VALENTINE'S DAY SUGGESTION

I was going to follow up vacations with Seasonal recipes. But it's getting close to Valentine's day and us girls have a hard time thinking of anything to give our guy but you know how the way to "a man's heart is through his stomach?" It's true!! My mother-in-law who would be 103 if she was still alive used to listen to Kitchen Klatter program on the radio. A woman told stories & gave recipes. DUH! How times have changed. One day she told (remember this was over 50 years ago) a lady went to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and had a delicious dessert. She asked if she could have the recipe. They brought her the recipe and later she was billed for hundreds of dollars for that recipe. So to pay them back she sent the recipe to every newspaper, etc. because if she had to pay for it, it was now her's to do with what she wanted. My mother-in-law tried the recipe that day and it's been a favorite of our family through 4 generations. The box cake mixes now have a Red Velvet cake mix my daughter said is just as good as the original but I tryed it and it isn't. My husband loves this one and only cake. He won't eat cake which is why it is so funny he loves this cake and I make it for him every year for Valentine's Day. Maybe someone out there would like to do that, too. Here's the recipe.
It's beautiful and lasts longer than flowers, maybe?

WALDORF ASTORIA RED CAKE

1/2 cup shortening
1-1/2 cup sugar
2 ounces red food coloring
1 tsp. salt
2 heaping tablespoons Cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk*
2-1/2 c cake flour**
1 tsp. soda
1 Tab. vinegar
2 eggs

Cream shortening, sugar & eggs. Make a paste of the cocoa & red food coloring. Add to the creamed mixture. Add buttermilk alternately with sifted flour & salt. Add vanilla. Add soda to vinegar (hold over bowl as it foams). Add this vinegar/soda mixture blending instead of beating. {I put one cake pan down on a sheet of wax paper and with the sharp point of a scissors mark around the pan. Double the wax paper and cut on the inside of the marked guide line and you will have a sheet to put in the bottom of each pan that fits flat and lets the bottom of your cake come out of the pan easier.} Pour batter equally in two 8" greased & floured cake pans (with wax paper bottom if desired). Bake 24 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean (dry not gooey). Cool on racks. Cut across the middle of each cake leaving 4 round circles of cake about 3/4" thick. Don't forget to take off the wax paper if you used it.
* Unless you like to drink Buttermilk like my grandpa did or have other recipes for it I suggest buying the powdered kind that you just add water to and the can of powder will keep in the back of your refrigerator till you need it again.
** Cake Flour - you do not need to buy cake flour especially for this recipe. The substitution for using regular all purpose sifted flour is 2 Tab. less of flour per cup. That makes 5 Tab. less for this recipe which is about 1/3 cup of flour removed from the 1/2 cup it calls for. Just a couple tips I use.

FROSTING:
3 Tab. flour
1 cup milk
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated (regular) sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Cook flour & milk until thick stirring constantly. Chill in refrigerator till cold and thick. Cream sugar, butter & vanilla until very fluffy. Add to first cooled mixture beating until well blended. It should be the consistency of whipped cream (you younger generation Cool Whip). I do all this with the electric mixer.
When the cakes are completely cool divide the frosting in 3rds and frost between the 4 layers not on top. Use one of the tops of original cake for the top layer. If you keep this cake in the refrigerator or somewhere cool the butter in the frosting will set up (just like butter in the refrigerator) and the cake will slice better and you don't have to worry about the cake slices moving on you. However, after you slice it, if you let the slice warm at room temp a little or microwave a second like my daughter does, the frosting will then be soft not hard.

Good luck!! You're going to love it and it's better than a box of chocolate candy. Don't decide to not make it because you think it is to complicated. It isn't. It just takes a little time and you don't want to rush it before everything is cold.
NOTE: If you don't have 8" pans I suggest the one time investment. If you use 9" cake pans the layers will be very thin and hard to handle. If you are family or someone here in Topeka I'll loan you mine.