed so it can be reused over and over again. This means... no more buying parchment paper which gets expensive if you’re like me and bake almost every week... and, less trash! Clearly an added bonus since we’re running out of landfills and gotta do our part for the environment... god I sound like I’m doing a PSA. But really, if you like to bake, I would recommend investing in a couple because they’re really awesome. We’ve all had those “oh no, I can’t get my cookies off the parchment paper without destroying them” days or “I greased this pan so many times and its STILL sticking?!”and it was super frustrating right? Well, with silpat, you never have to worry about that because they’re non-stick and you never have to grease your pans ever again. Its also really great when you’re working with extra sticky batter or making toffee... less mess and no need to do a lot of scrubbing. If you have a friend that loves to bake, these also make great gifts!

Silpat come in many different sizes...


small


medium


large

For the most part, I would get the medium sized one because most people have baking pans that size. You want your silpat to be smaller than your pan, not bigger... floppy silpats can cause problems like deformed cookies and things sliding around. Before, it was okay for your parchment paper to be too big because you could always fold in the sides or cut it but you can’t fold or cut silpat so going a size smaller is advised. Personally, I have the large sized ones only because my mom has these ridiculously large baking pans but if you’re not sure, I’d say medium is the safest bet.

Where can you buy silpat?
Costco- comes in a pack with different sizes
Amazon
Williams Sonoma
Sur La Table
Bed Bath and Beyond

I would say if you can’t get to Costco which will probably offer you the best deal, Amazon and Bed Bath and Beyond will have the best prices.

Frost Em Up!

I... am not a fan of frosting. I usually scrape it off my cake because its either too sweet/rich or the texture is weird. However, there’s one kind of frosting I love and find myself eating it shamelessly right out of the bowl... its cream cheese frosting and there’s one recipe I stand by. This recipe has saved me time and time again when my cupcakes were a bit dry (at least to my standards), making that lack of moistness almost unnoticeable. It doesn’t require much and can be whipped up in a moment’s notice. It has the perfect consistency, not too liquidy or too stiff, with just enough umph allowing you to pipe it into pretty swirls on top of your cakes. This is also a great base recipe if you want to add liquor like Kahlua or Bailey’s Irish Cream to it, you know to make some nice alcoholic cupcakes for that grown up party you’re going to.

My favorite cream cheese frosting:

- 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese (softened)
- 6 tbsp butter (softened)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tsp of water

side note: if you want to use liquor, scratch the vanilla and water and add 2.5 tbsp of whatever liquor you want (I really like Kahlua and its yummy on top a mocha cupcake)

- cream together the butter and cream cheese until its nice and smooth, no lumps!
- add the powdered sugar in slowly, mixing after each addition
- add in your liquids

tips:
- make sure you let the cream cheese and butter come to room temp before you cream them... its the easiest way to avoid lumps and it makes a very creamy frosting
- sift the powdered sugar if you’re really afraid of lumps
- if its too liquidy, add more powdered sugar; if its too stiff, add more liquid (water for non-alcoholic, liquor for alcoholic)

Red Velvet and Rubbing Alcohol Cake

For several months, I’ve been on the quest to make the perfect macaron.  I conducted full macaron DOEs (that’s Design of Experiment for those of you who aren’t engineers) to determine the right oven temperature, meringue variety and wait-time.  My coworkers were growing bored with the plates full of macawrongs that turned up in the breakroom-- wondering at my obsession with the “cookies” or “mini hamburgers.”  

In honor of Valentine’s Day (which is one of my very favorite days) I decided to create a cake of love.  Love wouldn’t simply be the secret ingredient, it would be a theme.  What, you ask, represents love?  I decided on a red velvet cake with rose mousse on top.  It appeals to all the senses.  Except hearing.  Maybe I could serve a mix-tape along with the cake. 

The cake went without a hitch.  The mousse was more problematic.  I added 8 tablespoons of rosewater to some gelatin and let it sit for 15 minutes. I should have noticed then that the gelatin was not doing its thing but I had other issues on my mind.  I had the egg whites whipped ahead of time but attempted to tackle the whipped cream and the custard simultaneously.  As such, I overwhipped the cream and while I was sighing over the stiffened milk,  the custard developed huge lumps.  I trashed both and remixed.  

