So I got with one of his good friends to organize a surprise party. The problem is, Zach is so stubborn that he wouldn't "drop by" when I texted him, so it ended up being not so much of a surprise. But that doesn't matter, he still got here and it was fun to hang out with everyone. I love hosting too, so it was a treat for me too. We kept it simple: hot dogs and smoked sausage on the grill, baked beans, homemade mac n cheese, chips, pop, and cake. But oh, the cake!!
Zach likes red velvet cake, so that is what I made. I wanted to keep it simple, so I used a devil's food cake mix, and added a packet of pudding to make it moist, along with buttermilk substituted for the water. To make it red, I added one ounce of red food coloring. Perhaps I could get away with a little less than one ounce, but it does cook out some, and it needs enough to take over the chocolate color. I made two batches because I wanted to have enough for cupcakes and a cake.
The icing is simple too: 1/2 cup butter, 8 oz cream cheese, and 3 tsp of vanilla creamed, then add about 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar. I made a triple batch, and had to whip it for a while to get all the powdered sugar in. But it turned out great! It is just the right sweetness to complement the chocolate (and red dye). It also set up nice and wasn't too sticky.
I used my new icing set, a Christmas present from my mother-in-law, to frost the cupcakes. For the cake, I didn't ice the edges so that I could show off the red velvet cake. I finished all of them off with chocolate gratings. So delicious!
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