Armadillos & Waffles

I'm a big fan of Rachael Ray, primarily because I think she keeps it real.  She never claims to be more than she is and she's open about the fact that she doesn't like to bake cuz baking requires precise measurements.  She recently celebrated waffles by offering a multitude of recipes during waffle week.  The red velvet waffles definitely caught my attention.  Admittedly, red velvet is not the cake flavor I choose first (my favorite is good old white cake with chocolate butter cream frosting, with sprinkles because everything is better with sprinkles), but it is a very popular flavor and come on, it's "red!"  Remember the scene in "Steel Magnolias," the red velvet groom's cake baked in the shape of an armadillo?  That was one ugly looking cake and every time I see a red velvet cake, I can't help but think of that silly armadillo.   

Armadillo groom's cake - Steel Magnolia - 1989

Do you know how they put the red in red velvet cake?  (find the answer below)

Here's Rachael's recipe for Red Velvet Waffles

Waffle Mix

1 Red Velvet Cake mix - follow directions on box

Cream Cheese Drizzle

4 oz. - 1 small block softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

1/4 cup milk

Berries Mix

Strawberries

Raspberries

Blackberries

Note:  I found the cream cheese drizzle to be a bit too sweet so I actually used 8 ounces of cream cheese.  Mix all ingredients with electric mixer until fairly smooth, it will be a little lumpy. This will make your drizzle a bit thicker though... personal taste choice here.

Note:  Because the cake batter is thinner than waffle batter, you may need to use less batter in your waffle iron and cook the waffle a bit longer than usual.  I found this out the hard way when the red batter oozed out all over my waffle iron!  What a mess!  But the waffles were oh so yummy!

Red velvet cake mix, mixed berries of your choice and cream cheese topping

As Rachael would say, "YUM-O!"  The answer to how do they put the red in red velvet cake is, beet juice!