I dumped the gelatin and rosewater into the mix, folded it together and was about to pour it over the cake when I thought to taste it.  As I lifted the spatula to my tongue, a feeling of dread floated over me.  Or maybe I assumed the feeling was dread because it had the thick flowery scent of a funeral.  

That also might explain why it tasted like embalming fluid. 

A more likely explanation is that I used 8 tablespoons of rose extract instead of rose water.
Mousse part 2 was much better.  According to what my coworkers said, “it tastes like roses smell.”  I feel like that’s a compliment.

Rose mousse--much like Valentine’s day and love in general--may not be great the first time...but once you get it right, it’s wonderful.  



-C

Melange of Macronage

A- I’m obsessed with finding the best macarons because well, they’re my favorite cookies, maybe even dessert of all time. Anywhere I go, I’m constantly on the lookout for a new macaron place to try and I find myself comparing it to my all time favorite place here in SF. The dream is to one day get macarons from Paris and eat them, sitting on the lawn at the Eiffel Tower on a nice day... anyways back to the present, here are reviews of a couple places here in the Bay Area...

Paulette Macarons (San Francisco, Beverly Hills)- http://www.paulettemacarons.com/macarons.html



A- This is it, my favorite place. I found Paulette’s about a year ago while walking around the neighborhood where my mom worked and I was instantly hooked. These macarons are perfect... I wish I could make them like these, not gonna happen. Why are they so perfect? They taste the best and they’re the cheapest at $1.60 per macaron... the cookies have the classic glossy, smooth shell with the perfect combination of crunchiness and chewiness, not too hard but also, not too fragile where they’re easy to break. The ganache melts in your mouth and is extremely flavorful and not too sweet. The cookie and ganache compliment each other so well and did I mention that the macarons are all identical?... unlike some places where some are bigger than the other or some are deformed looking. each flavor is true to name... none of this pistachio tasting like almond business which has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves.


Flavors I recommend: earl grey tea, pistachio, vanilla, rose, almond


C- I can’t write much about this place because I’ve only tried two of their macarons.  Even with just two, Paulette’s is the bar by which I measure other macarons.  The almond was flavorful without being cloying.


Patisserie Phillipe (San Francisco)- http://www.patisseriephilippe.com/index.html





C-Patisserie Phillipe is adequate if you have an hour to wait before Caltrain arrives, or if you are having a macaron crisis upon arriving in the city.  They aren’t bad but SF has much more to offer.


A- This place had such great reviews on yelp so I had high expectations. I was somewhat disappointed... why? The macarons weren’t very uniform and the shells were very tough, making it hard to bite into and some of the fillings weren’t true to flavor. But overall, not bad and they taste better the next day.


Flavors I recommend: espresso, hazelnut, rose


Pamplemousse Cafe (Redwood City)- http://www.pamplemoussecakes.com/macarons/index.html



C- You know it’s good because we used the pic for the background.  Pamplemousse has some really nice flavors, deliciously offset by the creamy mousse in the center.  When I first went in here, I tried an orange blossom, expecting it to be horrid (I don’t know why I try things when I expect them to be horrid...I just do).  Luckily for me, the orange blossom macaron turned out to be fantastic and it’s one of my regular orders now.

This is about your only option if you’re down in the peninsula instead of in SF-proper.  It’s a good thing the macarons are so great.


A- I found this place since it was close to school and the website listed all these interesting flavors so I was excited/intrigued. The cookies are a bit crunchier than they are at Paulettes but if you let them sit out in room temp for awhile, they soften a bit. These are quite chewy and the  mousse is more creamy and not really like a ganache. I like these, but not as much as I liked Paulettes. I’m still waiting to try the chocolate earl grey one... both times I’ve gone, nada.


Flavors I recommend: pistachio, amaretto, hazelnut, coconut, rose



La Boulange (Market St.)- http://laboulangebakery.com/



C- The croissants here were yummy but this review isn’t about croissants.  The macarons were horrible.  I can make better macarons than these and my macarons are only just edible.  I literally threw out the vanilla one.  I never throw out dessert.  


A- All I have to say is HORRIBLE. The vanilla didn’t even taste like vanilla... made me wonder what I was eating...

