Doctored Red Velvet Cake

Doctored Red Velvet Cake

(+5 skill points => 315/400)

Last week Lonnie tells me he's doing a cake for a little get-together but wasn't sure what kind of cake to try next.  I asked him if he's done a Red Velvet cake before.  He tells me no and asks if I have a recipe.  I say "Daaahhh ... I use Duncan Hines box mix."  Since then I've been researching all about this mysterious thing we call "Red Velvet" cake.  Surprisingly there were many recent threads on RV cake on cakecentral.com's forums.  One CCer suggested to use the box mix but instead of water, use Dr. Pepper and then add a package of pudding.  So here it is.  Doctored Red Velvet Cake.

Stats:

• 8" round Duncan Hines Red Velvet (DH RV) box mix
• substituted the water with Dr. Pepper
• added 1 package of chocolate fudge pudding
• cheesecake mousse filling
• iced with white chocolate IMBC

Stupid me forgot to take photos of the finished product.  The cake was devoured by my family as we celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday.  Oh well, here's the "making of".

Notice how dark red it turned out.  Close to a maroon / wine color. 

I made cake spackle for the dam and to smooth out the sides of the cake.  Inside is the Costco mousse recipe using cheesecake pudding.

Now imagine it assembled, iced in creamy IMBC with a reverse shell border on top.

In my opinion, that package of pudding was way too much.  I should have only put in 1/2 the bag.  I couldn't taste the Dr. Pepper (but my husband swore he did).  This was a pretty dense/heavy cake ... would go much better with a tall glass of milk.  Not sure if it was worth doctoring the cake mix ... I'm pretty happy with it as is.  My family did enjoy the cake.  It was a beautiful color, especially compared to the pale icing.

What do you think?  I'm too lazy to bake from scratch ...