I am always honored when someone asks me to make food for an event. Food, baked goods, whatever. I think it's so important that others can trust you with creating a food memory for a special occasion. At work, I have a reputation for making treats. I've brought in cookies, candies, homemade jam gifts for the holidays, breads, cupcakes for my student's service learning bake sale (chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes), and really all sorts of baked goods. I love to bring a little joy to my staff members', and I find the easiest way to do that is almost always with food!
Given my reputation, I was recently asked to throw together a cake for a surprise retirement party we are throwing for a colleague. Pretty exciting. While I only had a couple of hours, so I couldn't get too elaborate, I'm proud to say the cake turned out delicious! We haven't eaten it yet, but I always make a couple of cupcake sized cakes from each batter I make, in order to make sure the flavor and texture are right before serving. This red velvet recipe hits the mark. I tend to use Martha Stewart's basic recipe, but add extra cocoa, as I like my red velvet nice and chocolatey (of course!). The cocoa really doesn't seem to dry out the cake, even though I add double (1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup), and don't really compensate elsewhere.
You can find Martha's recipe here, but I really do recommend my slight alteration. It really deepens the chocolate flavor. :-) Mmmmmm Chocolate. On top, I used a simple ganache (about 1 cup of near boiling cream pour over 8 oz chocolate. Let stand for 10 minutes and mix carefully until smooth and shiny)
Cake decorating is hard. Well, in a time crunch it is. With only a couple of hours, and needing to transport this baby to school with all my other work nonsense, I didn't have much in the way of elaboration here.. so I did some basic white chocolate and dark chocolate piping, accented with some edible sugar pearls. Nothing crazy, but still elegant and appropriate for the staff gathering.
Black and white is an elegant combination in desserts. In the pictures, the pearls around the filled in white chocolate heart really don't jump out, but in person they just exude elegance (make sure you affix these while the chocolate is still melted so they stick). I would say my white balance is a bit off (too heavy on the right hand side), but the asymmetry gives this cake a modern look. I piped the hearts and white chocolate rose bud onto wax paper, and had some difficulty (white chocolate isn't as runny when melted as cocoa chocolate, in my experience). But once a base was established, I melted some dark chocolate for more texture and pipped a whole rose, and some swirl patterns. Once these cooled on the wax paper in the refrigerator, (about 15-20 minutes to be safe) I caaaaaarefully peeled the shapes off the paper and affixed them on the frosted cake. Tadah! Abstract rando cake design! 
During the party, I'll try to take some pictures of the cake's inside! Red velvet is always so pretty, I think that's why people love it! It's really not much different from chocolate cake... just.... a beautiful deep red that is elegant and unexpected.
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