Green Velvet Cake

I recently made this cake per request for Jaxon's birthday. Each year, we serve bakery cupcakes for birthday party guests (to avoid any potential food allergy reactions), and the birthday boy gets to choose whatever cake he wants for me to make for him to share with the family later that same week.

This also allows us to extend birthday celebrations a little longer, which is fine by me because 1) my boys are truly worth celebrating BIG and 2) more cake! ;-)

This year, I was given very specific instructions to make a "red velvet cake - except make it green." Well, since the only thing that makes a red velvet cake "red" is the food coloring, I figured that wouldn't be too hard to do.

Green Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 oz. green food coloring

Cream Cheese frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans. Set aside.
2. Place all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together well with a wire whisk. Set aside.
3. Lightly beat eggs in a separate medium bowl with wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with electric mixer on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
5. Divide batter evenly into cake pans. Drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
6. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Then, loosen the sides of the cakes from the pans and turn out onto cooling racks for another 10 minutes. 
8. Frost with Cream Cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

3 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine butter, vanilla, and cream cheese. Cream until light and fluffy.
2. Add confectioner's sugar a little at a time, mixing after each addition until combined.
3. Apply to cool cake as per directions above.

Notes:

To make a red velvet cake, my recipe calls for 2 oz. red food coloring (probably because red is such a hard color to achieve and 1 oz. would result in pink).

We made this as a birthday cake, and it would certainly fit the bill for Incredible Hulk or Oscar the Grouch fans BUT keep this cake in mind as an alternative to red velvet for Christmas (think Grinch!) or as a yummy treat for St. Patrick's Day. The possibilities are endless!

Help Make the World's Biggest Stocking

Do you knit or crochet? 

Long time blog followers know that my craft of choice is crochet, but Yarnspirations is asking crafters of both groups to help them make the World's Biggest Stocking, which will be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.

They've estimated that they will need between 3,000 to 4,000 blankets to assemble the finished stocking.

If you participate, you will be a part of history AND you will have helped a worthy charity! Proceeds from the effort will help support the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation.

Here's how you can help:

1. Choose a pattern for a 3' x 3' square blanket. (Finished edges of the blanket must be straight, so no ripple, round, or otherwise shaped patterns for this project, please.) 

If you've already started on your own Christmas presents for the year and feel like you don't have time to add one more thing to the list, give this Granny Square Blanket a try. It's a free pattern and you'd only need to add a few more rows of the main pattern to get it to the required size. (And, make sure to leave off the decorative picot trim per the submission requirements.)

If you have a little more time and want to be more creative, give these free crochet patterns a try:

• Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (Could complete one center flower and make a 36" square)
• Ooh, Baby, Baby (Could complete one center square and granny square around to make a 36" square)

2. Buy your yarn. You can use any worsted weight yarn that you want for this project. However, you are encouraged to use Caron United Yarn. That's because 15 cents of every skein of Caron United Yarn purchased goes to the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, which helps provide college scholarships to the children of military personnel who died in service to this country. 

Red, white, and/or green yarn is preferred for this project, but they are accepting blankets in any color. Caron United Yarn is made in the USA.

3. Craft your blanket. They will accept knit or crochet blankets, so get working!

4. Submit your project. When you're finished with your blanket, submit it with your project to one of these addresses:

USA:

Caron United – World’s Biggest Stocking Project

1481 West 2nd Street

Washington, NC 27889-4157

Canada:

Caron United – World’s Biggest Stocking Project

1700 Basset Ave.

Listowel, ON

N4W 0B1 

Donated blankets will be stitched together to form the World's Biggest Stocking. When the project comes to an end, the stocking will be disassembled and blankets will be donated to military families. 

For those who might be wondering, 36" square blankets make the perfect size for baby and toddler blankets and that is the size blanket that I most often make as a gift for new moms.

5. Spread the word*. Make sure you share this post with friends who craft so that they have plenty of time to join in on the action. Yarnspirations will continue to accept donations until they have enough blankets to assemble the stocking (so don't feel like you have to rush to get one completed), but do think about purchasing a few skeins of the Caron United Yarn for the project and maybe stitching up a blanket for this worthy cause.

Those interested can check the progress of how many blankets Yarnspirations has received toward their goal of making the stocking at the Stocking Tracker.

If you choose to participate, make sure to show it off with this blog badge and use the hashtag #WorldsBiggestStocking when showing off your project on social media.

*Note: If you're a member of any knit-alongs, crochet-alongs, classes, or crafting groups, this would be a wonderful charity project to work on in a group setting.

Lexi's Latest Jams: You've Got Time

This really is Lexi's latest jam.  She picked it herself.  And it's the funniest thing ever watching her when this song comes on.  It is the opening/ theme song to the Netflix original series, Orange is the New Black (OITNB).  

For those who aren't in the know, it's a dark comedy about life inside a women's prison.  And it's in it's third season on Netflix.  John and I started watching it last year, and we were hooked.  When the new season went live in June, we were there again, and have watched all summer.  

Whenever the opening song comes on, Lexi drops whatever she is doing and runs to the tv to watch. She is glued to it until the song ends and then she returns to whatever she was previously doing.  I think it must be all the faces that she is looking at.  Silly, silly girl.  Here's the video.  What do you think?  Why else would a 15 month old be so enamored with this?

In any case, I really do also like this song.  It was written specifically for the series by Regina Spektor and was even nominated for a Grammy.  As always, here are the lyrics for you.

The animals, the animals

Trapped, trapped, trapped 'till the cage is full

The cage is full

Stay awake

In the dark, count mistakes

The light was off but now it's on

Searching the ground for a bitter song

The sun is out, the day is new

And everyone is waiting, waiting on you

And you've got time

And you've got time

Think of all the roads

Think of all their crossings

Taking steps is easy

Standing still is hard

Remember all their faces

Remember all their voices

Everything is different

The second time around

Animals, the animals

Trapped, trapped, trapped 'till the cage is full

The cage is full

Stay awake

In the dark, count mistakes

The light was off but now it's on

Searching the ground for a bitter song

The sun is out, the day is new

And everyone is waiting, waiting on you

And you've got time

And you've got time

And you've got time