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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Blue Hydrangea Red Velvet Cake


I think I could sum up this post with two words....'lesson learned.'

Last weekend was Victoria Day here in Canada.  Which means that it was the first long weekend of the summer.  My pregnant cousin happened to be visiting from Calgary (that's in the province of Alberta for those of you who need to brush up on your geography).  And since this was probably the last time we would see her before she had the baby, the visit called for a Baby Shower! 

She's having a boy, so I thought that some sort of blue cake was in order.  I took my Red Velvet cake recipe, replaced the red food colouring with Wilton's Royal Blue food colouring and a dab of Wilton's Violet food colouring to make (are you ready...?) - Blue. Velvet. Cake. 
Once baked, the cake was a lovely rich royal blue colour and it even tasted great (I sort of expected it to taste 'blue').  For some reason, while I was sampling the cake, I caught a reflection of myself in the mirror - my tongue was royal blue, my lips were royal blue, even my teeth were royal blue.  (French accent - ahhh...horrible!) 
So after drinking a tonne of water and brushing my teeth (a couple of times) (...with the fancy whitening toothpaste),  I decided to scrap the idea and go back to the original 'tried and true' red velvet cake recipe.

I played around with a couple of icing techniques and (since she's having a boy) went with various shades of blue hydrangea's.   


The cake was devoured within minutes (seriously...I should have timed it) and I received lots of compliments (win!). 

I find that sometimes these mistakes are necessary for the learning process - and now I know what to do to make a person’s teeth blue...(I am going to put that into the ‘funny practical jokes’ bank)...
Maybe next time I try to make a blue cake (...I'm sure there will be a next time) I will go for a baby-blue shade instead of trying to poison myself with blue food colouring to make a royal blue cake....

Happy Cooking!

14 comments:

  1. Strange that the blue stained and yet the red does not! Could it be that we do not notice because our tongue is red? However, red would be noticed on the teeth I would think. However, I have noted this about the blue-good to know.
    Anyhow your cake does look lovely, awesome Hydrangea decorating. Enjoy the day!

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    1. Thanks for the lovely comment Tina! Have a great day!

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  2. What tip did you use to make the hydrangea frosting? Looks beautiful!

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  3. SO beautiful! I'd risk blue teeth for a bite of that! Glad the red didn't stain everyone's teeth :)

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    1. Yes, the Red Velvet worked out much better. Thanks for the lovely comment :)

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  4. Lol, I did black icing once and took great joy in making everyone's smiles blue. So funny. This cake is gorgeous. Hydrangeas are my fave flower so I am loving this idea.

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    1. Ahaha. The black icing sounds hilarious! Thanks for the lovely comment.

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  5. This is so pretty!! I love hydrangeas. Although it looks too pretty to eat!! =]

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  6. Thanks for learning the lesson for us.

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