I imagine the only word that could describe this cake is something spoken in Italian...my god, I wish I were fluent! So pictured above is the Chocolate Genoise Cake I made tonight - aka: Edible Heaven That Might Not Make It To See Tomorrow.  The pictures do not do it justice.  Seriously, I have been sitting here (whilst devouring my share) trying to come up with a way to describe this cake and can't come up with anything beyond "mm-mmmm" and "oh my GAWD".  I try my best, but take another bite for possible inspiration...

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The BEST Buttercream Icing: 1 (8 oz) Pkg Cream Cheese, softened 1/2 C Butter, softened 4 C Confectioners Sugar 1 t Vanilla Extract (the REAL stuff!) Cream together until smooth.   Tip: I usually set the butter and cream cheese out on the counter when I start making the cake so they have plenty of time to soften.  This makes the ingredients really easy to cream. To ice the cupcakes pictured below, I used a piping bag (the fancy Ziploc kind of course) and iced an outline circle - leaving about 0.25" spacing from the cupcake edge.  I then just swirled the icing around the cupcake and angled the tip out a little...

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Favorite Red Velvet Recipe (used for cupcakes below): 1/2 C Shortening 1 1/2 C White Sugar 2 Eggs 2 T Cocoa 4 T Red Food Coloring 1 t Salt 1 t Vanilla Extract 1 C Buttermilk (I use the cultured poweder fridge mix since I don't use buttermilk that often...keeps well and you just make it when you need it) 2 1/2 C Flour 1 1/2 t Baking Soda 1 T Distilled White Vinegar Grease two 9" Round pans and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Cream shortening and sugar WELL.  Add eggs and beat well. Make a past of cocoa and red food coloring.  Add to creamed mixture. Mix salt, vanilla and buttermilk together.  Add alternately...

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A slight preface on my baking style that might help you as well:  With few exceptions, I have quit trying to make sure my measurements are 100% precise (which anyone who knows me may be shocked at my lack of perfectionism in that aspect) - I still measure everything out of course, however I find the process of not using a knife edge to get a perfectly precise "1 Cup" of flour every time, freeing if not a little rebellious. I always have music playing when I bake (or do anything, really) and I often find myself performing some extreme version of said music using the nearest spoon or spatula as my microphone while I'm...

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Red Velvet is one of my (and my son's) favorite cake recipes so I figured it was a good way to start this train a'movin. A total classic and the batter is such a rich, decadent color!! Making these tonight really helped clear my head from an insane week, I swear icing these little puppies is pure meditation...ignore the few that are missing...they have nothing to do with my happy vibe. ;) And now I'm ready for a productive weeken...

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