Gone Fishin’ with my PawPaw - The Cutest Blue Velvet Cake!

Hey, Y’all! We’re going fishing! This is going to be a really fun project! Not only do I get to bake with my PawPaw, but we get to work with some really fun techniques using some of what I’ve learned from my Honey! It was fun to show PawPaw a little about what we’ve been doing in the Charli Ann kitchen and he’s living proof that if he can do it, you can too! This is a great tutorial for beginners and the video gives some really basic tips that help a lot! Try it and see!

Note: the following recipes are for one 8 inch layer and one recipe of frosting. In the video, we make three cake layers and a double recipe of frosting.
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​Recipe

Cake
½ c Crisco or other vegetable shortening
1-½ c. sugar
2 eggs
2 T. cocoa powder
Blue food coloring
1 tsp. Salt
1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-¼ c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar

In a stand mixer, combine shortening, sugar, and eggs. Combine the cocoa powder with the blue food coloring (you don’t need much--you will be able to tell when the cocoa starts to look blue), then add it to the sugar mixture and mix to combine. Your batter should be blue. Mix together salt, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add flour to the sugar mixture in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk mixture so that the batter never gets too thick or too thin. Mix together on low after each addition. Now, quickly add baking soda to the vinegar and pour it into the cake--quickly because they will immediately react with one another and bubble up. You want all that rising to go to work in your cake!

That’s it! Pour your beautiful blue batter into a prepared 8” (or 2 six-inch) pan.  Bake it at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Now for the Frosting:

3 T flour
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c butter

Whisk milk and flour together in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it thickens. It won’t get too thick, though. Now, in the stand mixer, cream the butter. Blend in sugar and vanilla. When the buttermilk has cooled, add it to the sugar mixture and whip it into frosting consistency.
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​Fondant is a part of making the best cake decorations ever and we’re going to make a bunch today. One of the important things about working with fondant is striking a good balance between kneading and tenderness. It’s all about the shapes, and for this cake, we’re making a cute little fisherman sleeping in his boat on a sunny afternoon and we do this with a combination of rolling flat and into logs or circles. Check out the video for details, but really, you know what you want your little man to look like! You can invent your own if you want to! Remember to dust your work surface with cornstarch to keep everything from sticking. Use toothpicks to anchor pieces together. And, of course, PawPaw and I painted a couple of largemouth bass. You have to watch that!
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​So, now dye your buttercream frosting blue and assemble the cake, stacking the layers, then crumb coating and refrigerating it until chilled and stable. Now, to frost.  I made three different shades of blue so that the water part of the cake would look like the real ocean does. Waves, you know? 
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Right around the bottom of the cake, I used a Wilton #234 grass tip and some green buttercream to make some wavy kelp. Then we put on some chocolate rocks (who knew?) and of course on top our cute little sleeping fisherman. The decorations are up to you or you can copy the video. It will be fun either way. 
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This episode is sponsored by Wilson Auctioneers, an Arkansas auction company that just happens to be owned by my PawPaw! In fact, the cake we’re making here is going to be auctioned off at the end. Check out the video for more!
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And remember, if PawPaw can do it, so can you!
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