Go Canada Go!

In preparation for the big Canada vs. Germany Olympic hockey game today I thought it would be nice to make a cake! I was trying to figure out what kind of cake would be perfect to showcase my Canadian pride, and I settled for red velvet. The red cake and luscious white frosting seemed like a perfect combination of flavors and colors for the event. I used the cake recipe from: Joy of Baking and I made my own frosting (see recipe below).

White Frosting

Ingredients:
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/8 cup cream cheese
- 1 1/2 tbsp coconut rum
- 1 cup mascarpone cheese

Method:
1. Combine the cream cheese and the sugar. Mix until all the confectioner's sugar is no longer powdery but moistened by cheese
2. Add in the sour cream, and continue to mix until lumps dissolve
3. Add in the rum, mixing until well incorporated
4. Add in the mascarpone cheese, combining well
5. Use to frost your cake

The cake didn't turn out as deep-red as I would have liked, and I think there was some strange reaction that the cake had to the parchment paper that I had lined my baking pan with. For some reason, the parts of the cake which touched the parchment paper turned slightly brown in color. This didn't really impact the look that I was going for with my cake, as it kind of gave a "red & white" look to the cake itself... which was unexpected, but it looked kind of cool.

I baked my cake in a 9 x 13-inch cake pan and then divided it into 3 sections, length-wise. Once the cake cooled, I placed the pieces in the freezer for ~1hour to make slicing and frosting them easier. I then removed the cakes from the freezer and proceeded to divide each cake-piece into 2 layers.

I frosted the cake between each layer and then covered the entire cake with the rich frosting. I then decorated the cake with the Canadian hockey team logo made out of chocolate and used red-tinted coconut flakes to make the cake resemble the Canadian flag. This was a lot of fun! I sure hope my friends like the cake... and that Canada makes it on to the quarter finals tomorrow.