Red Velvet-ism

A- I decided to make red velvet cupcakes for Valentine’s Day, seen below

and this article was brought to my attention where it talked about the “requirements” for “authentic” red velvet cake. So, let’s break this down...

C-This article was brought to her attention by a jerk-face who thought that it was the epitome of “true” red velvet.  That’s why we’re being so harsh.  Also, because it’s kind of crazy-sauce.

1. The cake must have some cocoa, but not too much because it is not a chocolate cake.

C- How very helpful.  Doesn’t presence of cocoa make it a chocolate cake?

A- Definitely... just adding red food coloring to cake doesn’t cut it... but don’t we all know that already?

2. The cake must have red food coloring; beet juice does not add the right kind of red.

C-The right kind of red.  She doesn’t say the right flavor, so why the heck is the beet-color so wrong?  Also, according to completely unsubstantiated internet sources, beets were used during food rationing in WWII.  Did they ration red food coloring?  Did Red #40 side with ze Germans?

A- Seriously, the right kind of red?! What’s the definition of the “correct red” anyway? So what if I mix red food coloring with beet juice, would that be considered okay?

3. The cake must have cream cheese frosting.

A- Sure, cream cheese frosting is nice and I’m definitely a fan of... but its not necessarily a “requirement”.... what, without cream cheese frosting, we shouldn’t eat it? Way to be extreme.

C- I’m not sure I’d like it nearly as much without cream cheese, though.  I’ll allow her this one point.

A- Rose mousse... with rose WATER. story for another day.

C-Touche.  But I’m not sure I’d call it a Red Velvet Cake.  I’d qualify the title.  “Red Velvet and Rubbing Alcohol Cake”, for instance.  But you’re right, the mousse story will wait.

4. There should be pecans.

C-No...just...no.  Maybe someones grandma did this back home and she thinks that’s right.  Like how I think macaroni and cheese needs to have cheez-its on top to be real.  

I’ve seen some recipes where pecans are used on the frosting, as garnish, but this article sounds like you toss a bunch into the batter.  

A- Pecans?!? Really?!? I really wouldn’t want to eat a red velvet cake if i knew it had pecans in it... I’m thinking a lotta people will agree with me on this.

C-Or maybe it should just be pecan-adjacent...like you leave a bowl of pecans beside it on the table.  

A- What about the people who are allergic to nuts? No red velvet for them? How sad.

5. You must use high-quality ingredients, including White Lily flour, a Southern specialty flour.

C-Never trust an article with product placement.  Also, White Lily is only sold in the Southeastern US, which means that those of us in the rest of the country might as well give up now.

A- So, everyone outside of the southeast should never make red velvet? That’s geography-ism man.

C-We don’t have to take it.  Oh, and also...The South?  Apparently Red Velvet cake might have originated in Canada or New York.  Sure, you made it what it is today, but I’m not sure you can claim ownership.  I can’t say that I’m “From California” even though I live here now.

6. Precise measurements and meticulous attention to detail are key for this cake; therefore, it must be made in small, easy-to handle, family-sized batches. (Mass-produced batter just doesn't cut it. Sorry, large-scale bakeries.)

C-Unlike all those other cakes, where you just throw ingredients in willy-nilly.

A- Aren’t precise measurements the epitome of baking? red velvet is no exception. And way to diss them bakeries, some of which make awesome red velvet cake.

7. You must use a hand-held electric mixer, not a stand mixer: Larger machines can over-mix the batter, which sometimes prevents the cake from rising properly.

A- Um no, standing mixer ftw. Some people don’t have all day to “delicately” hand mix the batter... just beat at low power and for a shorter amount of time.

C-Next, she’s going to recommend you just give a toddler a whisk or else your own massive biceps will over-mix.

8. Red velvet cake batter needs vegetable oil, not butter or shortening. Oil yields a very moist cake.

A- I’ve made plenty of cakes with butter and the end product... very moist. It really depends on the recipe. And who says you can’t use butter AND vegetable oil, ever think of that?

C-And she specifies that you need vegetable oil.  It’s in italics.  The only italics that she uses in the whole article, so you know it’s important.  What about all those other oils out there?  Again, according to the internet, vegetable oil is a relatively recent addition to the recipe.

full article found here: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/8-essentials-for-authentic-red-velvet-cake-2451699/