This cake is most popular in the southern United States and is often a staple at many southern family dinner tables, church suppers or even family reunions.

It has a rich and sweet chocolate flavoring. This cake is perfect for special occasions, parties, or even an afternoon snack. For most people, the bright red color immediately attracts the attention. That's what makes this cake so different from all of the others.

That undeniable red color issue is traditionally brought on by adding a hint of red food coloring (however some people even look to beets for this bold look, Gross!).

Traditionally, this red velvet cake has a light cream cheese frosting smothered over the entire cake.

The contrast between the bold red cake and a soft white icing makes this one of my personal favorite cakes to make.

The ingredients are simple and every time that I make Red Velvet Cake, it never takes long for my family to meander down stairs and find my special red velvet treat cooling in the kitchen.

Pretty soon, I am passing out the plates and serving up meaty slices of Red Velvet Cake with its decadent cream cheese frosting.

Oh, I can almost taste it now.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoon cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 ounces red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt) in a large bowl. Mix them together and then set the bowl aside.

2) Blend eggs with a fork in a separate bowl. Add the oil and blend it again. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a wire whisk until smooth.

3) Add the red food coloring to the buttermilk and then blend in the buttermilk.

4) Pour the batter equally into three greased and floured 8" cake pans. One trick I learned making cakes is when greasing and flouring my cake pans is to substitute the usual starchy flour for confectioners' sugar instead. It doesn't leave that white powder on the bottom of your cakes and gives them a slightly sweeter flavor.

5) Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Cool ten minutes and remove from pans to wire cooling racks.

Frost cake when completely cooled.

*** Icing ***

1/2 stick butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

16 ounce box of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ chopped pecans, optional

1) Mix all of the ingredients either using an electric mixer (my favorite for this kind of stuff is my KitchenAid Hand Mixer). The frosting should have little peaks around the time when it is done. Once the cake is completely cooled, add frosting to the cooled cake.

Then, when you simply can't wait any longer, cut yourself a generous slice of the Royal Red Velvet Cake and simply enjoy decadence at its best.