BB: Red Velvet Rose with Raspberry Sauce

This week's Alpha Bakers' assignment is a version of red velvet cake--the Red Velvet Rose. The cake is similar to other red velvet cake recipes with lots of red food coloring for the signature color (a bottle and a bit more) and a smidgen of cocoa powder. Beyond that it's an easy cake using only egg whites, a mix of oil and butter, and buttermilk. I did use the optional additional cocoa powder (1/4 cup instead of 1.25 teaspoons) for at least a little chocolate flavor. The result was Red. Very Red. Moist, and indeed with some chocolate flavor, but mostly Red. The departure from most red velvet cake recipes is in the lack of cream-cheese frosting, which many people regard as the main reason to consume red velvet cake. The Red Velvet Rose, however, is glazed with a raspberry sauce which adds both a flavor punch and additional moisture to the cake. In my case, it also helped hide the many bubbles baked into the surface of my cake--I fear I'm never good at smoothly spreading the batter into a decorative cake pan, or in getting the batter to give up those air bubbles before baking. Raps on the counter just don't seem to be effective. Bubbles and Redness aside, this is a nice cake for people who don't mind foods involving large doses of food coloring. The raspberry glaze, though, steals the show. I've used the extra from the recipe in yogurt, on other berries, and am looking for more places to incorporate the wonderful bright raspberry flavor. One co-worker stopped by my office this afternoon to say the cake was fine, but next time just bring the raspberry sauce.