Black velvet cake

How do you make black velvet cake without loading up the black coloring? Yikes...my thoughts exactly! 

I was rather surprised the black cocoa powder did the trick brilliantly ... hmm that got me wondering about the black cocoa powder.  Black cocoa is cocoa powder that has been heavily Dutched and  contains no acid, it won't react with baking soda, so add on the baking powder instead, substituting one teaspoon of powder for every 1/4 teaspoon of soda called for in the recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 tbs dutch processed cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil or canola
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar
½ cup of prepared plain hot coffee (don't skip this ingredient)

Preheat oven to 180 c.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar and vegetable oil.
Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla until combined.

Stir in the coffee and white vinegar.

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients a little at time, mixing after each addition, just until combined.
Generously grease and flour two round, 9 inch cake pans with shortening and flour.
Pour the batter evenly into each pan.

Bake in the middle rack for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Do not over bake as cake will continue to cook as it cools.

Remove the cakes from the pan and let them cool.

Cakes are really moist and you may need to refrigerate them to firm them up before stacking and frosting.

Now the best part, the Cream Cheese frosting.
250g cream cheese
50g butter
100g icing sugar
1/2 lemon juice

Beat all ingredients using an electric mixer until its fluffy.Frost the cake with cream cheese frosting when the cakes have cooled completely.

Enjoy...Jue