Red Velvet #2 - cake

Early in October I had agreed to make a cake for a friend of a friend's wife's birthday party... and, due to a breakdown in communication, I was all ready to make this for 16th October. Luckily my friend, who was picking up the cake, called me about three hours before she was going to pick it up.... on 15th October! I had all but one ingredient in my store for the planned red velvet cake... the red food colouring! So, with all my ingenuity and lack of time, I decided to make violet velvet cake! Time was of the essence and I had made the recipe before, so I skipped my usual pre-baking read through. Oops. I made double the recipe as specified to make a cake rather than cupcakes, but what I did not realise was that it was supposed to made in three tins to be a layer cake rather than just one round tin. This bad move on my part severely impacted on my time as it took over an hour to cook. Husband to the rescue as I stressfully hovered around the oven and realised I actually was also missing icing sugar for the icing. Husband popped up to the shops as I waited for the cake to bake. And waited. And waited. I made the icing, took the cake out, decanted it a tad too quickly onto a cooling rack, put it in the fridge in a rather vain attempt to cool it and then broke a cardinal rule of baking: never ice a warm cake. When I was young and hungry, I used to ice cakes warm all the time and never understand why they looked less than professional. Now I plan my cake making, leaving cooling time. But, because of the aforementioned miscommunication, I did not have this luxury. So the cake was ok. It did not really meet my decorating standards, which are more of a homely, country baking style than a Planet Cake artistic experience. And it was not that stunning red of the usual red velvet (violet velvet did not work so well once cooked). However, I received good feedback on taste and raised $50 for the Red Cross. And I had batter leftover to make a heart shaped cake for Husband and I.