Vampire Food Cake: Love at First Bite

We were invited over to our friends' house in order to watch the latest episode of "True Blood" (the finer points of that TV show will not be espoused upon here).  In order to get in the spirit, we converted this lovely bottle of Rose Malbec into the eponymous drink of choice (don't worry, this is just a tribute).  Use this to make your own!

Sookie, I have come to court you!

We were asked to bring dessert ...so onto the main attraction:  Angel Food Cake artfully twisted into Vampire Food Cake.  We used a Cook's Country recipe and then added chocolate chips and the "red velvet" aspects described on someone else's blog.

The most important ingredient in an Angel Food Cake is egg white.  You need 10-12 egg whites.  Thanks to my wife's fastidiousness, we have conveniently collected numerous egg whites over the past few months due to our tendency to make rich desserts that only call for egg yolks.  Egg whites freeze remarkably well, so they just sort of accumulate in our freezer.  Now that's being resourceful!

Los ingredientes... de la muerte!

According to Cook's Country, cake flour is a must.  They do not recommend all purpose flour.  They are also big fans of pulverizing the sugar into the "super fine" variety.  So we ran it through the food processor.  You can also buy super fine sugar at the grocery store.

Making super-fine sugar

Add sugar slowly to egg whites.

Red food coloring...blood-tastic!

Folding the flour into the egg whites

Folding the flour mixture into the egg whites should be done carefully so as to not deflate the egg whites.  We added some Dutch-process cocoa powder to the flour mixture (which is apparently what makes it red velvet).  It also helped with the color, since it was looking a little too candy-pink.  We also added some mini chocolate chips for that little extra something.

Pour into a tube pan, then bake!

Blood sauce:  mixed berries & sugar

Blood sauce warmed to 98.6 degrees (not really)

The final product

Add sauce, whipped cream, and enjoy!